And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ...
Saul, who became better known as the apostle Paul, heard these words on the road to Damascas as he was going there to persecute Christians. He isn't being theoretical when Paul later teaches through his letters that the Church is the Body of Christ (
Romans 12:3-4;
1 Corinthians 10:10-16-17;
Ephesians 5:23,
29;
Colossians 1:18,
24). The Church IS Jesus' presence, his Body alive and at work in the world. What is done to the Church as a collective group of people is done to Jesus. What is done to individual Christians is done to their Savior. Jesus made this clear to Paul, then known as Saul, by emphasizing that Saul's persecution of believers was also persecution of Jesus -
"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Jesus is present in the world today through his people! The saying is true: the only Jesus many will see today is the Jesus they see through you and me.
Dear Father, please "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, all His wonderful passion and purity; May His Spirit divine, all my being refine; Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me." In the name of my Savior, I pray. Amen. (
From the song by Albert W.T. Orsbom.)
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