Stepping Out in Faith: Tabitha and Peter
Last Sunday I spoke about the story in Acts 9 of the conversion of Saul, better known as Paul, and the crucial role that Ananias played in praying with Saul and speaking God’s word to him. The Book of Acts describes how the movement bearing the name of Jesus spread out from Jerusalem to the world mostly by following the stories of Peter and Paul. Starting with chapter 9:32 through 11:8 Acts resumes Peter’s story beginning with Peter healing a man in the town of Lydda named Aeneaswho had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. Like with Jesus (Luke 5:17-26 where four friends bring a paralyzed man to the Lord), a man is healed and people come to faith. That leads us to today’s scripture.
June 29, 2014
Acts 9:36-43, Stepping Out in Faith: Tabitha and Peter
Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
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“36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37 At that time she became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room upstairs. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So Peter got up and went with them; and when he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them. 40 Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the body and said, “Tabitha, get up.” Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive. 42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.”
This passage is a great example of a key truth when it comes to reading the Bible – the power is in the details. It can be easy to read verses or stories in the Bible looking for “the point” and how we “feel” about it or “apply” it to our lives and if we move too quickly we may miss the deeper, more powerful message being communicated so today as we look for the larger message we’re also going to focus on the details.
When we read a story or passage in the Bible, one of the first questions to ask yourself is, “Does this sound familiar? Does this sound like something I’ve read before?” For example, I hope you can see the parallels between this healing story and the one we heard earlier in the service (see Mark 5:35-43) where Jesus restored a young girl to life. In both stories a messenger is sent with the request for help, the person is dead, and people are weeping. The situation seems hopeless. Jesus puts the mourners outside as does Peter. Both Jesus and Peter speak just a few words. The girl and Dorcas both get up and are shown to others so there is no doubt they are alive. There is amazement and people believe in the Lord. As with Jesus, the healings Peter participates in enhance his spiritual authority. Part of why we ask ourselves if something sounds familiar is to see the threads of connection between how God has acted before and how the Lord is acting now (if you have a good study Bible, even if something doesn’t sound familiar to you, you can check the notes to see if they reference another passage). In this case, we’re being reminded, God can bring life out of death; even in situations that may seem hopeless in which people might think “that’s just the way it is, you can’t expect anything else,” God may surprise you if you step out in faith and hold on to hope. Remember that if you forget everything else.
Okay, you might say, those are pretty amazing stories involving Jesus and Peter, but I’ve never seen anything like that personally, what does this have to do with me or us today? Well, as with so many stories in the Bible, there is more going on here than may appear to be the case the first time you read it.
The scripture begins in Joppa, a city 45 miles northwest of Jerusalem. Joppa was the main port in Israel. Does that name sound familiar to anyone? Some of you may remember it was the city to which the reluctant prophet Jonah went when he sought to escape his God given mission to bring God’s word to the non-Jewish citizens of the city of Nineveh, the capital of his enemies. In Acts 10 in the very next story after the one we’re looking at today, Peter will be commissioned by the same God to carry the good news about Jesus from this same city of Joppa to a Gentile – Cornelius, a Roman centurion of the Italian cohort. Not only that, we know from Matthew 16:17 that Peter’s Aramaic name was Simon bar Jonah (Simon son of Jonah). Jonah’s God is Peter’s God and in Acts it will be repeatedly made clear that God’s concern has always extended beyond just one people to all people so the detail that the story takes place in Joppa as opposed to anywhere else is really important.
In Joppa, there is a woman whose Aramaic name was Tabitha, who is also known by her Greek name Dorcas (both names mean a Gazelle). Maybe she was really graceful. Regardless, she was a highly regarded Christian in her community. Reading or hearing this scripture in the 21st century we can easily miss the radical nature of it in the first century. This is the only place in the New Testament where the feminine form of the Greek word for “disciple” is used. When you consider the nature of relations between men and women in the first century and how unequal they were; this is another example of how in the new community that grew around Jesus no one is staying in his or her place. Common fishermen like Peter preach to the authorities at the Temple, paralyzed men are up and walking about, and a woman named Gazelle leads a compassionate, loving assistance program among the poor at Joppa.
Especially in the first century, widows tended to be poor, on the bottom rung of the ladder of society, without anyone to represent them or to protect them. These are the ones to whom Tabitha, the Gazelle, has given life. Well known for her good works of generosity and charity, she died and messengers race to Peter and urge him to come without delay. Think of the optimism of grace that is present among these women believing and hoping that a dead woman already washed and laid out for burial – can be resuscitated by Peter. Everyone is stepping out in faith in this story!
There is more at stake in Tabitha’s restoration because she has a great reputation for all her good works and charity (word agape appears 116 times in the New Testament, 26 times it’s translated as charity meaning “costliness, esteem, and affection as well as caring for the neediest members of the community”). Tabitha’s absence would leave a big hole. The widows of her congregation cry out to Peter when he arrives showing him the clothes she had made for them. It’s hard for faith communities to lose key leaders, in Tabitha’s case, one who helped the church fulfill its responsibility to care for its needy widows. There’s no indication in this story of Tabitha’s marital status, although there isn’t any mention of her being married or her husband.
If you remember the Book of Acts really well you may remember that in Acts 6 there was a little controversy because the non-Jewish widows were complaining that they were being neglected in the church’s distribution of food. After that controversy was resolved, Peter once again finds himself confronted by weeping widows. In this case, Peter is empathetic and direct – he hears their lamenting and he sends them outside “and then he knelt down and prayed.”
