it may just be cheesy wordplay, but i find it very interesting that a group of lions is called a 'pride'... not a herd or a flock or anything else that has come to mean 'followers'. a pride carries with it all the pomp and power that befits the king of the jungle. (for more thoughts on this one, go here)
saul of tarsus belongs to a very elite pride of lions... and it is that same pomp and power that characterizes saul's movements in the early chapters of the book of acts.
as a jewish roman citizen, raised in a family of means and consequence, saul has attended all the best schools and received top marks for diligence in his studies. he probably has the torah, the books of the prophets and even the hymnal of his people committed to memory by the time he begins breathing murderous threats against those belonging to 'the Way'... the latest religiopolitical anarchist group to rise up in palestine following the teachings of the rabbi Yeshua Ben Yosef (Jesus, son of joseph)
how does all that attention paid to the scriptures somehow lead to murderous threats and, ultimately, murderous action? well, let's face it, saul's case is neither the first nor the last time a little knowledge has or will become a dangerous thing, nor is it an isolated incident where religious fervor results in many lost lives. as poet and troubadour mark heard once cynically penned:
'everybody loves a holy war'
saul's story is just one of these.
but he is no lion.
he is a man.
this man has a lion on a leash, however, which accompanies him everywhere. in fact, because the leash is so strong and the lion is so powerful, it is probably more accurate to say that saul accompanies the lion everywhere. that's just the way it is.
yes, saul belongs to a very elite pride of lions.
belongs, not in terms of being part of,
but rather in terms of being owned by.
for saul, the law is the leash that ultimately keeps him tied to this lion and its pride. the pride tells him he is in the right and the lion that drags him from place to place, seeking out the weak and the scandalous, carrying out its own little inquisition about a millennium before the spanish one, tugs so hard at its leash that saul has no control over it. he is a kept man, his eyes being used by the lion of the pride to hunt down and destroy its prey. the leash keeps him bound to this task.
so Jesus’ confrontation on the road is epic- complete with flashing light, loud noises, symbolic blindness and two complementary visions thrown in for good measure. all throughout our history and into our fiction, both past and future, the Word of God (as coming to many cultures through many representatives of many gods... but that's probably a whole nother blog) is something that gets misused by men and women in order to realize personal ambitions and justify committing great offences against each other and against our planet.
saul's story is just one of these.
but he is no lion.
he is a man.
this man has a lion on a leash, however, which accompanies him everywhere. in fact, because the leash is so strong and the lion is so powerful, it is probably more accurate to say that saul accompanies the lion everywhere. that's just the way it is.
yes, saul belongs to a very elite pride of lions.
belongs, not in terms of being part of,
but rather in terms of being owned by.
for saul, the law is the leash that ultimately keeps him tied to this lion and its pride. the pride tells him he is in the right and the lion that drags him from place to place, seeking out the weak and the scandalous, carrying out its own little inquisition about a millennium before the spanish one, tugs so hard at its leash that saul has no control over it. he is a kept man, his eyes being used by the lion of the pride to hunt down and destroy its prey. the leash keeps him bound to this task.
the point?
he needs to break the leash.
he needs to break the leash.
break the leash and you set the man free.
set the one man free and all those who are subjected to his disease will taste freedom as well. just ask anyone in a twelve step program who has endured 'family day.' this is how it works.
now, we've already said that this lion of the pride needs saul's eyes to hunt. it's pretty significant, then, that Jesus engages saul with a fairly symbolic wonder: the light in which he enshrouds himself is so bright that saul is blinded by it.
saul's exposure to the light has left him blind.
great metaphor, isn't it? the revealed word of God in scripture is described in the psalms (119.105) as 'a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path' and saul has been so exposed to this light that he has become blind to anything that is not light itself. it's much easier to kill people this way.
so to undo what has been taking place for awhile in the spiritual realm, Jesus accomplishes the same in the physical realm: saul is stricken blind through exposure to light.
this sets up some real problems for the lion that's dragging saul around, for the lion needs saul's eyes to hunt. without the use of his eyes, the lion no longer has use of the man. humbled, the man finds himself all alone- abandoned by the pride that once controlled him.
Many people begin coming to God once they stop being religious because there is only one master of the human heart. (Oswald Chambers)
hmm... okay, enough allegorical posts about zoo animals.
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