NOTES for Act 9:10-19

It took a direct appeal from the Lord for Ananias to receive Saul. The human mind finds it difficult to grasp that the change which had taken place in Saul was even possible, but nothing is impossible for God. He can heal and transform the hearts of people whom we are habitually quick to write off as hopeless, saying, “Everything is clear about them.” But nothing is clear to us; everything can be clear only to God.

Faith involves risk. God may not only reveal to us something beyond the bounds of our habitual ideas, but also ask us to do things that seem impossible and unthinkable. The Lord asks Ananias to take just such an apparently unreasonable step, and we see his initial bewilderment. But for him, trust in God is above everything else—above wariness and habitual calculations alike.

How is God's work done? Over the two-thousand-year history of the Church, more has been said and written about this than actual works of God have been done. And with all this, no one has managed to understand it exactly to this day, much less has anyone managed to create a single general theory that would describe the algorithm of divine-human interaction in history.

Why is that? One could simply answer: because the ways of the Lord are inscrutable. And that would certainly be true: God's plans are known to no one except God Himself. But the question is how God interacts with people, and here the situation is somewhat different: insofar as God includes a person in His plan, He reveals this design to him, at least in part.

The point is perhaps something else: the very quality of the relationship between God and man. If everything had been scheduled in advance with God, the situation for His servants would, perhaps, have been simpler in some respects: then it really would be possible to try to develop some classification of possible interactions, not immediately, and over a long time, but the task would be solvable in principle. But the point is that with God, it appears, only the goals are marked out in advance, while the plan for achieving them changes continually according to the developing spiritual situation, or, more simply, according to who has once again said to God another "yes" or another "no."

In any case, classifying this mosaic of possibilities and the options for their realization is, of course, completely unrealistic. What remains is only to listen and hear God, who, having set the task, will certainly indicate the one to whom it can be entrusted. This does not mean, however, that over time a new worker will not replace the former one. And the options may be completely unexpected, at times in no way corresponding to any human ideas.

Who, indeed, could have seriously considered Paul as a preacher of Christ at the time when he appeared in Damascus? Humanly speaking, the most reasonable choice would have been to keep away from him. But Ananias makes a different choice, acting as God commands him to act. And Saul the persecutor becomes Paul, the great witness of Christ and the Kingdom.

What is Christian washing (baptism)? Cleansing from sins? Yes, of course: it is rooted in the ritual purifying washings prescribed by the Torah as a most important part of the process of cleansing from sin. But even before Christ's coming, washing was not the only element of the cleansing ritual. The second, no less important element was the purifying sacrifice. Because in Yahwism it was precisely sacrifice that was the main means and main form of communion with God. God's presence overshadowed and sanctified all who took part in the sacrificial meal or simply stood by the altar. This presence cleansed a person from the consequences of committed sin or other uncleanness. Cleansing was not an end in itself; it was the necessary condition of full communion with God, insofar as such communion was possible before Christ's coming.

So it is with Christian washing (baptism): it was only the outward side of what was taking place. Yes, of course, the one washed in the name of Christ is cleansed from the consequences of earlier sins just as the believing Yahwist of former times was cleansed from them. But in addition, the one washed in the name of Christ meets during the washing with Him Himself. He finds himself at the threshold of His Kingdom, into which he can enter and in which from now on he is to live. He touches the life of the Kingdom in the fullness available to him, as one entering, at that moment. And he begins the spiritual path in the Kingdom so that the fullness available to the new inhabitant of the Kingdom may become ever deeper.

That is why one meeting with Christ on the Damascus road was not enough for Saul. That is why he too, for all the depth of what happened to him, needed baptism. And perhaps this is precisely why, after losing his sight at the first meeting with Christ, he regains it after receiving baptism and entering the Kingdom. Jesus Himself took him by the hand and led him into His Kingdom. And therefore into His Church.

Today we read about the conversion of Saul, an event that not only turned his life upside down, but also in many ways determined the course of Christian history. Such conversions do not happen often, but they have happened and continue to happen. In essence, every person sooner or later meets God on his path. This meeting often overturns a person's consciousness in much the same way as happened with Paul. He considered himself a servant of God, but turned out to be His enemy, and the reverse was also true: he thought Jesus was his enemy, but He turned out to be his Lord, his life, his calling.

In fact, such an overturning of consciousness is called repentance (in Greek, "metanoia," a "change of mind"). When a person suddenly sees that his whole life is a persecution of Christ, which he carries out inside himself or among those near and far from him, the mercy of the persecuted Son of God is also revealed to him. He will not only accept him among His disciples, but will also lay on him a new mission: not to tear apart, but to build up Christ's Church.

