Jesus' Far-Seeing Compassion Appearing in an Unexpected Way
P.C. Barker Acts 9:16 For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. That Saul, when now called Paul, did indeed suffer many and great things for Jesus' "Name's sake," is most true. He knew it when he suffered them; he knew it also by anticipation (Acts 20:23; Acts 11:11) - a kind of knowledge that to many would be of the most harassing and distressing consequence; and he knew it as he looked back (2 Corinthians 11:23-31; 2 Corinthians 12:10), not indeed to murmur, nor to repent of having exposed himself to it, but, while glorying in the suffering, to testify how real it was. That, therefore, of which Jesus tells Ananias that he will forewarn Saul, did by all the witness of history come to pass. But it is another question why he is forewarned of it, and why Jesus assures Ananias that he shall be so forewarned. Nor can it escape our notice that much significance is intended to lie in the statement as here introduced. Let us consider this announcement of Jesus - I. IN ITS APPLICATION TO ANANIAS. It is intended to remove the objection of Ananias, by suggesting to him: 1. That Christ did not overlook, had not overlooked, the specialty of the case. 2. That Christ would be himself answerable for the education of Saul for his work, failing the antecedents that Ananias supposed would have been of more auspicious promise. 3. That that education would not fail to be what, in its character and the severity of its discipline, would both (1) attest the reality of the change passed upon Saul and (2) confirm and deepen that change. 4. Possibly Christ may, in the mode of his reply, desire also very condescendingly to still any smallest germ of (1) personal envy or (2) forwardness to suspicion lurking in. the character of Ananias. It is very certain that the mischief of these two very things, unacknowledged and covered over with finer words, has amounted to a total result of very great disaster during the career of the Church, ever since the personal intervention of Jesus has been absent. How often did Jesus in the days of his flesh stand by the sorry sinner round whom surged the murmur of the envious multitude! But the half-stifled and cautious envy and suspicion of the wary individual has often proved itself a more cruel enemy to souls, and must be a more offensive obstacle, in the eyes of Jesus, to his work making way in some poor guilty but struggling soul. Certain it is that - Since our dear Lord in bliss reposed, High above mortal ken, his Church has, times without number, made to pass through severest quarantine heartbroken volunteers for his service. The effects have been all deteriorating and disastrous. They would have been ruinous save for the still steady, if invisible, rule and headship of Jesus Christ. The Church (whether only so named or so in deed and in truth), mistaking duty and right, has failed in such cases to note sufficiently the Divine treatment as here illustrated in the three days' blindness and fasting of Saul, succeeded by the confidence and trust of the great Master, given immediately in the kindliest and most unreserved manner. II. IN ITS APPLICATION TO SAUL HIMSELF. Jesus bids Ananias lose no time, but "go" at once to bear to Saul the message, so far as the way could be prepared for it by human lips; and herein suggests to us to notice certain relations of this language to Saul. 1. Christ, having chosen his servant, apprises him both faithfully and early of what awaits him. No false, nor tempting, nor too favorable gloss is put by him on his own "most worthy" service. 2. He apprises him also of what is expected of him. If Jesus show to any one, whether in the ways of apostolic time or in the ways of time present, "how great things he shall suffer for his Name's sake," "how great things" life and circumstance and earthly lot are likely to make him "suffer," "how great things" his divinest directest call shall impose upon him to "suffer," - it must be that he is addressing a call to him that shall invoke all his heroism. It is very much as though the condescending Jesus did here introduce the Christian hero into the possible ranks of his own blessed Church. All must come of him, all does surely come of him; but if it be possible, something shall be credited to the range of human virtue. Manifestly Saul was a good instance by which to set forth this. He had been conspicuous; he had been a hero of some sort; he had shown lavish energy, which shall no longer be sacrificed to lavish waste. Thus from the first Jesus gives a tone to certain of his servants - those, to wit, who are of the sort to answer to it readily and really. Life and labor and the success of real usefulness do often largely own to original impulse and early impression. The high-pitched thought and purpose and feeling of youth and of first effort are rarely lost, when they are genuine to begin with. They tell and count and swell to the echo as year and period pass by. Nor can it be denied that many a true Christian life falls under the condemnation of being a feeble and an unfruitful life, because it was not at the first appealed to with power. It never got the idea of trenchancy. And indecision - its watchword - was snare and delusion to it. 3. He apprises him of what may be calculated upon, as acting like a certain and safe check to both pride or vanity and self-confidence. How many have fallen upon the very threshold of what would have been a great spiritual career through one or both of these things I And the pride ecclesiastical and the self-confidence that "lords it over the faith" of others are just two of the most pronounced pestilences of human nature. From the fright and the fire and the faintness of the "three days" which Saul had now known, it were well that he should not be brought out at once to the light and "the cheerful sun" and the splendid hopes and prospects of a great career. It is better that an annealing interval find place. It is safer that his thought and heart find tonic in a Savior's call and in a Master's demand - that he familiarize himself with the outlook of suffering, and great suffering. 4. Though lastly, yet most of all, Jesus will connect everything in Saul's thought now with himself. How great, how true, how kind was this philosophy! Saul has sinned no end against Christ, and he shall suffer no end for "his Name's sake." What healing for Saul's soul that foretelling announcement! Saul has persecuted fiercely those who were dear to Christ unspeakably, and he shall bear the brunt of fiercest persecution for the sake of Christ and in the service of his loved ones. It is the only compensation for his self-respect, it is some anodyne for his inward smart, and, though an undiscerning world would never have thought it, it is the supreme mark of Christ's sweet forgivingness, of his delicate considerateness, of his tenderest sympathy. "I will show him how great things he must," etc. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. WEB: For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake."