Easter 3
Acts 3:1-19

Every day, people would carry him. The man in our lesson from Acts today depended completely upon the kindness of others for his livelihood. People would carry him to a spot just outside the temple, by the gate called Beautiful, and he would spend the day begging for alms – gifts of money – from those entering and leaving the temple. Then, presumably, they would carry him home. Over and over, day after day – being carried to and fro, and begging for money: he was totally dependent upon others for his survival.

This kind of complete dependence upon the kindness of others is hard for most of us to imagine. We strive for independence; we bustle about, mostly on our own power, and we do what needs to be done. Day after day, most of us get into our cars or onto our bikes or onto buses, and go to our work or school, or on our job searches, and we don’t need to ask anyone for help in doing so. Occasionally, something will happen in our lives – an illness, or an overwhelming emotional event, or a devastatingly long period of unemployment – and we will find ourselves unable to function without some help or encouragement from others. But even then, it is hard to ask. We are used to taking care of ourselves, to providing for all of our own needs.

But the man in our story was used to being carried and he was used to begging. Being lame from birth, he had not known any other kind of life than this – this life of dependence upon the kindness of strangers and friends. He lay day after day by the gate of the temple as others walked freely into and out of it. He was an outsider, looking in. His life was a life of routine. He sat outside the gate each day, asking for the same thing from each passer-by.

So, when Peter and John walked past him, he did what he always did: he asked them for alms. Then, this interaction went completely off-script, off in a direction that the man could never have imagined. Peter and John stopped walking. They didn’t drop coins in his hands and continue on their way. They stopped walking. They looked at the man, and they asked something of him: his attention. Here is a man who was used to being almost invisible; here is a man who was used to being walked past and to receiving coins dropped hurriedly by those headed somewhere that they found more important than this lame man. But Peter and John saw the man, stopped, and asked something of him instead.

Peter said to the man that he and John had no silver and gold. But what they did have, they wanted to give to him: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, they said, rise up and walk. And he jumped up, and began walking and leaping and praising God. And they all went into the temple together.

I wonder: had this man been inside the temple…ever? Perhaps not since his visit as an 8-day-old baby for the rite of circumcision. Or, at least, perhaps not since he had become too big for his parents to carry like a baby. He had spent years sitting just outside the temple, watching people going in and out. He had spent his life as an outsider looking in, asking for help from those who would carry him and from those who would toss coins in his direction. Now, he walked with Peter and John into the temple. The gift that he had been given was better than money, better than alms, better than anything he could have imagined. It was not temporary – money to eat that day – but permanent. Now, he would be able to earn a living for himself and be a part of temple life and society.

Inside the temple, people noticed him. They said to themselves, “Hey, isn’t that the man who usually sits outside the gate asking for alms?” And the people were amazed. They figured it was Peter and John’s doing, and they began to wonder at it and to praise Peter and John for the miracle. But Peter and John quickly gave God the credit: it was not our doing. It was the name of Jesus – the same Jesus of Nazareth that you handed over to be killed, the same Jesus Christ that God raised from the dead – it was the name of this Jesus that brought healing to the man. In terms of the questions raised by Pastor John last week, Peter and John knew that they were the “who,” and that the power of Jesus’ name was the “how.” They were asking the right questions.

Peter and John said to the people: we are witnesses of these things. By “these things,” they meant Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. But now, the people standing with them in the temple and marveling at the man’s healing are witnesses, too: they have seen what wonders the name of Jesus can do. They have seen a man who was completely dependent upon others for his survival walk unaided into the temple for the first time. They are witnesses of the power of Jesus’ name.

And so are we. We may not have seen the risen Jesus eat boiled fish; we may not have seen a man who had never walked a step in his life walk into the temple. But we are witnesses to the power of Jesus’ name. We have seen what the power of Jesus’ love can do.

Like the man begging at the temple gate, we have received a gift from God that is bigger and better and more permanent than anything we could have ever thought to ask or to hope for. He asked for alms and received the gift of becoming a part of – a part of society, of temple life, of God’s promises. And what an amazing gift we have been given: to be called children of God!

And we are witnesses of these things… by “these things,” we mean the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth; we mean his sending of the life-giving Spirit; we mean being called Children of God. Every day, as we walk our path of discipleship to Jesus, we bear witness to the power of his name. We are witnesses. And witnesses tell others what they have seen and heard. Go and tell others what Jesus is doing in your life today. Go and tell others of the wonderful gift that God has given you, and share the love of Jesus with everyone you meet. Because the right questions are “who” and “how,” and the answer is that we are the “who,” and the power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit is the “how.” Now that we are asking the right questions, we are blessed if we let Jesus work through us in this world, in ways large and small, each and every day.