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"Who Was That Masked Man"
DATE: April 26, 1998
SERVICE: Sunday: Easter III
TEXT: Acts 9:1-6

"To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN

A favorite TV hero in the '50s was "The Lone Ranger." He was different from other TV cowboy heroes in many ways, not the least of which was his mask which concealed his true identity. John Reid, was a member of a band of Texas Rangers led by his older brother that had been ambushed by the Cavendish gang. After mowing down this band of Rangers, the Cavendish crowd thought all were dead; what they didn't know was that one of them, Reid, was still alive.

A Native American named Tonto came upon Reid's bloody body and saved him. Ironically, John Reid and Tonto had first met years ago when they were both boys, when Reid had rescued Tonto from being killed. They became friends and blood brothers -- by cutting hands and joining them together. The two boys vowed that from that day forth, they would remain blood brothers, no matter how much distance separated them.
After Tonto found Reid half-dead, he nursed him back to health. This time, it was Tonto who was the rescuer. When Reid was well, he vowed to pursue Cavendish and all outlaws in the Wild West -- not to kill them, but to bring them to justice.
But first he fashioned a face mask from his dead brother's vest, transforming his identity from John Reid to that of the Lone Ranger. Thus, the mask succeeded not only in hiding his true identity, it generated a new and different persona more important than the old one. The mask became the mark and the sign of the Lone Ranger.

Of course, in every episode, after the bad guys were tied up, the Lone Ranger and Tonto would slip off and the rescued people would say to the sheriff: "Where did that guy go who rescued me? Who was that masked man?" And the sheriff would say, "Don't you know? That was the Lone Ranger."
Jesse B. Caldwell, who has studied the Lone Ranger, suggests that most of us are like those people who were rescued. We want to know who is behind the mask. We want to know if someone is hiding something. We want to get to the truth.
"Who is that masked man?" In this morning's text from Acts, Paul is sure he knows the true identity of the false messiah worshiped and proclaimed by the disciples and those so-called Christians. Paul thought Jesus was someone other than who he purported to be. He saw Jesus as a threat to the stability of Judaism and to the faith of Israel. Paul believed that the title "messiah" merely masked a man with a destructive, hurtful motive.
Of course, Paul wasn't the first to be confused about Jesus' identity and purpose. Jesus' own family even found his behavior mystifying. After all, Jesus left the security of home and a profitable business to become an itinerant preacher. He took up with a rough crowd of people: smelly fishermen--Peter, James and John, a white-collar crook--Matthew the tax collector and a political revolutionary--Judas Iscariot. He started alienating the religious establishment, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Observing all this, Jesus' own family asked, "Who is this guy? He's not the Jesus we know!" Jesus' family could only conclude: He's lost his mind. He's gone over the edge. He's out of control. He's gone crazy.

Paul, on the other hand, didn't think Jesus was crazy. Paul thought Jesus was evil -- in cahoots with the Devil himself. Paul couldn't deny the reality of the healings and exorcisms, but he could deny their source -- viewing them as simply the work of the Devil. In his blindness, Paul saw Jesus as one who was in league with Satan.
Why couldn't Paul see the real Jesus? Not because his personality was masked, but because the real masked man in today's text was Paul himself. It wasn’t that Jesus was wearing some kind of mask (hold up one) to hide his true purpose. It was Paul wearing a blindfold (hold up one) that kept him from seeing the true Messiah.
It is fittingly ironic that when Paul at last hears and recognizes Jesus as the risen Christ, he is struck blind. Indeed, being struck blind was the only way Jesus could redirect Paul's blind fear and rage. Think of Paul's temporary physical blindness a kind of "shutdown" of a mangled computer operation. Sometimes you mess things up so badly on your program that the best thing you can do is shut the computer completely down and re-boot your whole system. Jesus wasn't hiding from Paul. Paul was so blind to Jesus he could see nothing else. It was only when he was forced to start over with a new outlook that he was able to Jesus revealed for who he was.
Just like the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Jesus rescues us from the clutches of the enemy -- for Paul that is the enemy of blind fear and hatred. For us it might be prejudice, bigotry, a sense of over self-importance, close-mindedness. Sadly, too often it takes a complete shut-down, a complete rebooting of one’s view on life, for a new attitude, a new perspective to take hold.
When the blinded Paul was led to Judas' house in Damascus he must have felt very much alone. He was without his sight and without the certainty of the hate that had fired him forward in his persecutions. But Jesus did not abandon Paul there. Instead he sent Ananias, a member of Paul's new family of faith, to open Paul's eyes and warm Paul's heart. As he approached Paul to restore his sight, Ananias addresses this most notorious persecutor of Christians as "Brother Saul." With these words of welcome, Paul's vision returns -- both the blindness of his eyes and the blindness of his heart are healed at this very moment.
The Lone Ranger wore a symbol that transformed his identity from that of an unknown in the world to a world-famous crusader for justice. We also wear a symbol: a symbol that transforms our identity from that of an individual to a much greater one -- a member of God's family. Our symbol is not the mask of a dead brother's vest. It is the mark of our resurrected brother's cross. We wear not a mask, but the sign of the cross that we each received at our baptism. We wear Jesus' love to go forth and rescue the perishing in the name of Christ. Jesus is our blood brother. Having become members of this faith community we, like Paul, are called to proclaim that the unmasked Jesus bar Joseph of the town of Nazareth is indeed the "Son of God."

AMEN