Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
HEALING OF THE CRIPPLE
“Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Acts 3: 6
Our Lord can work miracle in the life of an insignificant individual and use him/her in an effective way. The Bible has many such characters – David the shepherd boy, Amos the herdsman, Peter the fisherman, etc. Our church history is full of such “insignificant people” who did things for God that became the catalyst for great spiritual movements. This cripple person was one such insignificant person. The Luke does not even tell us the man’s name. In other words, his identity is not important. Yet he became the means by which God worked in the lives of the onlookers of his healing.
The Beauty of Spiritual Friendship
It is good to have a close friend, one with whom we can have profound spiritual experience. Peter and John were one such pair. God blessed Peter and John in their path of duty. They were making their way to pray in the temple courts. On their way God used them to bring blessing into this poor man’s life. We will never know, in our lives, what opportunities we have missed of receiving God’s blessing because we fail to perform our duty. Peter had to inform this man that he had no alms to give him. However, he had something far more valuable to give to the cripple – the resources of the risen Christ.
The Beauty of Humility
Peter was aware that he had a special gift as an apostle. Peter knew fully that the crippled man would be healed, which was why he stretched out his hand to help the man to stand. The lesson for us is to use whatever gift the Lord has given us for His glory, and whenever we use it, we should expect the Lord to bless others through it. Peter wanted the cripple to receive blessing from Jesus Christ. Therefore he asked the man to pay close attention and listen. Peter did not want the man to imagine that he had been healed by the apostle himself. Instead he wanted the cripple to understand that his healing had come directly from Jesus Christ. In this attitude we can see the beauty of Peter’s humility.
The Beauty of the Healed Cripple
As Peter and John reached the Beautiful Gate of the temple, they were stopped by a cripple asking for alms. He is a man who was a cripple for 40 years. He lived by the mercy of others. His only hope was in the mercy of the people who saw his needs. Yet once he experienced healing, he realized that he had experienced the mercy of God. Divine mercy is always given to the undeserving, to those who do not have a right to receive it. When we see a person who realizes that he has been the recipient of undeserved mercy, we are looking at something beautiful. This man experienced a physical miracle and also experienced a spiritual miracle. The cripple’s response was, “walking and leaping and praising God.” His experience here is a picture of what takes place in the heart of a sinner, when he/she receives Jesus Christ. We can see the beauty of a person who enjoys deliverance from his former condition Let us ask ourselves this question, “Are we blind to the needs of other people? Do we just pass by them? Or do we extend our hands to give them a helping hand?”
Prayer: Our heavenly Father, help us to see the needs of people in need and give us the strength and compassion to extend a helping hand to lift them out of their miseries, Amen!
Mathew. P. George, St. Johns MTC, New York