Good morning friends. It is really a joy to share the word of God with you
this morning. The text, which was read is a familiar text for all of us. After
the ascension of Jesus Christ, the disciples did a lot of miracles in the name
of Christ. Some of them are mentioned in the book of Acts. Luke carefully
records this healing miracle performed by Peter in Acts chapter 3. To me, this
text is a perfect paradigm for public witness in response to the needs of the
people. This passage challenges us as pastors and theologians as to how we have to
be aware of the present contextual problems of society and actively participate
to resolve those problems. For this morning meditation, I would like to
highlight three points from this text.
An Empathetic Look
To begin with, what we observe from Verse 4 is an empathetic look.
Verse 4 says “Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, Look at us.”
This crippled beggar was sitting at the beautiful gate of the temple and asked
for alms to everyone entering the temple. Many of them would have passed
through that way, but were deaf to the cry of this poor man. But, here are 2
disciples who took time to stand and look intently at this man and listen to
his cry. They could have easily passed by the beggar, as they were busy with
the affairs of the temple. They could have very much easily preferred not to be
disturbed by a beggar but to be involved with their daily routine of the
temple. But these disciples allowed them to be disturbed by the beggar delaying
their schedule.
What about us as pastors and theologians? Are we comfortable in our
undisturbed daily schedule of study, church and worship? Or, are we ready to
welcome the poor, oppressed and marginalized who block our way and
disturb us with their laments and cries? Why do we have to look and
listen to them? Because, it is the very nature of our God, who has called us
for ministry. If we look at Exodus 3:7 “then the Lord said, I have observed the
misery of my people who are in Egypt;
I have heard their cry on account of their task masters”. Again, Psalmist
beautifully says in Pslam: 34 “This poor soul cried, and was heard, and was saved
from every trouble”. Further, Jesus answered the cry of blind Bartimaeus who
was sitting by the road side shouting, ‘Jesus son of David’ have mercy on me.
Jesus listened to that cry in spite of the huge crowd. When we continue
the ministry of Jesus, it is our responsibility to look and listen
empathetically to the cries of people.
An Optimistic Thought
Secondly, we observe in verse 6 is an optimistic thought. Verse 6 says,
“I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you, in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk”. What I mean by optimistic thought here is a positive attitude. A
positive attitude to help others. Instead of worrying about what we do not
have, we have to think what we have to help others. When we look at the
incident of Jesus feeding 5000 people ,disciples were worried about what they
do not have. But we see a boy who gave what he had in the form of 5 barley loaves and 2 fish
which became instrumental in feeding the 5000.
We have a choice regarding our attitude. We decide our attitude. We
cannot change our past, we cannot change the way people react to us. We cannot
change anyone’s perspective about us but we can change our perspective if we change
our attitude. But many times we try to change others and we try to correct the
circumstances.The God whom we are serving expects us to have a positive attitude.
Whenever God chose people for ministry, they were of pessimistic thinking,
focusing only on their own weaknesses. But God expected from them a positive
attitude or an optimistic thought. After the death of the Moses,
God encouraged Joshua to be positive, to be filled with courage and strength
and get ready for the challenges that would come his way as he leads God's
people into the promise land. God admonishes Joshua at least four times to be strong
and courageous. As pastors and theologians we need an optimistic attitude to
help people in their challenges of life.
A Compassionate Act
Thirdly, the important quality which
we observe from verse 7 is a compassionate act. Verse 7 says, “And he took him
by the right hand and raised him up and immediately his feet and ankles were
made strong.” In this world, there are many, who are good in listening to the
cries of people and they can even find resources to address the problem but
everything is in vain if we fail to put it into action. All our theologies,
sermons and ministry would be useless, if we fail to act with compassion. There
are thousands in this world, who have lost hope and are crippled. They just need
some encouraging word or our right hand to move forward in their life. Are we
ready for a compassionate action in this needy world?
Let me conclude with the challenging life of Father Damien who worked among the lepers. Fr. Damien was a Roman Catholic
priest from Belgium.
After 16 years, after caring for the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of those
in the leper colony, he eventually contracted leprosy and died. When we
analyze his life he possessed the three important qualities which we meditated upon today. For such a time as this, we need an empathetic look, an optimistic
thought and a compassionate action for Christian public witness. When Peter exercised
these three qualities, people who witnessed were filled with wonder and
amazement.
May the
God, who has called us for witness open our eyes and ears to see and hear the
cry of the people, give us the positive attitude to help others and grant us the
strength to get into compassionate action. Amen.
Jebin T., BD II
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