Blinded by the Light: Paul the Blind Fool

by Ryan Pemberton

Things were business as usual for Saul—not yet Paul—when he was making his journey to Damascus. He had already earned himself a reputation for squashing out uprisings from men and women of the Way, and he was on a mission to keep up his reputation. But that's when everything changed for him.

The Book of Acts says Saul was blinded by a great light, and that from this blinding light came a voice crying out, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

It was, we're told, the voice of the Resurrected Lord, calling out to—of all people—Saul.

It’s Not Jesus Who Has Changed, But Us

A similar scene is recorded in the Gospels, and it tells of a time on the mountaintop when Jesus’ disciples had the blessed opportunity to see Jesus’ shape transformed (or transfigured) into a bright white light.

Some have suggested it wasn't so much that Jesus changed in the transfiguration, but that these disciples’ eyes were, for the moment, opened up to the full reality of Jesus’ identity (Scott Cairns’ As We See). They were, if you will, invited to take a peak behind the curtain.

And it’s not out of the question to suggest that the transfiguration is like what Saul experienced on his travels that day. Call it blindness. But in a very real way, his eyes were opened for the first time.

Christ-Induced Blindness

The Bible tells us that three days after this experience on the road to Damascus, Saul received hands-on prayer from a man named Ananias. We’re told that, after receiving this prayer, scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and that he was once again able to see. He was no longer blind.

And yet, one wonders if Paul was ever completely free from this Christ-induced blindness. One wonders if Paul was not laughed at, not called a blind fool by those who heard of his life-change, or who wondered what happened to this former Pharisee they once knew.

This man who had earned himself a bloody reputation for being one of the most cut-throat enemies of Christianity spent the rest of his life earning a reputation as the chief-most Christian missionaries to non-Jewish people (known as Gentiles). Such a dramatic about-face would take Saul from a position of incredible privilege to a place of extreme poverty and humility—it would lead him to imprisonment and ultimately, death. It was not a trajectory anyone could have guessed for Saul's life, least of all Saul.

A Blind Fool

Paul’s former peers must have shaken their head at his fate. “He’s gotten what he deserves,” they must have said Or they may have thought, “What a fool. What a blind fool.” And that is, of course, precisely what Saul was. He was a blind fool for the sake of the gospel—the good news of Jesus offering salvation to all.

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain,” Paul wrote to the early Christians in Corinth. “… If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17)

This was, of course, Paul's way of acknowledging the undeniable foolish appearance of his life. It was another way of saying, “Look, if the resurrected Christ did not speak to me himself on that road all those years ago, I am a fool. I am a blind fool.”

Of course, it would be foolish to exchange the pleasures of an extravagant annual vacation for the largely thankless cost of helping provide drinkable water for a community on the other side of the world. Even a fourth grader knows it is smarter to take every opportunity one has to get ahead than to make sure others are provided for. You would have to be a fool to think otherwise.

You would have to be a blind fool not to see the advantages of a new car, or a second home. And that is, of course, precisely what Paul was—a blind fool.

Doubt in Darkness

No doubt there were days Paul must have sat in prison, with fresh wounds on his back and a throbbing head and gut, wondering to himself if this wasn't all some great mistake.

“Did I misunderstand?” he must have found himself wondering in his darkest moments. “Did I actually even hear the Lord's voice at all? After all, no one else saw the Lord that day. They heard a voice, sure, but I am the only one who saw him on that road to Damascus. Was I just imagining things? Was I truly called to this? Was I even called at all?”

This Changes Everything

“But what if Christ really was raised from the grave?” Paul's letter to the church in Corinth begs the question. Crazy as it must seem, what if Jesus really is the risen Messiah? What if in Christ, God is restoring the world—what would that mean?

It would mean, Paul's life suggests, living as though blind. It would mean giving up one's benefits for the sake of others. It would mean living as though all of life’s great pleasures would be considered as loss when compared with the beauty, the rich joys of knowing the crucified and risen Lord, and being called, daily, into life with him.

It would mean being considered a blind fool by most of our neighbors, for most of our life. It would mean doubt and hunger and physical and emotional turmoil.

Undoubtedly, it would also mean others would be changed simply by knowing us. It would mean those who are hungry, are fed. It would mean those who are lost without hope would be found and would be given hope of the unspeakable sort.

It would mean, in the end, that those who are homeless would be directed to a home whose door is always open, and whose path is lit by a light that will never go out. Because, of course, that light is the same light Paul met on the road to Damascus that fateful day.

You Will Be Told What You Are to Do

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” the voice cried out to Paul on the road that day. And then, “Rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

“You will be told what you are to do,” the Lord told Paul. And, in a way, these are the words Paul could never get ahead of—could never get away from.

“You will be told what you are to do.” In his darkest moments, these are the words to which Paul must have clung. When his belly rang out with pains of hunger after not eating for days—when the shackles on his wrist cut his skin and the sweat from his body stung his open wounds—these are the words that must have kept him going when all hope seemed lost. May the same be true of us.

Photo credit: ©GettyImages/lovelyday12

This article is Ryan Pemberton’s reflection on the story of Paul's conversion experience on the road to Damascus, found in Acts 9.