Look at Us
Acts 3 offers a striking portrait of ordinary life for persons who actually believe that God is present in our lives. All too often we read the Bible like a history book, looking for clues of what God did way back when. But what if we read the Bible as a guide to paying attention to a God who is actually alive today?
When Peter and John said “look at us,” they were not posing for a selfie or posturing for recognition. They were simply inviting a person whose life was restricted and broken to see them for who they were. Peter and John were ordinary persons with nothing special or unique about them. Except for one thing.
Peter and John had come to understand something foundational about the Jesus way of living. And sadly, what is foundational about the Jesus way of living is often absent in Christian people—and Christian leaders—today. What was the reality that Peter and John believed in? Peter and John actually believed—ACTUALLY believed—that Jesus was present with them in their ordinary life.
In this story, these two early Christian leaders are doing something they do everyday. They go to the temple mount to pray each afternoon. And in their routine they happen to meet this unnamed man who has a deep need. This man is paralyzed; he can’t move about. So Peter and John say, “Look at us.”
Of course the lame man expects a hand out. He expects what has been given to him countless times before. In fact, this man has come to depend on these monetary gifts for survival—to keep on living in the style that he has been accustomed to—which ain’t much!
But Peter takes another approach. He does the unexpected. He says, “I don’t have money.” Actually, I expect that he might have had some loose change in his cloak pocket—but that is not the point. The point is that Peter understood that the most important thing that he could do for this man was to connect him with the life-giving reality of a Jesus who is alive!
You see, Peter and John actually believed that Jesus matters for persons who are paralyzed and broken. They believed this truth because they had experienced this truth for themselves. They were eye-witnesses to the transforming power of Jesus Christ; they carried that truth within them, and it was that truth that shaped their ordinary lives.
As Christian leaders, I sometimes wonder whether we have lost the Christian part of our identity. We want to reach for more data about early services or late services; we desire to figure out how to make better Bible classes and small group studies. We lose sleep over what to do with our ministries and our organizations. Yet we have forgotten—and we simply ignore—the one thing that really matters; the presence of God among his people.
That is why when Peter and John land in hot water with local governmental figures about the healing of the lame man on the temple mount, their answer sounds so archaic to us. It sounds sort of quaint. But I would suggest that their answer reflects their theology. They believe that God is alive and well. They believe that the name and the presence of Jesus matters for the people of God. So, when Peter and John declare that it is by the name of Jesus Christ that this man is healed and that there is no other source for deliverance anywhere, they really meant it (Acts 4:10-12).
The real story of Acts is not “wow—look what God did way back then.” The real story is whether—as Christian people and leaders today—we will read these stories and then be audacious enough to believe that Peter and John (and the early church) believed. God is alive and on the move! This is the one thing that is missing in way too many churches today. And we have too many expectations, like this lame man, that the paralysis we experience can be handled with silver and gold. So I am wondering this question: What do people see in you and me when we go about our day that prompts a "look at us?"
Blessings,
Carson
