Blind Side Salvation
Galatians 1:11-24
Have you ever wished that you could experience a vision like Paul
did—a vision so clear and overpowering that it changes your life and lets
you know exactly what God has in mind for you?
Be careful what you wish for.
At one of the churches where we were members, the lectern was not
easy place to access during a service. Lay readers had to go around the side
and enter through a narrow doorway from the sacristy and go up a couple of
stair steps from the sacristy to get to the lectern.
My first time at this duty, I finished the reading and headed for the
exit where a surprise awaited me. The doorway had been built in a time when
pastors were shorter, I guess. This posed a hazard that was well-known among
veteran readers, who conveniently neglected to warn the new people. Anyway,
I wasn’t really paying attention as I skipped down the steps to the door. I
was going at a good clip when suddenly I wasn’t. My forehead ran smack into
the solid wood frame of the doorway.
Have you ever taken a hit that you never saw coming? The feeling is
one of bewilderment at first, trying to figure out why you aren’t moving—how
you had come to such a sudden stop. This is followed immediately by intense
pain, and as you regain your senses, intense embarrassment.
Saul of Tarsus found out what that feels like. He got hit from the
blind side on the road to
Saul was a brilliant man, a highly respected member of the Jewish
community, a well-to-do Roman citizen with many connections in high society.
He had a lot of advantages in life. But his life got sidetracked. He bought
into an agenda fueled by hatred and violence. As he admits in the reading
from Galatians today, he persecuted the followers of Jesus and tried to
destroy them. That was his life. In the book of Acts, he signs off on the
stoning of Stephen, and then sets about looking for more Christians to
crush.
As he rides in fury on one of his missions of annihilation, he
gallops smack into a wall. One moment he’s on his horse with the wind in his
hair, plotting destruction, the next moment he finds himself on the ground
with his head ringing. Can’t see a thing. Doesn’t know who he is, where he
is, or how he got there. He ends up taking on a whole new identity: he
becomes Paul.
When God’s truth hits, sometimes it hits hard.
Do you wish you could have a revelation like Paul?
Be careful what you wish for.
Wishing for what Paul got is asking to smack your head so hard into a
heavy door frame that it knocks you on your backside and you see stars.
Consider what Paul experienced. When the vision of truth hits, Paul
flops around in terror and bewilderment. And then it gets worse. In one of
the reports of his
Paul sees that this blindside shot was his own fault. He ran into a
wall that he now sees was there all the time, in plain sight When he
realizes how wrong he was, intense pain sets in, followed by embarrassment.
Here he was, Saul of Tarsus, champion of tradition, and he discovers that,
brilliant scholar though he was, devout believer though he was, he has made
a complete hash of his life. His pride turns to shame as he discovers that
he has not merely wasted his life, he has spent it destroying that which is
best in life.
There are many people in this world, in this country, in this
community, and yes, in this church, who have gone through this. Some are
going through it right now. None of them has a pretty story to tell.
There are so many sad stories of people running full speed in the
wrong direction. Sad stories of poor lifestyle choices, poor decisions, poor
health choices, poor financial choices, poor spiritual choices, poor moral
choices, screwed up priorities.
Sad stories of people galloping in the wrong direction on drugs or
alcohol.
Sad stories of people sprinting in the wrong direction in the company
of false friends and bad influences.
Sad stories of people strolling in the wrong direction in the
selfishness and laziness, and immaturity that ruins relationships.
Of people led astray chasing after material wealth and status.
Of people galloping in the wrong direction on the thrill of excess,
life in the fast lane, irresponsibility, rebellion, scoffing at authority
and society.
They are sad stories because it is so obvious where people are
headed; warning signs are everywhere. They are sad and frustrating because
they are so avoidable if only people would pay attention; if only they would
listen to reason.
Plenty of people could have told Paul he was thundering down the
wrong path. Probably many people did. If only he would have listened to
reason.
There is a scene in the film
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles where the two main characters get
disoriented as they are driving along. They get on the wrong ramp and find
themselves cheerfully speeding the wrong way down the interstate. A guy
traveling the correct way in the opposite lane rolls down his window and
tries to warn them.
“You’re going the wrong way!” he screams.
The two smile and nod and casually ignore the warning. “Yeah, how
does he know we’re going the wrong way?” one of them says to the other. “He
doesn’t know where we’re going.”And so they
breeze along toward the inevitable head-on encounter with a speeding semi.
Paul was like those guys. He didn’t listen. In Galatians, Paul
accidentally reveals this flaw in his character. In his letter he’s trying
to make the point that his conversion on the road to
But in saying this, he shows us how he got into the mess he did. “I
want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that
man made up,” he says. “I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught
it: rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”
Yeah, no man could ever tell Paul what to do.
