Right from the start, this is a story, then, that points to Jesus, as indeed Peter will tell the crowd (verse 12). For Peter and John to heal a lame man here ‘in the name of Jesus’ is a sign they are walking in his footsteps. There, Jesus’ first converts (his disciples in 5:1-11) are followed by – guess what? Jesus healing a lame man ( 5:17-26). Compare it with Luke’s first volume, his Gospel. Right from the start, this is a story about what discipleship means. There is more than enough to meditate upon with the first two elements of the healing itself and then the speech.įirstly, then, the healing.
It makes for three phases in the story: the healing, Peter’s speech and the opposition.īut I’ll have to leave that final phase of this story to next week. Just as the opposition to Jesus begins early in the Gospels, so does opposition to the apostles and the Jesus movement in Acts. It extends beyond chapter three, which we read, into chapter four, where Peter and John are hauled before the religious authorities. So we come to this famous story, this first major episode after Pentecost and the formation of the early community of Jesus-followers. “No,” retorted Thomas, “and neither can she say any more, ‘In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk’.” Having shown him many of the beautiful works of art, the ornate architecture and the lavish fittings, the Pope turned to Thomas and said, “No longer can the church say like Peter, ‘Silver and gold have I none’.” One of the thirteenth century Popes was showing the great Catholic thinker Thomas Aquinas around the Vatican. Whenever I read Acts 3, one story always comes to mind. Life has been frantic since returning from leave at the weekend – and still is.
0 kommentar(er)
