The Faith of Ananias

The Sunday evening message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on July 9, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Acts 9:1-19.

            The story of Saul’s conversion is one of the most remarkable stories in the Bible.  And that’s saying something, because the Bible has a lot of remarkable stories in it.  But think about it.  Here’s Saul.  He’s a Pharisee.  One of the group that saw to it that Jesus was killed.  One of the group that, once Jesus was killed, tried to get rid of all of Jesus’ followers, too.

            And Saul was not just an ordinary Pharisee.  Saul was one of the most zealous Pharisees there was.  He was there to help at the stoning of Stephen.  He went house to house in Jerusalem, dragging off both men and women and putting them in prison for being Christians.  And then, suddenly, he meets Jesus.  And he eventually becomes possibly the most important Christian there has ever been.

            But tonight, I don’t want to focus on Saul.  I want to focus on another person in this story.  I want to focus on Ananias.

            This is the only time this Ananias is mentioned in the Bible.  There are a couple of other Ananiases, both of whom we find in the books of Acts.  Maybe Ananias was a common name in that area at this time, I don’t know.  One of them is in Acts chapter Five, when someone named Ananias is struck down for lying to the Holy Spirit.  The other is in Acts Twenty-three and Twenty-four, a high priest before whom Saul, by then called Paul, is brought to stand trial.

            But this is the only time we meet this Ananias.  And so, as you’d expect, we don’t know a whole lot about him.  We know he lived in Damascus, which was where Saul was headed when he met Jesus.

            And so that leads us to a question right off the bat.  Did Jesus choose this moment to show Himself to Saul, this moment when Saul was headed to Damascus, because Ananias lived there?  After all, I assume Jesus could’ve appeared to Saul at any time.  He could’ve appeared to Saul while Saul was still in Jerusalem.  He could’ve appeared to Saul after Saul left Damascus and went on to some other city.  Was one of the reasons Jesus chose this time the fact that Ananias lived there, and Jesus specifically wanted Ananias to be the one to go to Saul when Saul lost his sight?

            Well, we don’t know the answer to that.  But whether because of Ananias, or because of some other reason, or just by coincidence, it was when Saul was on the road to Damascus that Jesus appeared to him.  And Ananias was the one chosen by the Lord to go to Saul and restore his sight.

            Why Ananias, I wonder?  We’re told he was a disciple of Jesus, which we would certainly expect.  But he cannot have been the only disciple of Jesus in Damascus.  After all, Saul was going there specifically to persecute the Christians there.  It would hardly have been worth Saul’s time to go there to persecute one guy.  There have to have been lots of disciples of Jesus living in Damascus, or Saul would not have been going there.  So, why not one of the others?  Why Ananias?

            Only God knows the answer to that, obviously.  But let’s take a look at Ananias and see if we can find some of the reasons the Lord might have chosen him.

            For one thing, Ananias has courage.  After all, Ananias knows all about Saul.  He knows exactly who Saul is and why he has come to Damascus.  He knows what Saul has done to the Christians in other places.  In fact, he tells all that to the Lord.  He says, “Lord, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to Your holy people in Jerusalem.  And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your name.”

            So Ananias has reasons to fear Saul.  And that’s not all.  We’re told Saul’s companions have taken Saul to a house in Damascus.  Now, we don’t know anything about that house, other than that it’s referred to as “the house of Judas.”  That’s not a reference to the Judas who betrayed Jesus–there were lots of people named Judas back then, too.  We don’t know if Ananias knew of this house or the people in it.  But it stands to reason that Saul’s companions were just as eager to persecute the Christians as Saul was, and that if they took him to someone’s house, the people in that house were probably on Saul’s side, too, and were also eager to persecute Christians.  

If those people knew who Ananias was, that he was a follower of Jesus, they might kill him before he even got in the door.  And yet, when the Lord told him to go there, he went.  That took a lot of courage.

            It took a lot of faith, too.  Ananias needed to trust the Lord.  He had to trust the Lord in at least two ways.  One, he had to trust that the Lord would, in fact, protect him when he went to this house.  But he also had to trust that the Lord would give him the power and ability to do what the Lord told him to do.

            The Lord told Ananias to place his hands on Saul and restore his sight.  Had Ananias ever done anything like that before?  We don’t know, but there’s nothing in the Bible to indicate that he had.  There are not a lot of people in the Bible who were told had the power to heal someone just by laying hands on them.  A few of the twelve disciples, like Peter, had that power after the Holy Spirit came on them.  But Ananias was not one of the twelve disciples.

            What if that was you?  What if the Lord told you that you could place your hands on someone and restore their sight?  Would you go do it?  Would you even believe that you could?  I mean, yes, you’d received this vision and all, but still.  Would you be confident that you could actually do this?  And even if you were, would the people at the house believe you?  Would Saul believe you?  Would Saul even let you place your hands on him?  It took a lot of faith, as well as a lot of courage, for Ananias to walk over to that house and do what the Lord told him to do.

            So what’s the point?  The point is that, as far as we know, there was nothing special about Ananias.  Yes, he was a follower of Jesus, but there were lots of followers of Jesus in Damascus.  There was no obvious reason, from a human perspective, for Ananias to stand out among them.  And yet, the Lord specifically chose Ananias to do this thing that took great faith and great courage.  This thing that played an important part in turning Saul into Paul, one of the most important Christians in history.

            Most of us would probably say there’s nothing special about us.  Yes, we’re followers of Jesus, but there are lots of followers of Jesus.  There’s no obvious reason for any of us to stand out among those followers.  Yet, there are things the Lord has chosen you to do, too.  Things that take faith and courage, just as the things Ananias did took faith and courage.

            I don’t know what those things are for you.  It will be something different for each of us.  Some of us, like Saul, are chosen to do great things that change the course of history.  Others of us, like Ananias, are chosen to play a small but important part in great things.  Still others of us, like the many, many followers of Jesus who are not named in the Bible, are chosen to do things that no one will ever know about, but that play a part in bringing one or more people to Christ.

            And what an awesome thing that is, don’t you think?  To be called to do something that plays a part in bringing someone to Christ?  After all, it’s faith in Jesus Christ that gives us salvation and eternal life.  Wouldn’t it be great to know that you played even a small part in helping someone receive eternal life?  I don’t think it could get any better than that.  There’s nothing better we could ever do for anyone than to help them receive eternal life.  That’s as good as it could possibly get.

            And there’s one more thing about that.  I said some of us are chosen to do things that no one will ever know about.  That’s not really true.  Because God will know about them.  God will know about them, and God will care about them.  Nothing we ever do for God goes unnoticed.  And certainly, nothing we ever do to help bring someone to Christ goes unnoticed.  God notices, and God cares.

            So let Ananias serve as an inspiration to you.  Whatever you may be chosen to do, do it with the courage and faith of Ananias.  Don’t worry about what someone’s reaction may be–trust God to protect you.  Don’t worry about whether you actually can do what God has chosen you to do–trust that God will give you the power and ability to do what God has chosen you to do.

            You may think there’s nothing special about you.  Ananias probably thought there was nothing special about him, too.  But Ananias was special to God, and so are you.  And you can do whatever God has chosen you to do, just as Ananias did.