Jesus intercepts Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. He makes himself known to Saul through a bright light from heaven, and a period of blind helplessness. Jesus breaks Saul's routine, and gives him a reason to change the trajectory of his life. He gives Saul...a second chance. And Jesus uses his disciple Ananias to remove the scales from Saul's eyes, and his disciple Barnabas later, to figuratively remove the scales from the apostles' eyes to show the total conversion accomplished in Saul. Saul immediately becomes a target for assassination, because his testimony has the power of the second chance.
And Jesus sends his disciple Peter to the town of Lydda, and then to the town of Joppa, to give Aeneas a second chance at usefulness, and Tabitha a second chance at life itself. The results of these miracles are the same. With the powerful testimony of the second chance, many, many people come to faith in the Lord.
At some point in time, many of us have found ourselves acting as if faith in the Lord was at least unimportant, if not, a bad thing. And at some point in time, Jesus gave us a second chance, making himself known to us, likely through the efforts of one or more of his disciples. May we use the powerful emotion of that second chance to help our morale, as we wait to see what the second chance for our church will look like. And may we be open to help Jesus in whatever way is necessary, to deliver a second chance to others.
Gracious God, we thank you for sending your son Jesus to die on the cross, to give us a second chance for eternal life with you. Keep the joy of the resurrection strong in our lives, in Jesus name, amen.