Acts 3

 One of my new go-to’s on Facebook are posts by a woman who goes by the name “Farmer Girl.”  Farmer Girl is a real person…a real dairy farmer who lives in northwestern Washington state.  She has proven to be wise beyond her years, and is a prolific writer, especially in scriptural interpretation.  She is concise, on-point, and doesn’t stray far afield with her comments.  In short, I like her and what she writes.

She is working now on commentary on the book of Acts.  When she came to chapter 3, the chapter in which Peter and John heal the man lame from birth who was sitting at the temple gate begging, she had a question I had never thought of.  So, I’ll stop my comments for a moment and just read what she said in her post after writing briefly about Peter and John healing the man.  She starts with a question.  Quote

Did Jesus ever walk past that man at the Beautiful Gate?

Because Acts 3:2 says: “And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate…”

Lame from birth.

Laid there daily.

This was not a new situation.  This was not a man who slipped on the temple steps last week. He had never walked.  Not once.  And every day, someone carried him to that same spot, at that same gate, to ask for coins from people heading into the temple.

Same gate.

Same stone.

Same outstretched hand.

Day after day after day.

Now think about Jesus’ ministry for a second.  For three years, He was constantly in and out of the temple.  He taught there.  He debated the Pharisees there.  He healed people there.  He went up for the feasts.  He walked those same streets, those same steps, those same gates.

Which means it is very likely that at some point…Jesus walked right past that man.

And He did not heal him.

OK, this is Jay again.  I’m going to stop there for a moment to say something about that gate.  There were several gates that opened into the Temple.  Some were used in certain circumstances.  Some were more well-used than others.

There was a gate…the south gate…that was the most-used gate by the masses.  We don’t know if it was called the Beautiful gate, but it seems that a beggar would be placed at a gate where there would be the most traffic…and the south gate would be the one.

We don’t know with unerring certainty if Jesus ever saw this beggar.  However, the odds are stacked very high AGAINST anyone who would say that Jesus wasn’t aware of the man or hadn’t seen the man.

OK, let’s go on with Farmer Girl’s comments.

That thought…the thought that Jesus may well have walked right by the man and did not heal him…feels a little uncomfortable.  Because we like the idea that if Jesus sees a problem, He fixes it immediately.  Like a divine emergency service.  See problem.  Fix problem.  Move on.

But that is not how Jesus’ ministry actually worked.  There were still sick people in Israel when He ascended.  Still blind people.  Still lame people.  Still suffering people.  He did not empty every hospital, fix every body, or solve every problem in those three years.

So why this man?  Why later?  Why in Acts?

Because in Acts 3, that healing does more than just fix a pair of legs.

Peter and John come walking up to the temple at the hour of prayer.  No big announcement. No miracle scheduled on the calendar.  They are just going to pray.  And the man does what he always does.  He asks for money.

Peter basically says, I do not have any coins for you.  But I do have something else.

“In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Acts 3:6 ESV

And suddenly, the man who has spent his whole life being carried is the one doing the walking.  And not just walking.  Leaping.  Praising God. Causing a full-scale scene in the temple courts.

This is Jay again.  Farmer Girl then gets to the point of her comments…a point that is for you and for me.  I’ll conclude now with her concluding remarks in this post.  Quote

So it seems very possible that Jesus walked past that man many times…because his healing was meant for a different moment.  A moment after the resurrection.   A moment when the apostles would be the ones doing the healing.  A moment that proved Jesus was still working, even though He had ascended.

The man probably thought his biggest problem was that he could not walk.  He was asking for coins.  Just enough to get through another day. But God was writing a much bigger story.  His life became one of the first big public miracles of the early church.

Sometimes we sit at our own “gate” for a long time.  Same problem.  Same prayer.  Same situation.  Day after day.  And we start to wonder if Jesus has just walked right past us.

But Acts 3 reminds us that sometimes the miracle is not late.  It is just waiting for the moment when it will point to something bigger than we can see right now.