ACC ~ Acts 3 v1 - 10

OVERVIEW:

In a rhythm not unlike that of the Fourth Gospel, Acts 3 begins with an account of a miracle followed by a discourse (Acts 3:1-10, 11-26). This healing miracle and the explanation of its significance is the next stage in the witness of the new Israel to the old. There next follows an account of the arrest of Peter and John and another discourse (Acts 4:1-22), and the section concludes with the prayer of the community and the response of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:23-31). Arator and Bede note Luke’s allusive imagery using the helplessness of lameness or paralysis as a symbol for the need for faith. Six of the Fathers draw attention to the relationship between Peter’s poverty and his power from Christ, while Chrysostom points us to a common New Testament allusive symbol that employs the verb “to raise” to evoke the notion of healing as a manifestation of the power of Christ’s resurrection.

3:1 | Peter and John Went to the Temple

APOSTOLIC LABOR. BEDE: Then, laboring continuously until evening, they imbued many thousands of people with the word of faith, because the teachers of the church, coming at the end of the world, also preach first to ailing Israel and afterwards to the Gentile world. For they are the laborers whom the householder brought into the vineyard at the ninth and the eleventh hour. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 3.1.

3:2 | A Man Lame from Birth

LAME WITHOUT FAITH. BEDE: Because the people of Israel were found rebellious not only after the Lord’s incarnation but even from the earliest times when the law was given, they were as if lame from the mother’s womb. This was well prefigured by Jacob’s being blessed, indeed, but lame when he wrestled with the angel, for this same people, when they prevailed over the Lord in his passion, was in some of [its members] blessed through the faith but in others lame through infidelity. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 3.2A.

THE BEAUTIFUL GATE. BEDE: The beautiful gate of the temple is the Lord. Whoever enters through him will be saved. Enfeebled Israel, being unable to walk to this gate, was brought there by the words of the law and the prophets, so that they might request help from those who were entering into the interior places of the wisdom of the faith which they were to hear. Those who place the prophecies of things to come are, as it were, hearers at the gate. But Peter is the guide into the temple. To him, in virtue of his strong profession of faith, the epithet of “rock” and the keys of heaven were given. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 3.2B.

LAME ISRAEL CARRIED BY THE PROPHETS. ARATOR: The feeble man is laid at the Beautiful Gate. The poor man is not strong enough to go farther or to touch the threshold of the gate. His guilt denies him entrance. Who are those accustomed to carry Israel, lame in its heart, and who strive to bring it to the gate [called] beautiful, which signifies Jesus by its name? Isaiah, Daniel, and those like them who proclaim with prophetic voice in obscure [words] the manifest miracles of Christ; and he who has the name of the gate thus himself warns, “I am the gate for you; he who refuses to enter through me will be a guilty thief.” ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 1.

3:3 | The Man Asked for Alms

POVERTY COMPELS US TO PERSEVERE. CHRYSOSTOM: “Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, ‘Look at us.’” Yet not even so were the man’s thoughts elevated, but he persisted in his insistence. For such is poverty: it compels people to persist even in the face of refusal. Let this put us to shame, we who turn away in our prayers. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 8.

3:4 | Peter Looked at the Man

THE LAME MAN’S FAITH. CHRYSOSTOM: What then does Peter do? He did not despise him; he did not look about for some rich subject; he did not say, “If the miracle is not done to some great one, nothing great is done.” He did not expect any payment from him, nor was it in the presence of others that he healed him. For the man was at the entrance, not inside, where the crowd was. Peter did not look for any of these things, nor did he enter and preach; no, it was his bearing that drew the lame man to ask. And the wonder is that he believed so readily. For those who are set free from diseases of long standing hardly believe their very eyesight. After he was healed he remained with the apostles, giving thanks to God. “He entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.” Notice how he does not keep quiet. This was both in delight and to shut the mouths of the Jews. And to prevent them from thinking it was an act, he jumped up. This was beyond the possibility of acting. For if previously he was incapable of simply walking, even when oppressed by hunger (indeed, he would not have chosen to share the proceeds of his begging with his litter bearers if he could have fended for himself), this should hold true even more now. And why would he have put on an act for those who had given him no alms? It can only be that the man was grateful, even after his recovery. Both by his thankfulness and by the healing itself his faith is revealed. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 8.

