It Is Hard To Kick Against The Goads

Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Acts 9:1-9

“It is hard to kick against the goads”.

What is a goad?

In Merriam-Webster, a goad is defined as a “a pointed rod used to urge on an animal”. A goad is something that pricks, and causes pain. A goad is what moves people or animals in a certain direction, or to take an action—usually something people don’t want to do.

To “goad” somebody into action means to get them to do something they otherwise would not do.

Why would someone kick against goads? For starters, goads push to do things we don’t want to do. It is only natural that we should at least try to push back.

But goads tend to be pointy things that cause us pain when we push back, and to avoid the pain we have to not push back.

Of course, if we are not pushing back against the goads, if we are not kicking against the goads, we are doing whatever the one goading us wants us to do. If we are not pushing back against the goads, if we are not kicking against the goads, we are going in whatever direction the one goading us wants us to go.

If we’re being goaded into something, our choice is essentially a binary one: resist the goad or acquiesce to the goad. We can either oppose or we can acquiesce. When it comes to goads there is not a practical third choice which presents itself.

Being pricked by anything tends to hurt. Being goaded is generally uncomfortable. Kicking against the goads is hard to do—it’s painful. That observation is so patently obvious that it might sound silly in any other context.

So why did Jesus say that to Saul, soon to be Paul, on the road to Damascus?

We know that it was an impactful statement, for Paul repeats it later in the Book of Acts when recounting his experience on the road to Damascus (Acts 26:14). Apparently Paul agreed with Jesus…it is hard to kick against the goads!

If Paul was being goaded, what was goading him?

We first encounter Paul—known initially as “Saul”—when the Jewish councillors stoned Stephen (Acts 7:58), and he’s deputized to safeguard everyone’s cloaks while they hurled their stones at the saint. He goes from that seemingly minor task to conducting a campaign of persecution against the early Christian church (Acts 8:3).

We clearly see him raging violently against the early Christian church. Why?

We are told that when Stephen went before the council to explain Christian teachings it did not go well. The men on the council were enraged, which is why they dragged him out and stoned him to death.

Saul was present and was presumably equally enraged. That would certainly explain his persecution of the early Christians described in Acts 8.

However, we cannot say Saul was being goaded into that persecution. We cannot say that because in the encounter on the road to Damascus it is Jesus who observes that it is hard for Saul to kick against the goads.

That tells us that Saul’s persecutions of the early Christians was his “kicking against the goads”.

Saul was persecuting the early Christians but he was being goaded in a different direction. Someone (Jesus?) was pushing and prodding Saul away from that persecution—and Saul was resisting violently.

If Saul’s persecution of the early Christians was him kicking against the goads, if that was the direction someone did not want him to take, in what direction was he being goaded?

Reading the text of the scene on that road to Damascus, the direction in which he was being goaded was that of becoming the Apostle Paul.

Consider what we are being told in Acts: we are told that Saul attended Stephen’s hearing before the council, and that he was present when Stephen was stoned. We are told he went on to carry out violent acts of persecution against other early Christians—which necessarily means he was hearing their teachings and being exposed to the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.

When Paul defends himself before King Agrippa in Acts 26, he confirms this to be true, that he was hearing the early Christian teachings and was fighting against them as hard as he could.

In Acts 26 Paul tells Agrippa he was hearing the teachings of Jesus being relayed by the early Christians, and was pushing against those teachings and against Jesus of Nazareth specifically.

What is left, then, to be the goads of which Jesus speaks on the road to Damascus except those teachings?

Jesus asks why Saul is persecuting him, but the subtext in the question is why is Saul fighting what he knows deep down to be truth?

Why does Saul fight against the Gospel message of Jesus Christ? We are not given the specific reason, but it is not unreasonable to assume that he reacted in the same way the Jewish councilors who stoned Saint Stephen reacted—badly. Perhaps he felt unfairly criticized by that Gospel message. The text does not say.

What is clear from Jesus’ statement that it is hard to kick against the goads is that Saul was fighting that Gospel message. He heard it from Stephen and from others, and somehwere inside himself he knew the Gospel message was true. Somewhere inside himself he knew that the followers of Christ were not violating Jewish law, but were very likely the ones doing the utmost to uphold Jewish law—an argument he would later make powerfully in his Letter to the Romans.

In that moment on the road to Damascus did Saul finally run out of rationalizations, run out of legalistic reasonings, and surrender to the truth of that Gospel message, and to the waiting Jesus? Was he at that point where Jesus, by making His Divine presence felt, at last convinced Saul to surrender to that Gospel truth which was already working its transformation within him?

What exactly happened on that road to Damascus? We really don’t know, but we know enough. We know from the text in Acts that, in that moment, Saul’s struggles with the Gospel message ceased. We know from the text in Acts that in that moment when Saul’s struggles with the Gospel message ceased, Jesus was there, waiting for him, ready to receive him.

We know from the text in Acts that, in that moment, when Saul’s struggles with the Gospel message ceased, Saul the persecutor of Christians became Paul, devout Christian and ultimately Apostle to the Gentiles.

In my life I have struggled with a great many things. I am no Apostle, but I have experienced that moment when the struggle…stops—that moment when all that remains is simply the truth. I have experienced that moment when what remains is not merely the Gospel message of Jesus, but Jesus Himself, waiting, ready to receive.

In my own private way, I have stood on that road to Damascus.

I do not know exactly what happened on that road to Damascus. I do know that Paul was a different man because of it. He was a different man on a different path. He was clearly a better man.

I like to think I am a different man after my moment on my road to Damascus. I like to think I am a different man on a different path. I hope I am a better man.

When Saul’s struggles ceased, Jesus was there, waiting, ready to receive. When my struggles ceased, Jesus was there, waiting, ready to receive.

That is the teaching I see in Paul’s moment on that road to Damascus: Whatever struggles we have in life, however we find ourselves kicking against the goads, when we finally stop struggling and stop kicking, the truth is there, waiting.

Jesus is there, waiting, ready to receive.