Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Acts 9:1-2

It must have been terrifying, to learn that a man named Saul was on the move, and planning to arrest and imprison you, for the faith you believed in. Saul was an up-and-coming Pharisee, destined to be among the greatest. His studies and his zeal were noted and admired in Jerusalem. Jewish leaders in Jerusalem supported his effort to root out the growing number of people, claiming Jesus as Messiah, and quickly authorize him to arrest and bring back, Christians from  Damascus.

Saul’s trip to Damascus was not his first outside of Jerusalem. (Acts 26:9-11) Prior to that he has spent time persecuting Christ followers in Jerusalem, then expanded his focus to foreign cities. His trip to Damascus is just one more in a series of attempts, to weed out the Christian movement. Saul’s certainty he is on God’s side, leaves little room to question his own motives.

Reading the passage, images come to mind of roundups of Jewish people during the Holocaust, or Japanese citizens in the United States during World War II. People threatened, detained, and confined, not because of any wrong they had done, but simply because of their ethnic identity.

One is struck by the similarities in the way today’s immigrants are being rounded up. At a Home Depot in California, ICE detained brown skinned men and women, demanding their papers without warrants or reason. A child with stage four cancer and US citizen deported with her mom, away from the medical care she needs. A young woman, here on a student visa, swept off the streets by men dressed in black, because she co-wrote an article in her college newspaper, about Israel’s slaughter of people in Palestine.

Rights are denied, and people  are misled by ICE. In Florida, a U.S. citizens with the wrong color of skin, was arrested and about to be sent to a notorious El Salvador prison, until his family could get there with his birth certificate. Processes of justice, ignored and denied to those arrested, terrify me. For many there has been no pleading of their case or  proving their papers were up to date, nor  an opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law. It is a frightening time to be either a legal or illegal immigrant in this country today.

I yearn for a bright light from heaven, to startle those behind the decisions,  disrupting so many lives. I yearn for that bright light to reach through the darkness, in human hearts, that demeans people who are not like them. I yearn for a conversion to compassion and mercy.

Saul, convinced he is on God’s side, believing God is with him in his pursuit, midway to Damascus is startled by a bright light.
         “Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
         Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. Acts 9:4-5,8-9

How can a person be so certain they are right, only to learn they have been terribly wrong? For three days Saul lived in darkness, unable to see, questioning everything he thought he knew about his faith, the truth and his own rightness. The days of darkness, became days of searching prayer, seeking understanding. Saul comes to the realization, all the time he thought he was pursuing righteousness, he was participating in evil. The days of darkness, turned into a womb of new understanding, stretching his mind and his heart, undoing his prejudice and his righteous wrath. Only then, would someone come, to open his eyes, and show him God’s compassion and grace.

While Saul, later known as the Apostle Paul, was messed up about much, the one thing that he was right about, is that God was with him, even when he was entirely wrong. God was with him in his righteous zeal, and God was with him when he faced the reality of his participation in evil. All the while loving and leading him to truth.

The good news is that when we too, are racing in the wrong direction, convinced or our righteousness, God is with us, leading us to love, compassion and mercy  for all God’s people.