Living an Easter Kind of Life

Rebecca Sheridan
Sunday, May 4, 2025
Acts 9:1-20

    Recently, scientists discovered a new color never-before-seen!  They named it “olo” after 0-1-0 binary code.  It is outside the range of normal human vision, so those who saw it had their retinas vibrated by a laser, which I’m not sure I’d volunteer to do, personally.  It can’t really be depicted so that we can see it with normal sight, because your eyes must be manipulated to see it.  However, those who did see “olo” described it as kind of a bright blue-green.  It’s fascinating to imagine that we might be able to see something, like a new color, that has never been seen before, beyond normal human vision.
    In our first reading from Acts, we have the famous story of the conversion of Saul to Paul, and the Lord helps Paul see things differently.  He is persecuting the Christian church because he believes that is what a faithful Jew should do.  It is outside many people’s imagination that God could become a human being and be both fully human and fully divine.  It had never been seen before! As we heard, the Lord blinds Paul for three days so that he cannot see to give him new insight about Jesus – he is the Son of God.  Scales fall from his eyes, his sight is restored, he gets up, is baptized, eats and proclaims Jesus as Lord.  God helps Paul see Jesus in a dramatically new way, which is lifechanging, as he goes on to be the greatest evangelist of all time, writing about one-third of the entire New Testament.
    Our eyes change throughout our lifetime, of course.  Some of us perhaps have worn glasses from an early age, or have been “promoted” to bifocals.  You may have changed from far-sighted to near-sighted, or be color-blind in some ways.  People who need glasses but don’t know they need them describe seeing things differently, maybe like the color, “olo,” when they are able to see more clearly.  At a recent eye appointment I was regrettably told that my eyes, like the rest of me, are getting older, and I will need glasses soon!  How does God help us see things differently with spiritual insight? What changes might God be calling us to, even if those changes are not as dramatic as Saul experiences in our reading from Acts today?  What helps us see who Jesus is more clearly?
    Paul’s experience reminds us that when we encounter Jesus in a powerful way, we are not the same – we can’t be the same as we were before.  Nonetheless, even if you have had a powerful faith-changing moment or conversion experience yourself, you know that faith is also a lifelong journey.  Similar to physical exercise or trying to eat more healthily or make other healthy changes in our lives, our walk with God requires discipline and changing of habits that may be difficult to break.  There are times where we feel closer to God, and times when we have to commit to the discipline of prayer and worship because having more faith is difficult.  Think of all that the first disciples and apostles like Paul had to learn as they strove to follow the risen Jesus.  We hear over and over again in the scriptures that these heroes of the faith were not perfect, but they continued to follow Jesus, and God continued to guide them and sometimes correct them, because God is faithful.
    As we focus on the heroes of the New Testament this Easter season, there is another often overlooked hero in this story of Paul’s conversion whom God helps see differently and whom God uses to help Paul see differently – Ananias.  Imagine how Anaias felt when the Lord came to him in a vision to ask him to go to this man Saul who is notorious in his persecution of Christians.  It must have felt like God sending him into the lion’s den, like Daniel!  Ananias in fact first protests – “God, this guy is an evil dude.  He is imprisoning and even killing people like me. Why on earth would you have me go to him?!”  The Lord asks Ananias to trust him.  In fact, the Lord has also come to Paul in a vision to show that Ananias is coming to him.  The Lord gives Ananias the reassurance that people can change – that in fact, Paul has dramatically changed to become a Christian.  We might suppose that God could have used someone else if Ananias had refused to go to Paul, but he is an instrumental part in Paul’s conversion, laying his hands on Paul so that he is filled with the Holy Spirit and his sight is restored.
    The Lord helps both Paul and Ananias see people in a new way – Paul abandons his persecution of Christians and instead becomes one of them!  Ananias, already a Christian, learns to trust God in a powerful way, and in so doing, sees and welcomes a one-time enemy as a brother in Christ.  What about our own lives?  Is there a bad habit we’ve felt God nudging us to break, or a new faith habit that we feel God leading us toward, whether it might be giving more generously, taking more time for prayer or Bible study, or attending church more regularly?  Is there a relationship in your life where you’d like to see a change?  Is there someone you struggle to love, or even consider an enemy, like Paul to Ananias, that God might be asking you to see in a different way?  What stereotypes or misconceptions might the Lord be wanting to fall from our eyes so that we can see others in a new way, as God sees them?
    There are times in our lives where we can learn from both Paul and Ananias.  There are times where we need to see something in a completely new light, to make a major life change, like Paul. People like Ananias help us see the light.  And then sometimes we are called to be like Ananias – to trust God to help us see someone differently, to believe that people in fact can change.  May God help us see more and more like Jesus sees.  Amen.