![]() ![]() Peter’s response to the man’s request for alms begins with a powerful rhetorical contrast between “silver and gold have I none” and “such as I have give I thee.” This rhetorical contrast alone makes this a memorable statement to this day, but in this historical setting Peter’s focus on Jesus would have been electric. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God” (vv. We learn that through this intervention in the name of Christ that “immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. Peter then “took him by the right hand and lifted him up” (v. “Silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (v. Instead, Peter spoke directly of the contrast between the resources of this world and the priceless gifts available by the power of Christ. Of course, based on his life experience the only thing that he could have hoped for would have been a generous financial gift. Luke explains that the man “gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them” (v. ![]() After “fastening his eyes upon ” and asking him to “look on us” (v. Rather than continuing on and ignoring the man, Peter must have felt prompted to engage with the man and to give a gift beyond what silver and gold could buy. And so, “seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple,” the man “asked an alms” (Acts 3:3). Lying at the gate of the temple when Peter and John had come for the midafternoon hour of prayer was a man who had not been able to walk since birth. The setting for this profound event was commonplace. After reviewing the events of the healing and different interpretations of the symbolic action of this healing, I will develop the image of healing and wholeness within the context of intertestamental views about ritual defilement and access to the temple. Symbolic action, like all symbols, can have multiple meanings and great depth. The subsequent healing, as recorded in Acts 3, contains a deeper spiritual message of Christ’s power than we may recognize. This ordinary event of being approached by a beggar while going to worship takes on extraordinary layers of meaning as the setting for Peter’s first miracle as the leader of the church in the post-Resurrection era. We read that he was “laid daily at the gate of the temple” (v. An entry point to sacred space would have been a strategic location for someone like this beggar who, unable to walk from birth, would have contributed to his family finances by begging for alms. ![]() This would probably have been a commonplace event for the Apostles and for any Jews who worshipped and prayed at the temple. ![]() They go to the temple to pray “at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour” (Acts 3:1) and encounter a beggar at the gate of the temple that is known as the Beautiful Gate. After Luke’s account of the events of Pentecost and the further establishing of Christ’s church in Acts chapter 2, we see Peter and John continuing to live and worship in Jerusalem. ![]()
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