It is really easy to read past those few words “and then he knelt down and prayed.” I called this sermon, “Stepping Out in Faith” because that is what Tabitha and Pater both do. Tabitha steps out in faith by putting her time, resources and energy into helping those who needed it the most. She was an instrument of God’s love and care for widows and she gave of herself, her time, skill and money in such a generous way that she was loved and respected. She “was devoted to good works and acts of charity.” As followers of Jesus we’re called to do the same to be “devoted to good works and acts of charity.” Charity is not just giving a small donation to a cause, but in Christian terms it involves esteem, affection, and caring that reflect God’s agape (self-giving) love. Clearly the impact of Tabitha’s kindness was that other people were helped, she felt good knowing she was making a difference and the kingdom of God grew as a result. Good works and charity aren’t done only with money – it can be with our words, our time, and our help to our family or neighbors. Tabitha stepped out in faith and impacted a whole community.
Peter had to step out in faith –as far as I can recall, this is the first time he has been asked to pray for someone who has died to be resuscitated to life. I’m sure we all have lots of people and situations we may be praying for, but this is a tall order with lots of high expectations. On the one hand, she’s already dead so how much worse can it get? On the other hand, how do you pray for something that seems so difficult, unlikely, and overwhelming? Take a moment and think about the biggest challenge or problem or the most stressful situation in your life right now. Think about it and get it in your mind. Are like Peter lifting that biggest challenge to God in prayer? It can be hard for us because many of us have been praying for people and situations and they don’t resolve immediately, Our loved one doesn’t rise up healed and restored. Yet, we’re called to step out in faith when we’re faced with situations that seem too big for us and we’re to seek God’s help.
I think it’s significant that we’re told Peter “knelt down and prayed.” Kneeling is an act of humility. We kneel before situations that seem too tough for us to handle ourselves. Yet in kneeling we tap into the power of God. After he has prayed then Peter looks at the body and says “Tabitha, get up” which reminds us of Jesus raising the little girl as well as Lazarus in John 11 and of the resurrection of Jesus himself. Peter’s power to heal is not to be seen as magic but a function of his close relationship with Christ who is risen in power and glory. Peter returns Tabitha to the saints and widows and presenting her to them alive people come to believe in the Lord as almost always happens in Acts when God’s power is displayed.
The final verse may seem like an incidental, unimportant detail, but it isn’t. Peter “stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.” A tanner in this case isn’t someone who likes to lie out in the sun on the beach. To Jewish people, a tanner was practically an outcast; Jewish law regarded the work as defiling, since it required working with animal carcasses, blood, and skins, which were ritually unclean, and, I would add, really smelled bad. That Peter, who was born and raised a Jew, would stay with a tanner not just for a night but “for some time” shows that he had begun to disregard some of the practices and beliefs he had been taught and that he’d clung to since he was a boy that he was learning were not essential to a personal relationship with God.
The summer I graduated from college Bruce Hornsby and the Range released their debut album The Way It Is (August 1, 1986). The title song mentions a poor old lady like the ones helped by Tabitha being mocked by a man in a silk suit who says for fun as he hurries by, “Get a job.” The song touches on racism and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which just marked its 50th anniversary. The refrain repeats in the song,
That’s just the way it is Some things will never change
That’s just the way it is Ah, but don’t you believe them.
That is the Gospel message. People will always say that’s just the way it is, some things will never change. The Church’s job and our task as followers of Christ is to say, that things can in fact change and be different. Widows and the poor don’t have to be disregarded. Illness and death don’t have to have the final word. We can’t explain how the man was healed or Dorcas was restored to life other than to say God’s power and the name of Jesus were at work through Peter. Luke was a doctor wrote Acts and he doesn’t tell us how it happened; only that it happened.
The world would say that’s just the way it is; Tabitha should stay at home and let the men come up with a way of caring for the widows. Peter should stick to fishing and leave theology to the scholars and healing to the physicians. Aeneas, the paralyzed man in Lydda, should obey doctor’s orders and stay in bed. But God’s Word comes to them in the presence of people like Peter and suddenly there’s a new reality that isn’t based on rigid logic, tradition, or cause and effect circumstances but on God’s promises. Each of us can be used to make a difference in the lives of others, even with people or in situations we might not expect. God’s song is that the way it is if you have faith, hope and love; if you have the courage to care and the humility to pray is that things can always change, believe that.
Blessing: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give us a spirit of unity among ourselves as we follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15:4-5 (adapted)
Questions for Discussion or Reflection
What similarities or parallels can you identify between the healing story in Acts 9:36-43 and the one in Mark 5:35-43?
Listen in the sermon to the significance of this encounter happening in the city of Joppa? What echoes do we see in this passage and the story of the prophet Jonah?
Acts 9:36 is the only place in the New Testament where the feminine form of the Greek word for “disciple” is used. What do you think that may tell us about the reputation Tabitha or Dorcas had among the believers in her community?
Dorcas “was devoted to good works and acts of charity.” Why is this an important part of our personal lives and the living out of our faith? What impact do such acts have on other people, on ourselves, and on the kingdom of God?
What kind of faith does Peter demonstrate? What do we learn from him for our own spiritual journeys?
What is the significance of Peter staying “for some time” with Simon, who was a tanner?