What happens next?

Acts 12:24-13:14a

Since the conversion of Saul/Paul in Acts 9, I find myself overwhelmingly fascinated with him. Even while reading of the exploits of the other apostles, I find myself always wanting to know what Paul is up to.

Although we've heard about Paul's preaching (so boldly that some had been plotting to kill him), in today's reading we really see Paul in action for the first time since becoming a believer.

Also, I have always had the (perhaps mistaken) impression that during Jesus' earthly ministry, he and his disciples wandered around the same small area, visiting and revisiting the same places, and that feeling carries over into the first part of Acts, too. But when we read today that Paul and Barnabas got on a ship and set sail for Cyprus, . . . I think "Ah, now we're getting somewhere! The gospel message is really going out, now!"

Here on Cyprus, Barnabas and Paul travel from town to town, eventually encountering the Roman governor, who invites Barnabas and Paul to talk to him about Jesus. But a sorcerer named Elymas (or Bar-Jesus) keeps interfering to prevent the governor from believing.

Now here's where Paul steps forward to confront Elymas, and through the power of God, the sorcerer is struck blind "for some time."

We don't know what happened to him after this. The governor became a believer, but what about Elymas?

It occurs to me that what happened to Elymas is the same thing that happened to Paul. Both were enemies of the gospel. Both were struck blind. Paul, we know, became a key player in the early church, spreading the gospel with the same boldness with which he once persecuted believers and writing the epistles we still look to today for guidance and truth.

But what happened to Elymas?

This must have seemed familiar to Paul. I can imagine that Paul instantly felt an empathy with Elymas, maybe seeing a bit of himself in this man who was struck blind by the power of God.

And maybe that's why many of us find Paul to be such a fascinating figure -- because we can relate (at least a little bit) to him. Paul, like all of us, was blind (spiritually) before he was blinded (physically).

But now we see.

Elymas was blinded "for a time," . . . and after he presumably regained his sight, what then? The rest of his story was not written down.

But our story is being written right now. We were blind, but now we see.

And what happens next?


--Drew Clausen