Abide Devotion for February 25, 2015

Acts 26:2-26:14

So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: ² “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, ³ and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴ “The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. ⁵ They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee. ⁶ And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. ⁷ This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me. ⁸ Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

⁹ “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰ And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. ¹¹ Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.

¹² “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. ¹³ About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. ¹⁴ We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ^j ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ ^[1]

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What strikes me in this passage today is Christ’s identification with the suffering of His body. Paul details his dedication as a persecutor of Christians, putting people in prison, approving of their execution, going from synagogue to synagogue. He is obsessed – his own word – with persecuting them.

In Christ’s confrontation with Paul on the road to Damascus, he shows that he identifies so much with his church, his body, that the persecutions enacted upon them also fall upon Him. It’s the painful side of the covenant oneness that He has given us by His grace. All that is His is ours. All that is ours in His.   We have the Kingdom. He has our pain.

Now, my thoughts of course go to the horrific persecution that is going on right now against Christians around the world, most especially by ISIS. These atrocities are being perpetrated not just on those who bear Christ’s name, but upon Christ himself.   (Wouldn’t it be great if one of the ISIS leaders had a Damascus road experience?)

But let’s take this in another direction. Pain and hurt inflicted upon Christians falls also upon Christ. What about the hurts inflicted, not by persecutors from outside the body, but by Christians upon one another? Unkind words, vicious backbiting, gossip and slander, betrayal and insults. Or just as bad – considering the call we have to live lives of IN, caring and helping one another – when Christians ignore the needs and hurts of each other and do nothing to help and assist. When the body acts as though it has an auto-immune disorder, and attacks itself, and doesn’t care for itself. These pains also fall upon our Lord.

Jesus said to Paul, “Why do you persecute me?” Could he say to me, “Why do you hurt me? Slander me? Ignore me?”

So my prayer today is for the body of Christ, around the world, and also at St. John’s, that we show love for each other. That we live the call to IN oneness. That instead of inflicting hurt upon one another, we show love, compassion, encouragement and support.

What is the Word leading you to pray about today?

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^[1] The New International Version. (2011). (Ac 26:1–14). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.