3:5 | The Man Focused on Them

SURPRISED BY HOPE. ARATOR: Hope disappointed the greedy prayer [for alms], but when [hope] withholds [one thing], it has better things in store. How often things despaired of are helpful to burdened people, and prosperity, born from an inauspicious seed, concealing its joyful nearness by sorrowful beginnings, comes in answer to prayer! The needy man will rejoice to have acquired more from an empty hand; he himself, asking for gifts, has been given to himself. ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 1.

3:6 | No Silver and Gold

SILVER AND GOLD I DO NOT HAVE. BEDE: The ancient tabernacle “indeed had ritual ordinances and a sanctuary, though an earthly one,” embellished with gold and silver. But the blood of the gospel is more precious than the metals of the law. It springs forth because that people, who had been lying enfeebled in mind before the golden doorpost, was saved in the name of him who was crucified and [so now] enters the temple of the heavenly kingdom. In any case, blessed Peter, mindful of the Lord’s command which was spoken, “Do not possess gold and silver,” did not hoard for himself the money that was put at the feet of the apostles but was inclined to reserve it for the use of the poor who had lost their birthright. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 3.6.

THE FREEDOM OF POVERTY. CHRYSOSTOM: Let no one then be humiliated on account of his poverty: It is not poverty that humiliates, but wealth, which compels us to have need of many and forces us to be under obligations to many. … So, if poverty had made people wanting in boldness, Christ would not have sent his disciples with poverty to a work requiring great boldness. For the poor person is very strong and has nothing of which he may be wronged or evil to be prayed for. But the rich person is assailable on every side: just in the same way as one would easily catch a person who was dragging many long ropes after him, whereas one could not readily lay hold on a naked person. So here also it does not succeed in the case of the rich person: slaves, gold, lands, affairs innumerable, innumerable cares, difficult circumstances, necessities, make him an easy prey to all. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 18.4.

POWER IN THE NAME. JOHN CASSIAN: Those men who received power from God never used that power as if it were their own but referred the power to him from whom they received it; for the power itself could never have any force except through the name of him who gave it. And so both the apostles and all the servants of God never did anything in their own name but in the name and invocation of Christ. For the power itself derived its force from the same source as its origin, and it could not be given through the instrumentality of the ministers, unless it had come from the Author. ON THE INCARNATION OF THE LORD AGAINST NESTORIUS 7.19.

SPIRITUAL WEALTH. ORIGEN: Do you see the riches of Christ’s ministers? Do you see the greatness and nature of the gifts they bestow when they have nothing? Earthly possession cannot bestow those riches. HOMILIES ON GENESIS 16.5.

GENEROUSLY FOLLOWING THE POOR CHRIST. EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA: And who would not be astonished at their indifference to money, certified by their not turning from but welcoming a Master who forbade the possession of gold and silver, whose law did not even allow the acquisition of a second coat? Why, anyone only hearing such a law might reject it as too heavy, but these men are shown to have carried out the words in fact. PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 3.5.

3:7 | Peter Raised Him Up

THE RIGHT HAND OF EXAMPLE. BEDE: The one whom he encouraged by word he also strengthened by his right hand, because the discourse of a teacher is less efficacious in the hearts of his hearers if it is not also recommended by the example of his own action. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 3.7.

THIS ACT MADE MANIFEST IN THE RESURRECTION. CHRYSOSTOM: “‘In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up.” Such was also the way of Christ. Often he healed by word, often by an act, often he also held out his hand, when the people were somewhat weak in faith, so that the cure should not seem to occur by itself. “And he took him by the right hand and raised him up.” This act made manifest the resurrection, for it was an image of the resurrection. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 8.