Whom Will You Thank after Jesus?
by Dennis Peacocke
Recently I was preparing for an upcoming conference on "transformation" and considering the life of the Apostle Paul. Beyond any other biblical character, Paul gets my vote as the greatest example of a changed life, a transformed human being. For many years I have known that after Christ Himself, Paul is the one to whom I owe the greatest debt and the most profuse "thank-you's." Without him my life to this point would have been bereft of multiple dimensions, in ways I can hardly imagine.
Paul the persecutor; Paul the tacit moderator; Paul the Pharisee of judgmental Pharisees; Paul the ultimate self-centered Jewish racist, became Paul the embracer of the humanity for whom Jesus died. It is undoubtedly easier for the down-and-outers, the social outcasts, and the self-disillusioned to repent. They know they are failures and have both multiple people and multiple social-economic indicators to tell them so. But the rich, the educated, the powerful within their specialties or peer groups, they are different. Indeed, as the scripture says, "The rich man answers roughly, but the poor man makes entreaties" (Proverbs 18). Paul, in this context, was a very, very rich man. Knocked off his donkey by a blinding light and the voice from heaven, he became a fool and a failure instantaneously as he groveled blindly in the dirt.
At that crucial point in time, some two thousand years ago, this religious self-centered man began a journey of transformation which would forever change you and me, and the whole world besides. Jesus, Lord of all, would begin to unfold His plan from eternity past to change eternity future through the life of this frail, brilliant, little Jewish man. Two human figures, Moses in the Old Testament and Paul in the New, have been the foundational revelators of God's plans and social structures for God's most magnificent creation, human beings. Think of it. God rested His future upon the ability of two fully frail humans to hear Him, obey Him, and represent Him.
Paul, you served Him and us magnificently. You showed us the church at a level none of the original twelve apostles understood. You helped open the windows and purposes of God in an unparalleled way. You indicted the religious, the exclusive, the humanists, the class-conscious, and all forms of human thought and philosophy that feebly presumed to elevate themselves above the One who made them. The price you paid to do it? Beatings, rejection, betrayal, accusation, unending toil, and emotional pressure. But your letters, your life, your heritage to multiplied millions was more than worth it.
May those who criticize you try and live your life. Forgive us for taking you for granted. We know you did it through Him who empowered you, but Paul, you yielded yourself so magnificently! When I get there I will seek you out quickly and that's . . .
the bottom line.
