In this homiletical scenario, the preacher will be inviting the congregation to see themselves as being in a place of offering healing to others by including them in the community of faith. The first approach is based on the preacher asking the hearers to identify with the apostles. The two approach ecclesiology from different angles. This recognition opens two homiletical possibilities. In other words, hidden in the details of the healing story is an ecclesiological message: to be included in the worshiping community is to experience a form of healing. The healing moves the man from outside the temple to inside it, from someone not able to participate in the worshiping community to being part of it. He “ entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God” (Acts 3:8, emphasis added). After he is healed, not only does the man’s ability change, so does his location. He is not there as part of the worshiping community but as someone seeking charity from that community. He begs outside the temple from those going inside. The lame man’s location, on the other hand, has great potential for the preacher. Its location, though, is of little homiletical significance. Much scholarly ink has been spilled trying to determine where in the temple structure this Beautiful Gate actually stood. He is situated each day at the Beautiful Gate outside the temple to have the best chance to receive alms from those entering the temple (Acts 3:2). The lame man is a wise business man, if you will. They usually also hide other theological themes in the middle of other details of the story. Healing stories, however, rarely operate only at the literal level. And as Peter makes clear, the power at play is not Peter’s own but the power of the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 3:12, 16).
Only significant power could bring about such results. This story certainly does that - the man, after all, has been lame since birth and in the end can not only walk but is able to leap up. One need not interpret healings literally to see that this story encourages us today to see the work in which the church engages as continuing that of Jesus and the apostles.Īt the literal level, ancient healing stories intend to demonstrate the power of the healer. Luke’s use of this stereotypical form for healings demonstrates a continuity between the work of the apostles and that of Jesus. The healing story follows the typical form of healing stories in the gospels: the ill person and the healer meet (Acts 3:1-3), including a description of the ill person’s condition that makes healing seem difficult (Acts 3:2) a healing action and words are narrated Acts 3:4-7a) the actual healing occurs (Acts 3:7b) proof of the healing is described (Acts 3:8) and witnesses are described as being amazed at the healing (Acts 3:9-10).
For the sake of this essay, we will keep our focus on the healing story proper, but the preacher will want to explore the wider context as a way of recognizing the importance Luke places on the story for the advancement of his theological and narrative agenda. The healing and sermon together, in turn, set up the first instance of persecution of the church in Acts when Peter and John are imprisoned and tried for their actions (Acts 4). This scene is part of a larger story: the healing is really the set up for the sermon Peter gives to the crowd of witnesses in Acts 3:11-26. Luke told us how the church was formed by the gift of the Holy Spirit and baptism and gathered around the apostles’ teaching and now moves on to narrate examples of the apostles’ ministry in Jerusalem. This passage in which Peter and John heal a lame man is the first scene in the Book of Acts after the story of Pentecost in chapter 2.
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