Acts 9:10-19
Last week we looked at this section of acts as an example of a conversion. Paul himself would later write to his spiritual son Timothy that his conversion should be an example to all. This week we will look at that same section of Acts, but focus on the call of Ananias as an example to us of how to respond to the call of God.
When Ananias enters the account, Saul (who would later change his name to Paul) is staying with Judas and is blind. We do not know what happened to the men that were with Saul, but the most likely guess is they left and headed back to Jerusalem to report what happened. We also do not learn anything about this Judas that Saul stays with, and we need to be careful not to associate this Judas with the betrayer of Christ. Judas was a common name at that time, like John or Michael in our day.
Luke, the author of Acts, does not tell us much about Ananias either. We have to extrapolate from the details that are given what kind of person Ananias was. Luke tells us that Ananias was a Christian living in Damascus. He probably was not one of the refugees from Jerusalem since he only knew of Saul through hearsay. (Acts 9:13) In Saul’s retelling of this event, we learn that Ananias was “devote and of good testimony.” (Acts 22:12) This is an important fact, because Ananias would be the first Christian to meet with Saul and introduce him to the other disciples. This means Ananias reputation would be the major tool used to convince others to give Saul a chance.
Jesus calls Ananias by name in a vision, and Ananias responds right away with “Here I am, Lord.” (Acts 9:10) This is another direct application of John 10:3 where Jesus tells us that His sheep know His voice. We also saw this in our discussion of Mary at the tomb (John 20:20). This also harkens back to several times in the Old Testament where God calls one of His own by name and the response is “Here I am”. Some examples of this are: Abraham and the burning bush (Gen 22:1), Isaiah in the throne room of God (Isaiah 6:8) and even Jonah recognized God’s voice, he just choose to run instead of comply.
Jesus tells Ananias to “Get up and Go”, and the Greek grammar there makes it clear it is a direct command, and not a suggestion. Jesus needs Ananias to do something for him, and Ananias being a Christian has already sworn to follow his Master’s call so there should be no problem with this command. That would be true if we lived in a perfect world where everyone is nice, happy and trusting of everyone, but we do not live there.
It is hard to imagine the fear Ananias must have felt at that call. To bring it to a picture you could see in your own life, imagine being a Jew and being asked by God to go have tea with Hitler, or being a Muslim who recently converted to Christianity and being told to meet with the most radical bloodthirsty Muslim leader there is. That is essentially what is happening here. Saul was in town to persecute Christians, and he is known for his great zeal in this job. In all likelihood when Jesus calls Ananias he is probably already hiding from Saul.
Jesus softens the request with the phrase “for he is praying” (Acts 9:12) and that Jesus mentions that he gave Saul a vision. This implies that Saul’s heart has been softened, and things with him have changed. Ananias is still concerned and responds by pointing out that Saul was ravaging the church and in town to ravage some more. (Acts 9:13-14)
This is a very reasonable, at least in human terms, objection to orders. If you feel that you are being called to do something and it appears it is guaranteed to lead to certain destruction, it is reasonable to seek clarification. This is not a lack of faith, but a reasonable sanity check. We see this kind of sanity check many times through out the Bible. For example when Mary is told she will bear a son, she questions it because she is a virgin (Luke 1:34). It is a very reasonable question for a young woman to ask, after all never before, and never since has any woman ever become pregnant with out the involvement of a man. Jonah also objects to God’s orders, as does Moses (Exodus 3), and both of them have reasonable fears, however both of them required a bit more convincing then Mary or Ananias did. In fact, Jonah in the end never does really understand or agree with God’s command and action, but he did at least comply.
The point to see here is that if you believe you have a call from God, it is reasonable and acceptable to double check and make sure that you heard Him right. I know of no place in the scripture where God does not allow for reasonable sanity checks on his actions, and there are several times where God’s people go way to far in testing God, but He still allows it.
Jesus answers Ananias with another command to “Go.” Jesus would have been justified in stopping with that, after all Jesus is Lord and Master of Ananias. Jesus however goes on to give Ananias more information. He explains to Ananias that Saul is chosen to represent Jesus to the world and will suffer many things for Jesus.
This convinces Ananias and he heads out to follow Jesus’ command. The account of what happened between Ananias appears to be a summary and not a blow-by-blow exact account. Later in Acts 22 we will get a few more details, but for the most part all we know is that Saul spends three days blind and with out food or drink, then Ananias shows up, they chat a bit, Ananias heals Saul of his blindness, and then Saul gets baptized. Sometime after getting baptized Saul gets some food and eats.
There are a couple of interesting points in this exchange that are recorded for us. The first is how Ananias greets Saul. He calls him Brother. This implies that not only was Saul already converted by the time he meets Ananias, but that Ananias some how knew it. By addressing Saul as Brother he was welcoming Saul in to the church. The second thing to note is the order of needs that was taken care of. Saul was baptized, and then he was given food and drink. Keep in mind that since they did not have indoor plumbing at that time, they would have had to travel to a river or other large water source to do the baptism. It could have been as much as another day but was probably at least another hour or so. The spiritual need for baptism was considered of greater importance then getting Saul food and drink. Protestants in general seem to have lost the understanding of how critical the spiritual side of our faith is, and I suspect a lot of the problems in our churches today are a direct result of this lack of recognition.
To apply this scripture to our lives we need to pick out a few simple points. First is that if we are walking with God, when he calls us we will recognize his call. Second, it is ok and even expected to raise reasonable objections to that call. Third is that once we are sure of the call we should follow through right away without hesitation. If God really called you he will open the door, but you do need to walk up to it and try the knob. We may not like what is on the other side of that door, Saul as we will see in up coming studies had a very rough time of it, but if we are truly Christians we will want to walk through that door.
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