Today’s reading brings us back once more to the question of the boundaries and limits of religion. It tells us of Saul’s conversion to Christ, after which he will enter the history of the Church under the name of the apostle Paul. There is no doubt that Saul was sincerely religious and utterly convinced in his religiosity: for the sake of his convictions he was ready both to die and to kill (vv. 1–2). He was utterly merciless, but religion that knows neither the Kingdom nor God’s love is always like that: it appeals to values that seem to it far more important than human life. Yet Saul’s merciless zeal was entirely sincere: from the outset he wanted only to do God’s will and was utterly convinced that, by persecuting Christians, he was doing it in the best possible way. Of course, it was quite impossible to persuade such a person otherwise. Conversion in the sense in which the word is often understood today was also impossible for him: for a person today, “conversion” most often means either adopting a religion or changing from one religion to another, and Saul would certainly not have agreed to that even under threat of death.

But it is precisely such servants that Christ needs: faithful to the end and ready for anything. And He makes Saul His servant—He does what no one else could have done, for no one else could have revealed the Kingdom in such fullness. He allows His future servant to experience and feel what the Kingdom is and who He Himself is (vv. 3–5). And then Saul is converted. It was not human words that convinced him, but the encounter with the Risen One and the experience of the Kingdom. Yet Christian conversion can only be like this: it is conversion to Christ and to the Kingdom, not the adoption of a new religion or a change from one religion to another.

Once converted, Saul remains the same active Saul: his first question to the Risen One is, what am I to do next (v. 6)? His sincere and energetic nature could not bear inactivity, and God makes use of these qualities in the new convert: very soon Saul begins to preach, bearing witness to Jesus’ messiahship and Resurrection (vv. 20–30). He gives no thought either to his former views or to what those who knew him in a quite different capacity will say about him. It is not that Saul was unaccustomed to reflection; it is simply that, evidently, the impression made by his encounter with the Risen One on the Damascus road was so great that he could not refrain from telling others and bearing witness. What was revealed to Saul was not merely a new truth; the Messiah was revealed to him, and it was impossible to remain silent about such a revelation. Religion had come to an end: the fullness of the Kingdom had opened before the future apostle Paul.

The Book of Acts tells of the great turning points in the history of salvation and in the spread throughout the world of the message about Jesus. Almost every scene recounts either astonishing miracles or momentous turning points in the lives of people who later became great luminaries of the Church. But a reasonable question may arise: how do all these outstanding events relate to the life of an individual, an ‘ordinary person,’ such as those who have always made up the overwhelming majority of the human race?

Apparently, Luke included all these striking and grand scenes from the history of early Christianity largely as illustrations, as particularly memorable examples of what God does in the life of every person He touches with His Spirit. And although people encounter God in different situations and in different ways, certain elements are always present—above all, the divine call and a shaking of the foundations of human life. Jesus says that ‘no one can come to Me unless the Father draws him’ (Jn 6:44). Moreover, this heavenly call or ‘voice’ cannot be earned by anything; ultimately, it cannot even be explained. The case of the persecutor Saul, who became the apostle Paul, is a striking confirmation of this. God alone knows the movements of a person’s heart and the twists and turns of their life. Another matter is that a person is not always ready to answer the call with complete seriousness and commitment. Incidentally, this too happens for reasons unknown to us. But if someone responds to God in kind—trust for trust, love for love—then their life, the life of a seemingly quite insignificant little person, becomes part of the great history of salvation. Through him or her, ‘the mighty works of God’ begin to be accomplished; he or she becomes ‘God’s chosen vessel,’ ‘filled with the Spirit,’ and takes part in building a new world that could embody all God’s most cherished purposes and dreams.

The Lord had prepared a surprise for Ananias. Ananias was plainly quite ready for God to speak to him. But even he did not expect this: to go to Saul of Tarsus, about whom everyone knows that he persecutes Christians and has come to Damascus with one purpose, to root out Christianity.

Ananias is shocked. But he does not reject the vision (though he could have said: going to Saul is madness, so this is not a vision but delirium). On the other hand, he does not argue with God; he does not say, "No, Lord, I am not going anywhere." He clarifies: "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to Your saints, and here in Damascus he also wants to persecute Your Church..." In answer, the Lord does not say whether this is true or not (evidently because it is already known that it is true); He says: "Go, because I have chosen him."

And Ananias makes the only right decision: he simply goes and does what the Lord told him.