Sunday
Sunday
The Healing of the Lame Man
It is Jesus’ name … that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.
Acts 3:16
What triggered the opposition of the Jewish authorities was the healing of the lame man outside one of the temple gates, together with Peter’s second sermon, which followed it.
Peter and John the apostles were going up to the temple at three o’clock one afternoon, which was the hour of prayer. It was observed by all pious Jews like Daniel and God fearers like Cornelius. The apostles’ arrival at the temple coincided with the arrival of a man lame from birth who was being carried, presumably by friends and relatives, so that he could beg from those who came to worship. The beggar’s post, Luke says, was “the temple gate called Beautiful” (v. 2). Commentators mostly identify this as the Nicanor Gate, which was the temple’s main eastern entrance. According to Josephus, being made of Corinthian brass, it “greatly excelled those that were only covered over with silver and gold.” It was about seventy-five feet high and had huge double doors.
But at the foot of this magnificent structure the lame man sat begging. Luke’s medical interest is betrayed in the brief clinical history he gives. The patient was a congenital case, he tells us; he had never walked. He was now more than forty years old, and he was so severely disabled that he had to be carried and put down every day to beg. But when Peter told him in the name of Jesus of Nazareth to get up and walk, an orthopedic miracle took place. His feet and ankles became strong—so strong and agile that he jumped to his feet and began to walk, which he had never done before. Not only so, but he now accompanied Peter and John into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God. It was an outstanding fulfillment of the messianic prophecy: “Then will the lame leap like a deer” (Isa. 35:6).
A crowd quickly gathered. For they saw him “walking and praising God” (Acts 3:9). They recognized him as the same man who had been a familiar sight for decades, since he had sat there every day begging. “And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him” (v. 10).
For further reading: Acts 3:1–10