When Government Underestimates the “Jesus Thing”

Stan Moody:

The story of Saul of Tarsus, later to become the Apostle Paul, feels eerily familiar. Here was a man with credentials, drive, and purpose. Trained by the High Priest Gamaliel, backed by the religious establishment, Saul was on a mission.

While the disciples of Jesus, left behind by the Resurrection, were still trying to figure out what leadership in this post-Resurrection Kingdom meant, Saul was busy building his own résumé—zealous to defend tradition and determined to stamp out this dangerous new movement called “The Way.”

Holy War Against “Organized Religion”:

The Sanhedrin had underestimated the “Jesus thing.” They had maneuvered His crucifixion, spun the resurrection as body theft, and assumed that the crisis was over. But Pentecost changed everything. Ordinary men, seemingly of limited note but somehow endowed with extraordinary power, proclaimed the revolutionary Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and thousands believed. “The Way” was getting out of hand, becoming instead, “Organized Religion Obstruction,” the very definition of Truth.

What the Sanhedrin couldn’t contain, Saul vowed to crush. Acts 8 tells us he “ravaged the church,” dragging men and women to prison, and breathing threats and violence with every step. He was successful, notorious—and utterly wrong.

Then came the interruption. On the road to Damascus, Syria, to round up and imprison believers in Christ, Saul’s kingdom collapsed. His polished credentials instantly turned to “dung” (Phil. 3:8) when confronted by the risen Christ. A blinding light, an audible voice, and divine intervention stopped him dead in his tracks.

Longing for a Clear, Saul-type Message from God:

Would it be easier if life worked that way for us – a vision from heaven; a clear voice saying, “Give it up?” Maybe so, but unlikely. Instead, we stumble along, sorting through little nudges to figure out what God wants us to do, asking, “Is this the Spirit, or just heartburn?” As with Saul’s companions, we often witness folks going through strange experiences but fail to put together the puzzle with only half the story.

Yours and my individualist “Damascus Road” is far less dramatic as we traverse this narrow Kingdom Trail. Maybe it’s the slow unraveling of a religious support system we thought would carry us through, but has left us feeling empty and alone. Maybe it’s realizing that our personal agendas often run parallel to but all too often in conflict with God’s. Maybe it’s clinging to causes that distract us from God’s presence—the very presence that relieves us of the pressing need to affirm any lifestyle, including our own, or to endorse any national patriotism as God’s official presence on earth. We stand continually in need of a grace that quietly stretches out hands of mercy to ordinary folks like ourselves through the ordinary crises of life.

The Quest for Legitimate Kingdom Authority:

Saul thought he already had God on his side and was acting in obedience by culling out this new upstart religion with its “false god.” Paul’s problem was reducing God to his own political agenda. God, as it turned out, had other, infinitely bigger plans. If His mercy could stop a murderous zealot in his tracks and move him onto the greatest mission in human history, might it also dismantle our illusions, our infantile kingdoms, and our religious certainties—leading us not to ruin, but to grace?

As for me, I stand far less in need of a Great America than of the Apostle Paul’s God who stretches out His hand all day long to a disobedient and obstinate people (Rom 10:21). We who have experienced God’s grace through the great American political experiment need not be alarmed over its occasional dismantling. 

In the words of the old pop song, 

Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water. 

Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea.

Take a look at yourself, and you will look at others differently,

By puttin’ your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee.