The apostle Paul once was known as “Saul.” Bearing that name, he was a ruthless persecutor of Christians – until the Risen Christ appeared to him. Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus changed him into a great teacher of faith – a prolific writer of letters that for centuries have composed a vast swath of the New Testament. Here’s how Paul describes his conversation to the early Christians in Corinth –
As though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw the Risen Jesus. For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me – and not without results! For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.” (1 Corinthians 15:8-10)
Oh, Paul, he came so late to you, to raise you from the darkness of your hostility, anger, and malice. In a moment when change seemed impossible, out of place, Jesus came to you, and the light dawned, and your eyes were opened. Thanks be to God – you saw the light!
Light is God’s first gift of Creation, when the earth was a formless, chaotic void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. (Genesis 1:2) But so also can light be unbearable, blinding, shredding the very sight of glory that it comes to illumine. Human eyes need time to adjust to God’s brilliant, new light. Time is the key ingredient in turning around, turning away, in looking in another direction. And it took a near-lifetime to change Saul into Paul, complete with a new name and a new heart.
When you were struck down on that road, Paul, and something like scales covered your eyes, did you foresee the need to write so many letters of frank-but-encouraging correction to your congregations gone wild and rogue? When for those three days you couldn’t see a blessed thing, did you catch a vision of what was to come: the suffering, the sorrow, the disappointment of folks whom God converted through you falling away from faith and belief? The sinful lure of pride and self-will overcoming them? Just as it once held its tight grip upon you?!
The Lord’s great command came to you the same as it had come to them: Go out into the world and declare God’s Good News of peace and grace, mercy and forgiveness, resurrection and hope. Your life was given to the One whom had once persecuted, to the One the others had denied and deserted. Yet you joined with them in love, because you all simultaneously shared human failure and divine grace. You more than any knew the reality of sin forgiven – the shining presence of perfect love calling for holy affection that suffers long and is ever kind.
In celebration of God’s victory over hostility, anger, and malice, let us pray, and let Jesus come to you once again to open your eyes –
For the gift of faith that comes not by our own seeking but by your grace alone, hear our thanks and praise, O Lord. The grace that you offer enables us to do what we could never do on our own. The faith that you inspire changes us with the power of its love. So, help us to listen better when your grace calls out to us and touches our hearts.
Forgive us for letting other voices drown out yours. Stop us from going our own ways and following the sinful lure of pride and self-will. May we live more worthily of the great salvation we enjoy through the Risen Christ.
Christ is risen; he is risen indeed! Glory be to Father, Son, and Spirit.
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Their first parting from Jesus – on the Cross of Calvary – unleashed a tsunami of raw emotion, sorrow and shame, upon the disciples. But when he left them the second time, in his bodily ascension into heaven, his followers were full of joy and hope, because they knew that he was alive for ever and that they would see him again. The Gospel of St. Luke describes the moment –
Then Jesus led his disciples from Jerusalem out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, Jesus withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God. (Luke 24:50-53)
They had shared horror on the hill of death. Now they stood upon the hill of promise and watched him leave. In all their moments of seeing their Master after the day of his rising – and there were many, as we been sharing now for a month of Sundays, their joy mingled with awe – and with the Lord’s blessing. In this their last earthly encounter, an air of confidence whooshes into the disciples’s hearts and souls – a powerful breath of fresh air that no human power could ever generate or stifle.
They gaze skyward, as Jesus ascends among fluffy-white clouds, but those eyes that had witnessed such wonder must return their gaze to the world below, re-enter its daily rhythms, a beat now forever changed by the Maestro of Resurrection. Blessed feet that had followed him must now take the path that returns them to workaday routine. And indeed there is work to be done: breaks in fellowship to be mended, a Church to be built.
At the center of it all would be a workplan of worship and prayer – not to a God remote, unimaginable, and dangerous to behold, but to a Holy One who had shown a human face, the Holy One of Israel whom they had loved as a friend. And Jesus wills them his last bequest – a world resurrected and new, because divine steps had graced its ground with human feet.
Let us again lift our hearts in prayer –
How grateful we are, wonderful God, that our frail humanity is lifted into the mystery of divinity. We know that we shall follow where Jesus has gone, and we praise you for restoring right relationship between heaven and earth.
Honestly, the cares and desires of this world hold us too closely. Their grip tempts us to misuse the life that you have given, to forget that we come from you and will return to you. Point us toward the places where true joy is found, and direct our lives toward Christ in his glory.
Indeed he is risen. Indeed he has ascended! On the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will return to judge the living and the dead.
Pastor Grant M. VanderVelden shared this message on the Seventh Sunday of Easter/Ascension Sunday, May 17, 2026, at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon, Iowa, USA. Commentary and reflection by Raymond Chapman inform the message.