The way of imagination

“ 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.   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.” (Acts 9.1-5)        As we said last time, the letter to the Romans was written by a man whose world had been turned upside down by Jesus (more than once!).   After attempting to destroy the church, Saul of Tarsus had an experience that set him on the path which would eventually lead him to write a letter to the Christians of Rome.   Here’s what happened.      Not satisfied with his attempts to root out the Nazarene heresy in Jerusale

“ You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased   to reveal his Son to me…” (Galatians 1.13-16)        As one reads his letter to the Romans, it is easy to forget that Paul was not always a disciple of Jesus.   His understanding of the gospel and his devotion to Christ seem to have always been part and parcel of his thinking and his way of life.   However, as he pointed out to the Galatians at least 5 years before writing to Rome, Saul of Tarsus – prior to his becoming a believer in Jesus – had been a “zealous” persecutor of the church; indeed, he had tried to destroy it.   The tradition of “zeal” for Torah had become prominent during the Maccabean revolt against the Helle