Then later, “When God was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I
might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go
up to
Paul was as hard-headed as they come. He didn’t listen to anybody.
So many people like that. So many go cruising on the wrong roads.
Don’t listen to anybody. Well meaning persons, people who care about them,
try to warn them that they’re going the wrong way and what’s the reaction?
“How do you know I’m going the wrong way? You don’t know where I’m going?
It’s my life; go live yours.”
It’s not only the dramatic wrong way choices that drive us into the
wall. There’s another form of hitting the wall that all marathon runners
know about. I learned about that when I entered my first marathon at the
Drake Relays more than 30 years ago.
I found the race was surprisingly easy. Not having a lot of speed, I
always had to push hard from the very beginning in the usual 3-mile and
5-mile races. The marathon was a pace I could handle comfortably. For
awhile.
Eventually I began having sideache
problems whenever I drank water, so I stopped doing that. It was a hot,
muggy day and I paid a price for my laxness. At around 20 miles, I hit the
wall hard. I staggered on for awhile, and the last thing I remembered seeing
was mile marker 24. Next thing I knew I woke up in the back of a station
wagon that whisked me off to the medical tent at the stadium.
Turned out I had lost nearly more than pounds during the race. Not
supplying myself with the water I needed had caused me to hit the wall, with
nearly disastrous results.
So many of us are running in that direction. Not taking the spiritual
nourishment offered, thinking we can do without it.
So many people merrily cruise the wrong way down the road heading for
the obvious disaster, some recklessly speeding 90 miles an hour, others
slowly depriving their bodies of vital nutrients. We know what’s at the end
of that road. One more sad story for the books. One more sad story of
loneliness, depression, emptiness, despair. One more story of death and
destruction.
That is where the Gospel enters into the picture.
I don’t wish the experience of Paul on the road to
As brutal as blindside hit can be, I don’t see this brick wall that
God sets up as punishment. I don’t see a vengeful God slapping us down
because, well, that’s what we deserve. Rather, God sees the good in us, good
in us that we don’t see ourselves, and decides we are worth saving.
I remember Minnesota Vikings coaches a long time ago discussing one
of the craziest plays in football history. They were playing the Jets and
had called a running play, a sweep around the right end. There were two
backs in the backfield. At the snap of the ball, they were both to sprint to
the right, one of them being the lead blocker, the other receiving the
pitchout and running with the ball.
Unfortunately, the back on the right side of the formation got the
play wrong. When the ball was hiked, he tore off to the left and nearly
flattened his teammate who had to do a quick sidestep to avoid him. The
mistake totally messed up the start of the play, and deprived the runner of
his lead blocker. It should have been a disaster. Somehow, it turned out to
be one of the best runs of the day.
In looking at the film, the coaches discovered why. On the defensive
side of the ball, the Jets two inside linebackers were each keying on one of
the runners to anticipate the play. One of them saw his guy take off to the
left and he fired off in that direction. The other one saw his guy take off
to the right and sprinted in that direction.
The two linebackers blindsided each other, totally wiped each other
out, leaving the field wide open for the runner.
As the coaches commented, the breakdown wasn’t the linebackers’
fault. In fact, their quickness, speed, and alertness was what made the
collision so bad. Sometimes you can do everything right and still go wrong.
Just because people are racing in the wrong direction doesn’t mean
they are bad or weak or stupid people. Even the best of us, the most alert,
the smartest, people like Paul, can get turned around. Those of us who watch
in bewilderment as others race off toward disaster do well to remember that
there but for fortune go you or I. In fact, some of those who gallop off in
the wrong direction may have more energy and determination and courage than
those of us who don’t.
Jesus did not come to condemn those who run in the wrong direction;
he came to save them as much as he came to save those on the right path.
That wall that God sets up for us to slam into is there to keep us from
going over the edge of the cliff into oblivion.
I have met people who have hit the wall.
I’m sure you have to.
People who have hit rock bottom.
People who have embarrassed themselves and their families.
People who have made a total mess of their lives.
People who destroyed their health, their marriages, their families,
their careers.
People of all ages from young to old.
But if they get through it, they are some of the most wonderful
people you will ever meet because they know that that wall, painful as it
was, saved their lives. These are people who have learned to turn their
lives over to God.
At the Twin Cities marathon, they have set up a huge cardboard arch
painted to look a brick wall. It is set at mile 20, about where runners
usually hit the wall. The idea is that runners hit the wall as they go by, a
show of bravado that you’re not going to give in to fatigue, that you’re
going to push through to the end.
A nice gesture. But I’m here to tell you will power and determination
won’t do you a bit of good if you’re not getting the nourishment you need.
The nourishment comes from worship and from the word is what keeps you from
hitting the wall.
I don’t wish a Road to
So, I pray a number of things today. I pray that you never have to
experience what Saul did on the road to