“’Saul, Saul, Why Do You Persecute Me?’”

“I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities.

“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.

Acts 26: 9-15

Saul ran into something he was not expecting to see. While raging against a group called the Way, he was stopped in his tracks by a blinding light. Then a voice said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The One speaking to him replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

Years earlier Jesus had said that how we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, and the prisoner reflects our relationship to Him. Who would have dreamed that when someone insults us, or when we help our hurt another, the One who loves us takes it personally.

When we help or hurt one another, Jesus takes it personally.

Our Daily Bread – March 13, 2017