Brother Saul

A discussion I listened to highlighted the gracious way in which Ananias received Saul shortly after the experience of Saul on the road to Damascus.  Ananias was a disciple at Damascus who was told by the Savior, “Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth.”  Ananias was understandably a little taken aback, knowing as he did the reputation of Saul as a persecutor of the Saints, and he said to the Lord, “Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem.”  But with divine reassurance, he went forward with faith to meet Saul: “And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 9:11, 13, 17).  What this discussion I listened to highlighted was the fact that in his very first encounter with Saul, Ananias called him “Brother”.  Though Saul had been an ardent enemy to the Saints, Ananias was ready to immediately let all of that go and show his love and support for Saul as a brother in the gospel.  Saul was likely touched by this appellation, for when Paul recounted his story he repeated it: “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight” (Acts 22:12-13).  Ananias showed an incredible ability to immediately accept, love and bless Paul despite the fact that he was a former enemy. 

               Perhaps influenced by this initial appellation from Ananias, Paul similarly used the term as he referred to others in his letters.  He wrote of “Quartus a brother” and Sosthenes our brother” and “our brother Apollos” (Romans 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:1, 16:12).  He referred also to “Timothy our brother” and “Titus my brother” (2 Corinthians 1:1, 2:13).  In other letters he mentioned and “Tychicus, a beloved brother” and “Epaphroditus, my brother” (Ephesians 6:21, Philippians 2:25).  In his epistle to Philemon, Paul called him “dearly beloved” and “brother” and then enjoined Philemon to likewise receive Onesimus “Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved” (v1, 16).  Paul truly believed that the fellow Saints were his brethren, and he taught to the Romans to love and not judge their brothers in the gospel: “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (Romans 14:9-10).                              

             This reminds me of the wording in the famous encounter between Jean Valjean and the Bishop in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.  When the former convict was inexplicably forgiven for stealing from the Bishop, the noble servant of God said to the bewildered criminal:   “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.”  The Bishop, like Ananias, was able to see a brother in someone, not because of what he had done but because of who he could become through the grace of God.  These examples remind us that we too should see and treat all around us as brothers and sisters in the Lord.