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Paul and the road to Damascus
Paul and the road to Damascus
The authorities couldn't have chosen a more perfect man than Paul to do their dirty work. By his own admission, he was a zealot, a fanatical follower of the Jewish faith. If Paul had been successful the fledgling Christian movement would have been snuffed out in its infancy, barely a year after Jesus' death. But what no-one could foresee, not least the authorities, is what would happen to Paul on the road to Damascus.
Reluctantly, the local Christians took Paul in. His sight was restored. He was even allowed into the movement with a baptism of water symbolising his new life.
Was Paul's vision a miracle or a hallucination? It's impossible to prove either way. But there's no question the experience shook him, and it shook the World too. Without Paul, Christianity would almost certainly have remained a minor strand of Judaism. But Paul saw in the resurrection of Jesus a new meaning - a meaning so explosive it put Christianity on the brink of something much bigger.
In essence, Paul claimed that Jesus' resurrection swept away Jewish views of the afterlife. To understand how, I've come to this Jewish cemetery outside Jerusalem. It's been in use since before the time of Jesus and it shows many Jews believed that there would be an afterlife, but only at the very end of time.
Some Jews believe that at the last judgement the dead would be resurrected and that it would begin here in this cemetery at the Mount of olives which overlooks the Holy City. There are over 150,000 graves here and the numbers are still rising, and Jews from all over the world aspire to buried here.
The sheer number of graves is more than a sign of Jewish hopes of an afterlife. It's a moving testimony to the human desire to live beyond death. But as a Jew himself, Paul knew that the dead would have to wait an eternity before they could possibly taste resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus changed everything; there was no need to wait for the last judgement. If Jesus could conquer death so could others; all one had to do was to commit completely to Jesus and follow his path. This would be the new way to an eternal life.
It was a radical take on the resurrection of Jesus. But it so convinced Paul that he resolved to tell it to the rest of the world. He set out to confront and replace pagan religion with Christianity, a mission that put him on a collision course with the mighty Roman empire.
Miracles of Jesus
Part 3 The Resurrection 11
