Don't Be Lame!
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| Saints Peter and John Healing the Lame Man - Nicolas Poussin - oil on canvas - 1655 |
For my baptism, I chose this passage of Scripture as my 'baptism verse.'
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)'
This verse has significance for me because my path to faith was such a struggle. My early 20s were a very difficult time for me, which I have written about in other posts. However, having come to faith in Jesus, I truly became a new person. I feel like my whole life has changed, I feel like the old me died with Jesus and the new me has been raised. I feel like a new creation.
Even though I am a new creation, I struggle to walk in love of God and love of neighbor. I am still a woeful sinner, and I stumble, but with God's help I am able to repent and grow. I have hope, and I have a future. This verse reminds me that I am a new person, united to Jesus by faith - which was demonstrated by my baptism.
Today in reading from The Book of Acts (or Acts of the Apostles), I found something that resonated with my story. In Acts 3, the Apostles Peter and John are going up to the temple to pray in the morning when they met a man lame from birth. A fascinating scene unfolds as Peter heals the man. (This scene is depicted in the painting above.)
Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (Acts 3:1-10 ESV)
Lame Since Birth
The lame man was a familiar face. Around the Twin Cities, it can be easy for us to recall those times we have been asked us for alms. This lame man struggled daily to get to the gate, simply to beg for mercy. He had been walked by, dismissed, and ignored. From birth this man had not known strength in his legs. He had never felt the joy of running full speed down a hill as a boy. He had always been reliant on others to move him. His hope surely had dwindled in his many years of begging. The situation looked bleak for the lame man as another morning of begging came upon him. Would his needs be met?
The story of the lame man resonates with me. I spent a lot of my life being pretty lame. Before I came to faith in Jesus Christ, my worship of self made me lame. As the lame man's legs hadn't worked since birth - so too was I stuck in my sins. My sinful nature crippled me from living the life I hoped for. I was constantly in turmoil, suffering from internal conflict. I had very little to be joyful about. I would continually try new avenues to find some sense of fulfillment. However, nothing seemed to save me, nothing seemed to satisfy the longing of my soul. I was lame, crippled, and crying for help.
Divine Intervention
As he saw Peter and John, he cried out for help. Peter and John looked at him, and declared, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" They commanded this man, lame from birth, to get up and walk.
Peter grabbed the man's right hand and picked him up to his feet. The man's feet and ankles were made strong! This man had experienced grace. His lifelong debilitation, which had rendered him a helpless beggar, had been healed!
His response to the miraculous healing was to walk! He had never been able to walk in his life! So what does he do, he walks, he leaps! I imagine he clicks his heels together like Dick Van Dyke as the chimney sweep does in "Mary Poppins."
The healed man is overflowing with joy. The healed man is overflowing with gratitude. The healed man makes a public spectacle, overflowing with praise the God who has healed him.
Those who have encountered God's grace in real and magnificent ways will always emerge with overflowing joy, gratitude, and praise for the God who has redeemed them. They have known hopelessness without Jesus but have found their great hope!
Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved.
The lame man's hopeless situation had been turned to healing and strength. The legs that had for so long failed him now presented him with newfound strength and happiness. Peter and John's divine intervention, their pouring out of grace upon the man, had changed his life forever.
In the same way, God's grace came into my life. My experience coming to faith was divine intervention. I began attending church services with my then girlfriend Allison, and I heard the good news of the gospel. I heard that despite all my sins, and all the pain that I had caused myself and others, I could be forgiven. I learned that Jesus died and rose again, so that my sins could be forgiven and that I could become a new creation. "If anyone is in Christ...behold the new has come."
My life since coming to faith in Jesus Christ has seen extreme change. The areas of my life that had left me crippled and lame, have changed. Through faith, the Holy Spirit works in my heart, changing me to become more and more like Jesus. Not all change is immediate, and I still struggle with many things, but with Jesus I know I will be healed.
God's grace has come upon my life like divine intervention, and it causes me to overflow with joy, gratitude, and praise. I hope all who see the changes in my life will give all of the glory to God! As is often the case, people attribute the changes that come from the grace of God to mortal man. We see as the story continues in Acts 3 that people think Peter faces this same issue.
While he [the lame man] clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. (Acts 3:11-16 ESV)
Peter makes it clear that they should not be astonished. "Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?"
I understand where Peter is coming from. Many people attribute the changes in my life to the fact that I have found love in my wife Allison. Others think that I have 'pulled myself up by my own bootstraps.' These are the two most common themes I hear. People will always put supernatural change into their categories, if they cannot define the change as having been done by the power of God.
All those who have experienced the grace of Jesus Christ and have by faith begun in the Holy Spirit to be conformed into his likeness are experiencing supernatural change from the inside out. Holy, beautiful, God-honoring lives are the evidence that God's grace is at work within us.
Confusion About Healing
Acts 4:5-7, 13-14
On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”...Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. (ESV)
The rulers and elders and scribes asked by what power the man had been healed.
By what power are you seeking to be 'healed?' Money? Sex? Relationships? Health?
Peter and John boldly declared the gospel. The rulers noted that these were uneducated men, and they recognized that these men had been with Jesus. They saw the man who was healed and they had nothing to say in opposition.
The rulers, scribes, and Pharisees were looking for worldly explanations for supernatural grace that healed the man. They were trying to define the power of Jesus, because they couldn't understand it. The Pharisees didn't realize that they were lame!
Those who have trusted Jesus have seen that their sins have made them lame, unable to be near to God. We look for the only hope out of the things that make us lame, which is the cross. Jesus took our lame sins that paralyze us and died to free us from them. If you can't understand that, pray and ask God for revelation! Ask God to forgive your lameness, ask God in faith to heal you!
We cannot accept the good news of the gospel until we realize that we are lame, helpless beggars in need of God's forgiveness which is through Jesus, and through the cross.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31 ESV)
When our lives boast in the Lord, then those who see us will acknowledge the grace at work in our lives.
When our lives boast in the Lord, we start to experience the Spirit's power which heals us from our lame ways.
When our lives boast in the Lord, then mouths will be stopped and people will have nothing to say in opposition.
How do we boast in the LORD?I
We remember the gospel. We acknowledge our lameness, and we acknowledge that Jesus is our Savior.
In order to be healed, we have to know that we need healing. The good news is that Jesus can heal any sinner who repents.
These crowns I've clenched with fisted hands,
I cast them down before the throne,
of Christ, my God, the Worthy Lamb
Christ Crucified, the great I AM
Don't be lame, call upon the name of Jesus!
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