Acts 9 . 32ff
After telling the story of Philip (chapter 8) and Saul (chapter 9 v 1-31) Luke suddenly focuses our attention back onto Peter. Peter is centre stage and, taking advantage of the season of peace, travels to the coast to give leadership input to the new groups of Christians that have sprung up after Philip the Evangelist turned up in the area (8. 40)
All the signals are now giving green lights, to the gentile mission that God has already started (through the conversion of the African official). Philip is moving among clearly “Greek-speaking Jews (remember the source of the division that occurred in the Church in Acts 6?) Luke knows where he is taking this story. He knows where God has already taken the story. But isn't it just a wee bit sad that - and we shall encounter this problem again – what God is doing by his Spirit and has said in his word, sometimes has to wait for the approval of the Church?
So, Peter goes to encourage the new believers in Lydda, on the way to the Mediterranean coast. It was an ancient city, had belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, had been governed by Samaria for a time and had a strong Jewish population: after the fall of Jerusalem it became a place where Rabbis gathered. In Lydda, among the believers, Peter found a man called Aeneas, who had been crippled for eight years, and said:
Firstly, “Jesus Christ heals you” or “Jesus Christ is healing you.” Peter can see what Jesus is doing, and participates in that process by speaking it out. That's a good model for the healing ministry: seeing what Jesus is doing and joining in.
Then: “get up and make your bed...” And what does that remind you of? Compare Lk 5. 17-26. What Peter does is closely modelled on what Jesus did. It's just possible that the implication of “making your bed” as opposed to picking up your bed, was that that the couch was to be covered with a cloth to be reclined on for a meal; so Peter could be advising Aeneas to have something to eat,
As a result of this miracle, many people in Lydda turned to the Lord. It's important to understand the way this process worked. Aeneas was probably indoors. His bed or couch was there, needing to be made up (the word means “spread” not rolled up! The NIV is wrong!) The healing wasn't' a highly public event. The conversions weren't the result of people seeing the miracle happen followed by a powerful Gospel message. The healing wasn't used as “proof” that forced people to listen to a message. Rather, people in the course of the next few days or weeks, saw Aeneas, healed and active, and began to ask questions. Healing is not associated with aggressive evangelism. Rather, Peter lets “the results of his actions embark on their own natural course.” (according to Jewish scholar Joshua Schwartz.) And that, gentle, tentative approach to healing, is much more in tune with the way Jesus worked: instead of allowing a fanfare drawing attention to the healings he did, Jesus tried to play things down, even to keep the miracles a secret.
While all this was happening in Lydda, another story was being played out eleven miles west, in the seaside town of Joppa. A Jewish Christian called Tabitha (her Hebrew name, which translates into Greek as Dorcas and English as gazelle) took ill and died. She was obviously one of those very special ladies, a skilled seamstress, and a generous giver. When she died her body was washed and laid out in a quiet, airy upstairs room; and as they knew Peter was only down the road in Lydda, they sent for him urgently. Maybe they thought that Jesus had to come back before anyone died of natural causes; maybe they simply recognised the anointing that was upon Peter at that time; whatever the reason they showed some sense of expectation that God was still on Tabitha's case. They had some faith for a miracle.
When Peter arrived, he went into the room, put everyone else out, (does that remind you of another story?) and prayed, before saying “Tabitha, arise.” Now Luke, being a Greek, doesn't give us the Aramaic words. But we know that these words were “Tabitha, coum.” Just one letter different from what Jesus said to Jairus' daughter in Mark 5. 41. The words came, an echo of the words of Jesus a few years before. Then like Jesus he took Tabitha by the and and lifted her up. Indeed the whole of this incident is reminiscent of the healing of Jairus's daughter. It looks like Peter got called into this situation, through the faith of the Joppa Christians; he asked himself “What did Jesus do in this sort of situation?”
And, as in the healing of Aeneas, the raising of Tabitha “became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.” Again, the miracle wasn't used as an intellectual cosh to beat people into believing the Gospel, but was allowed to start a process of reflection that resulted in many conversions.
Conclusion
E M Blaiklock heads this little section “Peter uses the keys”. The keys were those of the Kingdom. Peter was stepping into the authority that Jesus had given him. I believe we need to step into the authority Jesus has given us, and like Peter – who was not a Pope but a representative of the Church – to reach out to touch broken people with the Love and healing of the Kingdom, the reign of God. As a Church our mission statement is “Learning to show the Father's love”. The healing ministry is one way in which we can demonstrate God's love to others.
And if we are going to do that, then we need to learn from the master. We need to engage in any healing ministry, the Jesus way. And Jesus way treats each person as unique: like Aeneas and Tabitha, no two are exactly the same. What do we see Jesus doing in situation? That is what we do. Clearing away the cynics and voyeurs. Speaking words of tenderness and authority. Taking people by the hand.
And we need to have the values of Jesus. The supernatural is meant to have a missionary impact. That was the Jesus way. But that impact was not forced, not coercive but compassionate; not based on proof but on demonstration of Father's love, on having the confidence and faith to let the Spirit who heals, also convict and convert.
So Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon: a Jew but one who because he worked with animal carcases would most of the time be considered ritually “unclean”. And from that address in Joppa, he will springboard into the next big step in mission, an Apostle preaching to gentiles. The healing ministry that shows us God's compassion, beckons us to show God's compassion inclusively to the whole of the world, to reach out in adventures of mission.
© Gilmour Lilly October 2013
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