he calls your name twice

Jesus calls your name twice | Acts 9:1-20 | Image: wal_172619

Acts 9:1-20, NIV
"Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ‘Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’"

If you know me at all you’ll know I am a bit of a bible nerd. I love digging into the original Hebrew and Greek and reading about the context in which a passage is written. I look at cross references and compare versions. And I also look at commentaries to find out what other people think. Which is exactly what I did here with Acts 9 as I prepared for a preach. And I’m going to have to be honest with you. I got annoyed. Because I kept stumbling across a very strange, and frankly unbiblical, viewpoint.

And the viewpoint was that Paul was special and Ananias was not. Paul did more for the church than Ananias ever did. Paul was uniquely placed to be an apostle, a church planter, and a teacher of truth. Whereas Ananias was just an ordinary guy hanging around his house, waiting for the Lord to appear to him in a vision, ready to do whatever he was told. (Doesn’t sound very ordinary to me!) For some reason the thinking was - well - everyone can be an ordinary Ananias, but no-one can be as special as Paul.

And, what frustrates me is the premise of that argument. It says that God places higher value on Paul’s ministry than he does on Ananias’. Which is simply not true. God shows no partiality.[1] It also makes me angry because of the singular lack of ambition. That view - be ordinary, not special - actively discourages us from wanting to be more, to grow into all we can be for Jesus. And that’s not God’s intention at all. It’s Paul himself talks about pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called him.[2] There’s always more with Jesus.

So, I’m grateful to Ananias. He shows us we can have an honest relationship with the Lord in which we can ask questions to understand what it is he wants us to do. I’m thankful for his obedience, his charity, his faith, and the impact I know he had in a life that is not recorded in the Bible. But I really want to encourage you not to be ordinary. To push the limits, not to settle for less. And to do that I have a few suggestions - taken from Paul’s life - of ways you can be more Paul. Starting with:

Be more Paul: Let Jesus call out everything he has placed in you
There are two important things about the way Jesus addresses Saul/Paul in this passage. Saul is a Jew but also a Roman citizen and so has both a Hebrew name - Saul - and a Latin name - Paulus - which in Greek is Paul. The names are interchangeable. But in Hebrew culture a person’s name was more than just a label; it signified who the person was. In the Old Testament when God called a person by name, he called out everything he had placed in them. He encouraged them to be all he made them to be, and to connect to his love and purposes. Jesus does the same with Saul. Saul means “asked for of God, prayed for” and as Jesus calls Saul’s name there is an implicit reminder to Saul that he is a gift from God and has God-given purpose.

Jesus also uses Saul’s name twice. When Hebrews wanted to express a close, intimate relationship with each other they would use the other person’s name twice. God does this when he speaks to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Samuel in the Old Testament. Jesus uses the same model with Martha, Simon Peter, his own Father from the cross (Eloi, Eloi - my God, my God why have you forsaken me?) and here, with Saul. This tells us Jesus loves Saul with a deep, abiding love - even as Saul persecutes him - and is inviting Saul to respond to that love.[3]
And, of course, Saul says ‘yes’ to Jesus. And that ‘yes’ transforms his life but also changes the lives of millions of others. You can do the same.

You can tune in to Jesus[4] calling your name twice right now. He is doing it to call out everything he has placed in you. To encourage you to be all he made you to be, to connect with his love and purposes, and transform your life and the lives of others. Be more Paul. Let Jesus call out everything he has placed in you,

Until next time

x

[1] Acts 10:34

[2] Philippians 3:14

[3] https://torahmitzion.org/learn/hearing-call-hashem-5766/

[4] Ephesians 2:5