Advent Devotional for Dec. 14
Sunday, December 14 Acts 9:36-43
Jesus’ disciples are healers too.
A beloved figure in the church in Joppa had just passed away, Tabitha (the unfortunate Greek translation of her name was Dorcas—you would probably go by Tabitha too). Tabitha was beloved because of her good works on behalf of the poor widows in Joppa. After she died, in fact, those poor widows surrounded her and showed off all the clothing that Tabitha had made for them when she was alive.
Peter came into the room and politely asked the women to leave, and then raised Tabitha up from the dead. A clever word play is seen here; when Jesus raises up Jairus’ daughter from the dead in Mark 5 (devotion from Dec. 3), he says to her “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up.” Peter says, “Tabitha cum,” meaning “Tabitha, get up.” From the similarities between the passages, the inference is obvious: Jesus’ disciples can heal in exactly the same way Jesus did.
I wish I could say with confidence what this means for us. Perhaps the ability to heal died with the disciples. Perhaps it means that we as Christians today do not know an ounce of the power that God has enabled us to live with. Perhaps the truth is, as usual, somewhere in the middle: we as Christians are capable of far more than we know, far more than we dare to believe we are capable of.
I say this because there is a certain convenience in not being a healer. It gives us the right to throw up our hands in frustration at the world, to claim incompetence and enjoy the catharsis of a good old-fashioned complaint. If we are truly powerless, then we can gripe about the powers that be all we want, because we have no genuine power. If, though, on the other hand, God does gift his children to heal the world in some way (if not exactly the same as Peter), then we have no business complaining as though we had no power at all. If the Holy Spirit lends his strength to us and wants to use us to change the world, then we dare not complain about our inability to change it.
Peter spent long enough swinging his sword and blustering about the problems unbelievers caused in the world. Then he discovered that God gave him the power to heal, and it changed his life, from angry Peter to proactive Peter. Christian, what will happen when you discover you have that power too?
Jesus’ disciples are healers too.
A beloved figure in the church in Joppa had just passed away, Tabitha (the unfortunate Greek translation of her name was Dorcas—you would probably go by Tabitha too). Tabitha was beloved because of her good works on behalf of the poor widows in Joppa. After she died, in fact, those poor widows surrounded her and showed off all the clothing that Tabitha had made for them when she was alive.
Peter came into the room and politely asked the women to leave, and then raised Tabitha up from the dead. A clever word play is seen here; when Jesus raises up Jairus’ daughter from the dead in Mark 5 (devotion from Dec. 3), he says to her “Talitha cum,” which means, “Little girl, get up.” Peter says, “Tabitha cum,” meaning “Tabitha, get up.” From the similarities between the passages, the inference is obvious: Jesus’ disciples can heal in exactly the same way Jesus did.
I wish I could say with confidence what this means for us. Perhaps the ability to heal died with the disciples. Perhaps it means that we as Christians today do not know an ounce of the power that God has enabled us to live with. Perhaps the truth is, as usual, somewhere in the middle: we as Christians are capable of far more than we know, far more than we dare to believe we are capable of.
I say this because there is a certain convenience in not being a healer. It gives us the right to throw up our hands in frustration at the world, to claim incompetence and enjoy the catharsis of a good old-fashioned complaint. If we are truly powerless, then we can gripe about the powers that be all we want, because we have no genuine power. If, though, on the other hand, God does gift his children to heal the world in some way (if not exactly the same as Peter), then we have no business complaining as though we had no power at all. If the Holy Spirit lends his strength to us and wants to use us to change the world, then we dare not complain about our inability to change it.
Peter spent long enough swinging his sword and blustering about the problems unbelievers caused in the world. Then he discovered that God gave him the power to heal, and it changed his life, from angry Peter to proactive Peter. Christian, what will happen when you discover you have that power too?
posted by Michael Jordan at 6:00 AM
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