Look at Me
In today’s text, we witness disciples doing exactly what Jesus has said they will do. They are healing by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name.
It’s important for us to note here that in the interest of saving the story of Pentecost for a big celebration in May, we’ve skipped the arrival of the Holy Spirit in the arc of the storyline. So in the chapter prior to this healing story, Peter and John were part of the crowd in Jerusalem that was visited and empowered by the winds of the Holy Spirit. They were present for the revelatory moment when people from many places and with many languages were unified in understanding. Peter preached in the wake of the amazing rushing in of the Spirit, and people were baptized. At the point in which we enter today’s story, according to the end of the second chapter of Acts, many signs and wonders are being done through the apostles – and everyone has pooled their resources, holding all things in common rather than having individual possessions.
That means that when Peter and John are going about their normal daily lives, going to the Temple for one of three times of daily prayer, they probably didn’t have money on hand (because it was all held in common).
At one of the temple gates, they encounter a man who is described as “lame since birth.” He has been carried there by people who knew him – they have placed him at a gate daily so that he can ask for alms – essentially he begs so that he can survive.
In the culture, it was probably standard for the poor to be positioned outside of the various gates, so that as faithful worshipers gathered, those in need – beggars, pan-handlers - would receive money from them.
It doesn’t really look good when you are headed off to share your devotion in prayer if you aren’t willing to stop and help the poor, right? Although in current times, I have been at churches that were really offended by the arrival of beggars in the parking lot.
John and Peter don’t have money. The text stresses that they look at the man – intently in the NRSV, directly in the NIV. The look is mentioned with specificity. Peter and John then instruct the man to look at them.
To my ear, this feels peculiar, as in this is a moment and action that is special and unique.
I think it also feels very right.
The man is asking for help. I would speculate that he is unaccustomed to meeting the gaze of those he asks, of those who give to him. I suspect that he is unaccustomed to being really seen by those who pass him each day.
I want us to hold onto this moment – the way that Peter and John and the Lame Man look and see one another.
In the context of this story, in first-century Palestine, people might think of the lame and the blind and those with skin diseases as somehow marred by sin – at a minimum, their limitations would be seen as a pronouncement of God’s lack of favor in not God’s judgment.
Throughout his ministry, time and time again, Jesus had shown mercy and compassion to those who others shunned, people just like this man lame since birth. There’s something here that for me echoes the story of the man born blind in John’s gospel. In that story, the disciples ask Jesus who sinned, resulting in the man’s blindness – had he himself sinned or his parents?
Jesus explains to the disciples in that episode that it is neither – and Jesus stresses that it is vitally important that in the face of such things, in the face of those others shun, “we must work the works of him who sent me…”.
With that teaching from Jesus’ prior ministry as a backdrop, we have Peter and John here in Acts not stopping to ask questions but actually ACTING – decisively – to HEAL this man lame since birth.
And when the man is healed, he leaps and praises God. He joins them in entering the Temple for the time of prayer – and all who see this are filled with wonder and awe.
The lame man, now healed, joins them in their daily lives of devotion. He doesn’t go his separate way to do other things…He joins them in their prayers.
There are a lot of healing stories in our scriptures.
I think healing stories are hard – in part because I want to be able to touch someone and make them physically whole (who wouldn’t?) – but I haven’t evidenced that particular gift.
…at least not in the bodily healing kind of way.
And yet, I think healing happens on so many different levels – physical, emotional, spiritual.
And there are individuals and communities that need healing. I think we walk past those who have been lame since birth every single day.
And, I keep coming back to how Peter and John and the unnamed lame man look at and see one another.
Because let’s face it, it is hard to look need in the eye sometimes. It’s hard to look at brokenness.
How often do you pull up at an intersection where someone has their placard and their cup, asking for money for food and shelter for themselves, their families? How often are you able to look those people in the eye?
Our friends at the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless tell us how vitally important it is to look our unhoused and needy neighbors in the eye…because in doing so we recognize their humanity. And even when we can’t offer money or healing, we can offer a sharing of our humanity, right?
And in those instances, I assume we can actually perceive something about a person’s need, about where they might need healing.
Or we might, in that moment of really seeing another, find ourselves to be in need.
And what about the people we work with or the people our kids play soccer with or the family members that we see on special occasions? We “see” these people all the time. But do we really SEE? My sense is that there is a lot of need that isn’t so obvious, right?
Do we actually take time to see the need for healing? For wholeness?
In this season, we are watching the disciples as they move from what they knew – the container (and perhaps the comfort) of following their Rabbi Jesus out into the world – to moving on their own, empowered by the Holy Spirit, charged to do the work by Jesus himself, and called and equipped by a creative God.
They have experienced a season of fear. They have experienced a season of awe. They have experienced a season of discerning. And now they are moving OUT TO DO THE WORK.
And in this first story of doing the work, empowered by the Holy Spirit, they take time to SEE who they are called to help. They invite the man lame since birth to SEE them as well.
I wonder who we might not see as we move through our daily lives?
As you were coming to church today, is there someone who you might have looked at closely, with intention?
Is there someone even here in this space who you need to really SEE, perhaps for the first time?
I have also been nudged pretty heavily by the Holy Spirit this week to look at these texts and what is happening in our community through the lens of faith over fear. I think sometimes fear keeps us from LOOKING. I also think sometimes we don’t LOOK because we don’t trust that healing can happen in Jesus’ name.
Sometimes we are afraid of what we will see.
Maybe we are afraid because we are unfamiliar.
Maybe we are afraid because if we see something new or different, we might have to give up what is comfortable and known.
Maybe we’re afraid because it is hard to call on Jesus.
I want to close with this prayer:
God be in my head,
And in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes,
And in my looking;
God be in my mouth,
And in my speaking;
God be in my heart,
And in my thinking;
God be at mine end,
And at my departing.
(Sir Henry Walford Davies)
May it be so.
Amen.
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