In Acts chapter 9 verse 10, we meet a man called Ananias. He is a devout believer, eager to hear and obey the word of the Lord. That is until his Saviour gives him a message he can’t fathom. Appearing to him in a vision, the Lord says: “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.” (Acts 9: 11-12.)
Perhaps if the Lord told you to go and heal someone in his name, you would be very excited and rush off eagerly to do his bidding, but Ananias is hesitant, and for good reason. This Saul is a notorious killer of Christians. Zealous for the Jewish faith, he believes it is his God-given duty to quash this rebellion of Jesus-followers. In fact, Ananias knows Saul has been given authority by the leading priests to arrest Christians like him. (Acts 9: 14) Why would his beloved Saviour put him in such danger? Surely he is hearing him wrong.
The Lord doesn’t rebuke Ananias for his reticence, but he does explain: “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel.” (Acts 9: 16). Having heard this, Ananias is quick to do the Lord’s bidding. He boldly approaches Saul and heals the temporarily blinded man in Jesus’ name.
The Lord has work for Saul to do, but at first he is hampered by his former reputation as a killer of Christians. Ananias isn’t the only person who doubts whether such a hard-hearted man could ever change. Later in the same chapter, we are told that when Saul finally arrives in Jerusalem, he tries to meet with the other believers, but they were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a follower of Jesus. (Acts 9: 26.) On this occasion, another brother called Barnabas speaks up for Saul, but it certainly takes a while for the murderer Saul to be accepted as Paul, the great apostle and letter-writer he would become.
In Saul’s case, as in the case of many people today, his reputation went before him. It was hard for people to accept that he had changed. Everywhere he went, fingers were pointed, and people talked of him in hushed tones, perhaps pondering whether he could be trusted.
I knew someone many years ago who, like Saul, had a bit of a shady past. However, this man had given his heart to Jesus, repented of his sin, and sought to follow and obey his Lord and Saviour. He desperately wanted to find a church family who would help him grow in his newfound faith. He wanted to study God’s Word and glean from the experiences of other Christians. Yet, upon first attending a new church, he immediately sensed he was being talked about. Someone in the congregation had known him before he became a Christian, and this lady felt it was her duty to warn the elders about what kind of man had entered their church.
After that, the elders made it their business to watch their new visitor closely, and he could sense their mistrust and felt he wasn’t wanted, so he stopped attending that church, and for a while he struggled to find a place where his past wouldn’t follow him. My heart broke when he shared his experience, because it made him feel he would never be free of his past.
The Bible says that: “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2Corinthians 5: 17.) If that’s what the Bible says, then isn’t it about time the church took those words seriously, and stopped holding people’s pasts against them? WE all have things in our pasts of which we are deeply ashamed, but when we repent and give them over to Jesus, they are dealt with. He doesn’t keep harping on about them, so why do we? I understand that in some extreme cases there is a need for caution, but I believe sensitivity and love for the person should be uppermost in our concerns.
God’s Word is full of stories of lives transformed by the saving power of Jesus. I wonder how the neighbours of the former tax collector Zacchaeus treated him after he became a believer. We know they weren’t impressed with the idea of the Lord going to eat at the house of “A notorious sinner” (Luke 19: 7.) Evidently, Zacchaeus, like many of his compatriots, was a corrupt tax collector who had been obtaining wealth by cheating people with unfair taxes. Yet he was the first to admit this without even being challenged by Jesus. (Luke 19: 8.)
Of course, no one else heard this intimate conversation between Zacchaeus and Jesus as they sat together over tea, but Jesus’ response in verse 9 shows he knew Zacchaeus’ repentance was genuine. “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.” Abraham is considered to be the father of the faithful, and Zacchaeus had emulated him by having faith and putting his faith into action.
Yet, following that wonderful encounter with Jesus, I imagine the tax collector had a hard road ahead of him. Were people suspicious? Did they think Zacchaeus was pretending to be a believer in order to try and trick and cheat them again? Were fingers pointed everywhere he went as people whispered: “We can’t trust him. We all know what he used to be.” The first time Zacchaeus made a mistake, which we all inevitably do even after we become Christians, did they come down on him like a ton of bricks and say: “You see? WE said he’d never change.”
Let’s remember that when a person comes to Jesus, it is only the start of a long journey. Many years of bad choices may have impacted who they have become, and it may take time and patience to help them learn a new way of living. We all fall and fail, whether we’ve been believers for 50 years or 5 days. We will all need grace and forgiveness from our fellow Christians at various points in our lives.
Neither Zacchaeus nor Paul became perfect when they committed their lives to Jesus. Perfection will only come when we get to heaven, but here on earth we are all learning and growing. We will all be at different stages along our journey toward becoming more like Jesus, so let’s encourage one another on that journey instead of putting one another down. Remember, the Bible says: “The godly may trip 7 times, but they will get up again.” (Proverbs 24: 16A), and: “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.” (Psalm 37: 23-24.)
So if a Zacchaeus or a Saul enters our churches, let’s welcome them and rejoice that they have had an encounter with Jesus and are seeking to live a different life. Let’s do all we can to encourage and help them and be sure we don’t push them away by holding their past against them.