Being in a basket

Being in a basket

Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket. (Acts 9:25).

Paul wrote to the Philippians about his background: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless.” (Philippians 3:5-6 also see Acts 22:3)

If his Jewish friends of years gone by could have seen Saul (as he was called then) being let down the walls of Damascus in a basket, what would they have thought? They may have wondered: “How did this gifted, privileged, influential, zealous young man with such a bright future before him, come to this?” But how different the truth was.

Saul became the apostle Paul and would go on to discover what it was like to be in prison. But being in a basket against the wall of a great city was a unique experience in his life. In that tiny space, he gradually descended the high walls of Damascus. As he did so, he was in danger of being discovered, of the rope snapping and of his helpers not being able to bear his weight.

When Saul arrived in Damascus, after the Lord Jesus had met him from heaven on the road to the city, he was blind. The Lord Jesus sent Ananias to heal him of his blindness. The first recorded words he heard before seeing anyone were, “Brother Saul.” And he found himself in a fellowship of love with the very people he had come to Damascus to destroy. Then because of his immediate and bold witness to the Lord Jesus, he became the hunted instead of the hunter. It was amongst the unnamed disciples of the Lord Jesus at Damascus that Saul learned the love of Christ. And it was those same disciples who placed him in a basket and let him down the walls of the city to save his life.

We do not know what Saul was thinking in the course of that short but dangerous journey. But there are things that journey teaches us. We learn that God sometimes confines us to protect us. We learn that we are in a fellowship of life. We begin to understand that, however gifted, resourceful and knowledgeable we think we may be, we shall always need the prayers and the support of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Ananias explained that the Lord Jesus chose Paul to serve Him in the most remarkable way. But that night, in that basket, he was entirely dependent on the kindness and love of those he once hated.

Paul never forgot the way he had persecuted the Church of Christ, calling himself the “chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). But once he became a brother in Christ, he never stopped valuing, protecting and building up the Body of Christ. On the way to Damascus, the Lord Jesus Christ displayed His love from glory. In Damascus, the Lord Jesus revealed His love in the lives of His people. Today He still wants to do that.