The church was only a few months old after Pentecost. Stephen was a leader in the First Church of the Redeemed — not really — the church was not that organized yet so it didn’t have a name or denomination. He was preaching and performing signs and wonders, just being a disciple like Jesus said to do, which caused a lot of attention. The speed of word of mouth is amazing, kind of like the Internet for the first century. Just get a few people miraculously healed and a backlash of naysayers call you a heretic. And that’s the nice word. Critics spring up over night like a fungus. No different today as it was back then, so why should it take us by surprise.
The Synagogue of Freedman were outraged at Stephen’s ministry and not only maligned him, they spread libelous rumors and paid people to lie in order to get him arrested. It didn’t end up well for Stephen. After a solid defense, the religious brethren stoned him to death, but not before the false witnesses did something peculiar. They took off their robes and laid them at the feet of Saul, (name later changed to Paul). This is a rather peculiar detail to include, and yet, why would that detail have any importance? Why would the stoners bother to first of all disrobe, and then make Saul the coat check guy?
Imagine the scene. These guys were about to stone someone, which is probably a messy affair. Who would want their clothes splattered with blood and dirt? There were no dry cleaners, so keeping your cloak splatter free was probably pretty important. Imagine a guy going home all messed up. The wife is appalled and asks how he got blood all over himself. He would have to admit, “Oh yes, honey, I stopped by a stoning today. Could you just soak my clothes in some soap for a while?” Maybe it was just plain hot. It’s a sweaty proposition to be stoning someone wearing a cloak in the heat of the Middle East. Maybe it was just too cumbersome. You could get all tangled up in the fabric folds of your cloak and end up stoning yourself. Makes sense to just take it off.
I’m not just making light of a tragic situation. These are the nagging little details that sometimes shout louder than the big ones. That crowd trusted Paul for him to be the keeper of the cloaks. If Paul were not trustworthy, he might have made off with their cloaks. If you took off your best coat, would you give it to just any stranger to hold for you? Let’s be real—you would find it on eBay the next day. It seems that Paul was known to be somebody special in the crowd, perhaps even a man of destiny and importance.
Paul was a Roman citizen besides being a staunch pharisaic Jew. There could be a subtle message here. Typically, on Roman occupied turf, guilty people who were stoned or crucified were stripped of their outer clothing, but instead of taking the accused Stephen’s clothes off, the ones who were doing the stoning stripped off their cloaks. Aha! We see who are really the ones guilty of sin. Acts 8:1 says, “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death,” so he was an accessory to the murder of Stephen, the first recorded martyr of the faith. Quite an indictment recorded for posterity.
This stoning incident was the launching point for Paul’s persecution of the church in Jerusalem and then beyond. He became a fanatic man on a mission looking for those followers of Jesus. Full of zeal for his cause, he gave no quarter and no mercy to Christians. On his way to hunt down more Christians, Paul was on the road to Damascus when he met the Master in a supernatural encounter that left him helplessly blind. The man who saw his self-righteous agenda so clearly was now blinded by the truth. Now there is ultimate irony. There was no gentle prodding, no tug at the heart, no pleading altar call to lead him to salvation. Paul was slammed to the ground with the Cornerstone, an encounter with Jesus, so that the “old man” Saul died and the new man Paul was born again. Stephen being stoned to death and ushered into his eternal life with God is a kind of picture of what happens to the man that agreed with his murder.
Here’s where the story gets a little odd. If the average guy were struck blind, what do you think he would do? Scream, cry, and demand to get to the nearest emergency room, or at the very least make his way home to what is familiar. Paul didn’t do either one. Damascus was closer than going home so his companions brought him there. Maybe they were thinking Paul could get to a doctor of sorts or just needed a place to recover. It was really the leading of God because of what happens next. God had something else in mind.
Paul was a mess. He didn’t eat food or drink anything for three days and was pretty weak. Rest assured, it was not the latest diet fad. Paul just had a personal encounter with the God of the universe. Food was not high on his priority list. He was wrecked.
In the meantime, God has a conversation with Agabus, a prophet. He tells Agabus to go to Judas’ house on Straight Street. There he was to find a man named Saul, who was having a vision of somebody named Agabus, who was going to lay hands on him and his sight would return. God tells Agabus that he was the one to lay hands on Saul; he should tell Saul he is going to suffer a whole lot; and that he was called to preach the gospel to Gentiles. Now, that doesn’t seem like that big a deal in our modern day sensibilities. Let’s look at it through Agabus’ eyes, pun intended.
Agabus gives God an argument, a pretty good one at that, but can you imagine anything more futile? What was he thinking! Essentially, he says, God, you want me to go where and do what? Do you know who this guy Saul is? He’s the maniac who first went after the Jerusalem church and now is the deputized bounty hunter rounding up Christians in the suburbs. You want me to go to HIM so that he could be healed of blindness? I think I would rather him not be able to see me, thank you.
I love God’s response to Agabus. He doesn’t rebuke him for lack of faith. He doesn’t slap him on the back of the head for challenging the directive from the God of the universe. People might have done that, but not God. He simple explains it to Agabus. “But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:15,16). How do you argue with that? Agabus obeys. Immediately, Paul’s sight was restored, he was baptized, received the Holy Spirit, and even began to eat.
Volumes could be said about the love, grace, and mercy of God right here. Paul, the accessory to murder, super bounty hunter of Christians, had a destiny beyond anything imaginable. Who would have guessed that one so vehemently opposed to Gospel would be used to spread it so wide. Can a person with a past have a future so different? The grace and mercy of God imparted to Paul launched him into a new direction, a transformed life that reflects the Christ in him.
The message is not complicated. What is in your past that needs to be put to death so that your future can unfold? If God can use a man like Paul with a horrific past and transform him into one of the greatest heroes of faith, what would be impossible for you? God’s grace is like that. Whatever faults, failures, or fractured relationships you have had, God has a path to divine destiny. His loving grace transforms lives.
Note to self: Receive the grace of God, His forgiveness of your past failures and His favor poured on you for your future.
Copyright 2015 by Eva Benevento. All rights reserved.