Meet the Apostle Paul—Part Ten
We don’t know if the Apostle Paul ever encountered Jesus outside of the Damascus Road. However, we do know that Saul/Paul spent fifteen days with the Apostle Peter (Gal 1:18). I often wonder, what did they talk about? I doubt it was just about the weather.
I suspect that during that time, Paul would have heard eyewitness from Peter about Jesus. Paul would have heard how the Savior King travelled through Samaria and dared to touch and heal the “unclean” (e.g., Luke 17:11-19). Of course, they would have talked about it because this was revolutionary—something new had arrived and the Holy Spirit punctuated it with His presence (see Acts 8:26-39 and later in 10:44-48).
After Saul/Paul spent time with Peter, the Spirit would descend upon the Gentiles in dramatic fashion as well as break down ethnic barrier markers between the two (Acts 10-11).
But Saul/Paul already knew the Scriptures, which means he knew that God had promised a day when all people would come to Him (e.g., Zech 14:16). These were probably not Paul’s favorite Scriptures when he was a card-carrying Pharisee. After all, the evidence is that many (if not most) Pharisees believed that all Gentiles (even the “God Fearers” who had been circumcised) were really second-class citizens of the Kingdom of God at best.
It was with all this information swirling through Paul’s head that he longed to meet the other Apostles. Yet, with the notable exception of James, the brother of Jesus, they had no desire to spend time with the persecutor turned apostle (Acts 9:26-30 and Gal 1:18-21). Instead, Paul was eventually sent home to Tarsus by the early church (Acts 9:30).
Why did they send Paul home?
One, I don’t know for Scripture does not give us an answer. Two, I think I know.
Any group that feels the flames of persecution is going to be leery of outsiders who once fanned those very flames. One way to make sure a person is truly “on your side” is to send them home to their family to see how they act in hearth and home.
Picture it (as Sophia from The Golden Girls would say), you send off your son to the finest Christian ministerial training center in the world. You would be a proud parent even bragging to your co-workers. The son returns home and announces proudly that he has met the risen lord and been commissioned an apostle…of a Hindu god!
That’s how a Jewish family would have probably received the news that their son had seen a vision and become a follower of a crucified messiah! Just imagine the heated conversations over supper!
Paul was being put to yet another test. Was he the real deal or not?
For that, stay tuned until next time.