Paul has one shot at defending himself before Agrippa, and he throws everything he’s got at it. One of the things he’s got is the story of his own conversion on the road to Damascus, and in Acts 26 he re-tells the whole episode to Agrippa in detail. In some respects, Paul gives more detail here in this third re-telling (see earlier versions in Acts 9 and 22). For example, he gives us more direct quotation of what Jesus told him there on the road.

The most striking thing Jesus tells him is: “I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness … delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light” (Acts 26:16-18)

“A witness to the Gentiles, to open their eyes.” Remember that, and look over at the last thing Paul gets to say to Agrippa before Festus cuts him off, at the end of his speech in verse 22: “To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

Paul’s point is that according to the scriptures, Jesus Christ will rise from the dead and proclaim light to the Jews and to the Gentiles. But “opening the eyes of the Gentiles” is precisely what Jesus told Paul he was appointing him to do. Obviously, Jesus is appointing Paul to be the agent he carries out his work through. Who brings light to the Gentiles? Jesus Christ does: Either directly or through the witness of Paul, Jesus Christ speaks for himself. He is not a dead man who needs agents to go speak on his behalf. He is alive, present and active, speaking for himself, to Agrippa, speaking for himself to Bernice, to Festus, and all the great and small gathered there.

(more… )