Contemplative Bible Reading

Acts 9:20-22 (New International Version)

²⁰ At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. ²¹ All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” ²² Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.

Ho hum. Of course we know this. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Messiah. Why waste time on this point? It is easy to have this attitude 2,000 years later. Let’s try to go back to the time of Paul in Damascus.

Nazareth was a small town – a really small town. Jesus of Nazareth was a well known figure of the day, but he had died and gone away without restoring the kingdom of Israel. Therefore, Jesus of Nazareth was just another of those guys claiming to be someone, but actually being another nobody. This was the prevailing attitude of the Jewish school, i.e., the synagogue.

Paul enters the synagogue and tells everyone that Jesus is the Son of God. That seemed odd as Paul was famous for killing people who said the same. What happened to Paul? Why had he changed?

The key words for me come at the end of verse 22. Paul proved that Jesus is the Messiah. How did he do that? Paul had no photographs or video of before and after the crucifixion. Would people have believed those? I mean, you can Photoshop those things. Paul and the people in the Jewish school had what we call the Old Testament. Paul was able to step through the Old Testament and prove that this nobody from a nothing town was the Messiah.

I wish I had a recording of Paul’s words. I wish I could do the same, take the Old Testament and prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of God, convince a group of people who had rejected Jesus that they were wrong about Jesus.

God, give me the wisdom and knowledge and dedication to study. Push me to show people that Jesus is the Messiah.