Acts 3:11-16
While (the healed beggar) clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
There are many places in scripture where it might be tempting to ask - as I've done myself - why was this person healed rather than another?
Or here: what made Peter choose this person of all other people for his first post-Pentecost healing?
But inevitably with all the healings I come across throughout the New Testament, I always come back to another question over and over again.
What is it the writers of these pages want me to know about healings in general?
And in this particular healing, a phrase pops out at me that helps me I think make some sense of it.
It isn't about who gets healed and who doesn't.
It's about the ultimate healer.
The Author of Life.
Peter is clear to credit not himself, or even the beggar.
The credit goes to the name of the one who died and was raised again.
God is the author of life and every healing reminds us of that.
And to that Peter reminds us, they - as well as we - are witnesses.
The Book of Acts could be called the Book of Witnesses. All kinds of things are going to happen.
Have happened.
Are happening right now.
That remind us that the Author of Life is causing life to happen even in those places we don't expect or see it.
And the question we are meant to ask about that is: who should I tell?
There are many places in scripture where it might be tempting to ask - as I've done myself - why was this person healed rather than another?
Or here: what made Peter choose this person of all other people for his first post-Pentecost healing?
But inevitably with all the healings I come across throughout the New Testament, I always come back to another question over and over again.
What is it the writers of these pages want me to know about healings in general?
And in this particular healing, a phrase pops out at me that helps me I think make some sense of it.
It isn't about who gets healed and who doesn't.
It's about the ultimate healer.
The Author of Life.
Peter is clear to credit not himself, or even the beggar.
The credit goes to the name of the one who died and was raised again.
God is the author of life and every healing reminds us of that.
And to that Peter reminds us, they - as well as we - are witnesses.
The Book of Acts could be called the Book of Witnesses. All kinds of things are going to happen.
Have happened.
Are happening right now.
That remind us that the Author of Life is causing life to happen even in those places we don't expect or see it.
And the question we are meant to ask about that is: who should I tell?
Lord, when I am witness to your life giving help me to spread the word! Amen
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