Episode 8

I am just going to get my rant out of the way first thing. NBC’s AD: The Bible Continues is becoming a biblical account wrapped in fictitious events. Moreover, last night’s episode was particularly frustrating. How can you minimize the single greatest conversion in Church history? And yes…I do think that the fabricated storyline that involves Pilate, Tiberius, and an insane Caligula did just that—muscled the conversion of Paul to the fringes of the episode’s focus. Yet this is not the only reason why last night’s episode kinda drove me crazy. To someone who does not know the content of Acts, he or she may open up a Bible, flip to the book of Acts, and expect to read the accounts of Tiberius’ assassination, Pilate’s political maneuvering, and Caligula’s moral depravity. Acts is about the globalization of the Church—how it became a world movement out of a regional phenomenon. Indeed, it is okay to offer a larger socio-political context for the rise of the Church, but it is another thing to give it a fanciful context and drown out the Church’s progressions with ancient Near Eastern subterfuge and the political ambitions social factions within first century Palestine.

Okay…on to something about the episode that was somewhat enriching….

In this episode, we finally see Paul’s conversion. As I mentioned, I believe that this is the single greatest conversion in Church history. Not only was it about as dramatic as one could get, but the effect is second to none. The Church’s arch-nemesis becomes its greatest weapon. Yet what I appreciated about the portrayal of this event was not the Damascus Road confrontation, but rather the convergence of reason and experience.

In a telling scene, Saul is obsessively heading toward Damascus. He is demanding a crazy pace from his companions, and he is mumbling and spewing vitriol along the way. At one point, Reuben (the High Priest’s guard who was told by Caiaphas to accompany Paul) gets fed up with his travel companion from hell and confronts Saul, asking why he is so obsessed with Peter. Saul angrily states that it makes no sense that God would choose an uneducated fisherman. According to Saul’s mindset, the very choice of this vessel defies logic. So we see that Saul’s struggle with this whole Jesus movement, at least in part, appeals to perceived reason…to perceived logic.

Now juxtapose this scene with a later one. Paul, who has just been cured of his blindness, sits around a table with his companions having a meal. Ananias is there, and his travel companions sit there dumbfounded as Paul explains that he has given up his former way and intends to be baptized. He gets up with Ananias and leaves. Fast forward. We see him at the river, and Barnabas is there. Barnabas is visibly struggling with what he is hearing, but it is clear that Paul’s experience has consumed him. He cannot explain what happened, how it makes sense—only that he was blind but now he sees.

 

This juxtaposition represents what I believe is a hallmark of a mature believer, one who is neither purely cerebral nor purely experiential. Intellect and emotions must collaborate, and neither can drown out the other. If this happens, the Christian becomes a robot or a windbag blown by the winds of experience and emotions. Reason offers a framework to assess our personal experiences, and experiences breathe joy into our faith.

Also implicit in the scene of Paul’s baptism was an awareness that he was still unsure what this all meant. Yeah…he knew that he was now called for something special, but the specifics of that calling were still to be hashed out. The last image that we see of Paul in this episode was him bolting into the local synagogue, against the council of Barnabas and Ananias, because the burden of the call was too great. To heck with any questions he may have had, because he knew what he had to do. So, as this episode closed we already see that the same passion and conviction that characterized him as the Great Persecutor will drive him as the Great Missionary.

While the artistic freedom that is being used to paint a larger socio-political backdrop is starting to grind my nerves, the artistic freedom that is being used to fill in the gaps of Paul’s character development are very enriching and thought provoking. How often to do we just sit there and cripple ourselves with our questions of what we are called to do? As if the answer is going to be revealed in a dream or written on the wall… Why is it so hard to allow our convictions, which are made clear by the Holy Spirit, to drive our actions and trust that the intricate details will be made clear in due time?