Acts 3:1-10

Peter Heals a Lame Beggar
1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.



Dig Deeper
I have a friend whom I admire very much. He is a brilliantly intelligent young man who is incredibly kind and talented and has a deep and abiding love for God. When he’s around, he can be very quiet but he’s always a joy to have around because when he does talk he adds life to any setting. What sets my friend apart is that he struggles with muscular dystrophy which keeps him confined to a wheelchair. He doesn’t let that limit him, though, as he is still one of the most faithful disciples you could ever meet. He is full of wit, charm, and life and it’s just not the same when he’s not around.

Sadly, though, I recall him telling me a couple of years ago that going out in public places like his school at that time could be tough. When I asked him what was tough about it, I admittedly was not expecting the answer he gave me. He didn’t talk about the difficulty of getting to places in his wheel chair or the challenges of navigating his way around public places. He shared with me that the most difficult aspect for him is when people ignore him. He could go out in public or even to school and find that people wouldn’t look at him, talk to him, or even acknowledge that he was there as though he was somehow less than a human being. The sad reality of this sort of dehumanizing behavior is that it is their loss. Not only are the missing out the chance to get to know this incredible young man, they are really dehumanizing themselves as well as they engage in this behavior that dehumanizes my friend.

It’s easy, I suppose, to read or hear about something like that and get outraged, but before we get to worked up, we should probably take a moment to consider whether or not we do similar things. How many times have we walked by a maintenance worker or a beggar and not even looked at them, let alone not talked to them, because their whole situation just made us feel uncomfortable?

I would imagine that the man described by Luke, the man who was begging at the gate of the Temple, was quite used to that sort of dehumanizing behavior. He would have been a regular at that spot where visitors to the Temple could have passed by him each and everyday They surely got used to his normal plea for mercy and requests for money. We should remember, though, that it wasn’t as if this man was completely ostracized by his community. He had friends who brought him to the Temple gate every single day and then came at night to carry him back to his house. They were doing the best they could for him but there were virtually no other options for the physically disabled in those times other than to beg for money on a daily basis. He did have those who loved and helped him but it doesn’t take much imagination to believe that this man sat there day after day as people streamed by him. Some might have glanced quickly without looking him in the eye or taking time to stop and talk and would just quickly drop a coin onto his cloak. Others probably hurried their gait a bit to get by him faster without stopping to look at him or give him anything. When we treat others with contempt or we even just ignore them, we rob them of their dignity and humanity. Without “doing” anything we can absolutely strip someone of their humanity. That seems to be one of the points that Luke wants to bring out in this passage. God’s new family was not just some religious group, they were his restored humanity, called to act in a way that brought and demonstrated to the world what it looked like when people committed themselves to doing things God’s way and to leave behind, as best they could in this present age, the dehumanizing behaviors of sin.

Peter and John were going through what had apparently become their normal routine as they went to the Temple each day to meet together with the Christian community (Acts 2:46). They were making their way to the normal time of afternoon prayer when they saw the common sight of a beggar asking for money. Luke doesn’t tell us if this was somehow the first time that Peter and John had come across this man or if he called out to them specifically for help because they had been generous with him before. Whatever the case may have been, he was simply asking for them to give him some money. He was about to get far more than he had ever bargained for. Luke mentioned the signs and wonders of the apostles in 2:43 and now he will give us a specific example of one of those signs and wonders.

The man was used to people walking by him and dropping money down without ever stopping or looking at him but this day would be different. Luke saw great significance in the fact that Peter and John stopped and they looked at this man. They didn’t just glance in his direction; they looked straight at him, into his eyes, and did not look away. In fact they told him to look back at them. This was different. Why would they have been calling him to look up at them directly? If the man at the gate thought that perhaps they were going to give him an extra generous donation, he was wrong. The first thing they did for him was that simple act of looking at him intently. Just as Jesus brought his humanizing touch to the lepers who had been cast off from society and dehumanized in nearly every way, so did Peter and John demonstrate the humanizing behavior that should be a primary characteristic of God’s kingdom (that is not to argue that only Christians can act in humanizing ways or that Christians always do so but it is the pattern that Christians are called to embody).

Peter didn’t have what this man wanted, silver or gold, but he only wanted those things because he didn’t know that something far superior was available. Peter didn’t have the wealth of the present age but he did have a sample of God’s age to come. That’s, after all, what miracles really were. They were a demonstration of God’s power as the wholeness and restoration of that future age broke into the present realm in a manner that was outside of the physical laws of the present age. Peter then did more than just look at this man and confer dignity to him, he reached out grabbed his hand and ordered him to get up and walk in the name of Christ. This was no magic trick. Peter was appealing to the authority of the one who had been given all authority (Matt. 28:18). He was appealing to the power of the name that is above every name (Phil. 2:9). In first century vernacular, to appeal to someone’s name meant to invoke the entirety of their character, authority, and life. Peter was, in reality, appealing to the life of Christ which was the life of wholeness of the age to come, eternal life. He was giving this man a physical sample of the age to come and we can only imagine his full response as he rose to his feet and for the first time in his life felt that his ankles were not buckling under his weight but they were firmly and strongly holding him up. He no doubt felt the strength and power surge through his legs and he walked. This was a true miracle that could be seen and verified by all.

As he continued to feel joy and strength pulse through his body, the man took a walk that was far more significant than just being the first time he had ever walked. Based on Levitical law (Lev. 21:17-20) this man would have been quite unable to take part in full Temple life. He faced a life of being cut off from the fullness of God’s people and his Temple but now he had been healed. Peter had brought him his full dignity and humanity and would accompany him on his walk into the Temple. He was a living, breathing fulfillment of God’s promise that “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. . . . only the redeemed will walk there, and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 35:6-10).

When Peter, John, and the man walked in to the Temple courts together, the miracle was undeniable. The people were well familiar with this man. Many of them passed by him on a regular basis and had probably seen him for years. This was not some claimed but largely unverifiable “miracle”. Here was a man who was unable to walk now strolling around among them and praising God. Jesus’ power and the evidence that he was indeed the Messiah had been made manifest through his apostles once again and the people were amazed. He had come in contact with Jesus through those that submitted themselves to his name and the power of God had flowed into his life. Not everyone will be able to stand and be physically healed but the truth remains the same that when we come in contact with Jesus’ life, our lives are made whole and will never be the same again.


Devotional Thought
Peter and John didn’t have the kind of wealth to contribute that this man was looking for but they could share what they had of Jesus with him. Are you willing to do the same with those in your life that need to truly know Jesus and the power of his name and life? How can you demonstrate or share about that power today with someone else?