Ac 9:36-43

6 May 2001

4th Sunday of Easter

 

"Dead No More"

 

Often, when someone's trying to interpret from one language to another, they'll say, "Well, it loses something in the translation!"  In my opinion, we can say that about the woman who's featured in our reading from Acts.  We're first given her name in Aramaic, which is Tabitha.  Then the Greek translation of her name follows, and that is Dorcas.  I think I prefer "Tabitha" to "Dorcas."  Both words mean "gazelle" in their respective languages, so no doubt both are considered to be beautiful names.  But as a speaker of English (as well as someone with a sense of humor in need of assistance), I'm afraid I find "Dorcas" to be less…enchanting!

Still, whether you call her Tabitha or call her Dorcas (Hebrew is hy:b]xi [tsibiah], as in 2 Kg 12:1), we're introduced to a woman who had a beautiful spirit.  And I have to say "had" because we only encounter her after she has fallen ill and died.

The first thing we find out about Tabitha is that she lived in Joppa, which is where modern day Tel Aviv is located.  The second thing we discover is that she was a disciple.  She's the only woman in the New Testament to whom that word is specifically applied.  Obviously, there were many female disciples of Jesus, but it's interesting that Tabitha gets singled out.

As testimony to this woman that I say had a beautiful spirit, we read that "[s]he was devoted to good works and acts of charity" (v. 36).  Apparently, that’s what she was all about.  We find out just what kind of disciple she was by realizing the impact her death made on the community.  She especially had compassion on the widows.  In a society in which men had all the power and economic opportunities, a woman without a man to support her—be he a husband or a son—such a woman was left in an extremely vulnerable position.  She was almost guaranteed a life of utter poverty.  Tabitha may or may not have been a widow herself, but these women had a special place in her heart.

Of course, if Peter hadn't been visiting the believers in nearby Lydda, we would have probably never heard anything about Tabitha.  But as it was, Peter was causing quite a sensation.  Aeneas, a man who had been paralyzed for eight years, was healed and got up out of bed after Peter prayed for him.  And as verse 35 puts it, "all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord."

So the believers in Joppa have heard that Peter is in their neck of the woods.  And after Tabitha's death, that prompts them to send two men to give him the heartfelt request, "Please come to us without delay" (v. 38).

I'll say something I've said before and will no doubt say again:  scripture is very selective in the details it presents.  In a way, it has to be, since it can't possibly answer every question we can generate.  For example, just how much do the men say to Peter?  Do they tell him that someone has died?  And if so, do they say who?  Do they say what they expect him to do?  Or are these questions answered when he arrives in Joppa?  And I guess my favorite unanswered question is, does anyone suggest that Tabitha be raised from the dead?

I haven't done a great number of funerals in my life so far (maybe a dozen or so), but I have yet to hear that question!  And it makes me wonder what we can learn from this story of Peter's praying that Tabitha be brought back to life.  I honestly don't see myself praying that way!

Something that I believe is relevant and extremely important is the way Peter shows that he cares.  He truly cares.  When he receives the urgent request from the disciples in Joppa, he drops everything and goes.  He makes this woman, and the people who have suffered her loss, his top priority.

Peter is certainly given an opportunity to show his concern.  As he arrives at the house, he steps into a scene heavy with grief.  The Bible says, "All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was with them" (v. 39).  It's probably a safe bet that Peter takes the time to listen to the stories that the widows and the others tell about this dearly loved woman.  Still, as I've already indicated, he's not there to make funeral preparations.

After asking everyone to leave the room, he prays and says, "Tabitha, get up" (v. 40).  There's a striking similarity to the words of Jesus in Mark 5 when he raises the daughter of Jairus from the dead.  Mark gives us the Aramaic phrase Taliqa koum (talitha koum), "which means, 'Little girl, get up!'" (v. 41).  There's just one letter different between Tabitha and talitha.

It's likely no coincidence that it was just Peter, James, and John who accompanied Jesus when he prayed for Jairus' daughter.  Add to that the commonly-accepted influence of Peter on Mark in writing his gospel, and the similarity in the two stories becomes easier to understand.

That helps explain it from a textual point of view.  But there's something even more important than the exact phrasing of scripture.  And that is:  its meaning.  There's the theological point of view.  What is the Bible really saying?

The gospel of Mark, in reporting the raising of Jairus' daughter, shows the working of Jesus.  The book of Acts, in reporting the raising of Tabitha, shows the working of the Spirit of Jesus.  That is, it shows the working of the Spirit of Jesus in and through Peter.  In fact, it's often been said that the book of Acts shouldn't be called the Acts of the Apostles; it should be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit.

All this helps explain why our scripture reading appears in the Easter season.  Like Jesus before him, Peter enables someone to be dead no more.  By the power of the Spirit, the apostle gives Tabitha a foretaste of the resurrection.  I say it's only a foretaste of resurrection, because unlike Jesus, after Jairus' daughter and Tabitha are raised from the dead, they'll still have to die again.  Even so, Peter gives Tabitha, and the people who mourn her, a true Easter blessing!

What is it that has happened to Peter—what is it that has turned him into someone bold enough to dare to pray that a woman will be dead no more?  And to know that God will act on such a prayer?  How has the coward who ran out on his best friend become so courageous?

Certainly a big part of that question is answered by the event of Pentecost.  The Spirit empowers all the disciples to be amazingly bold.  Still, in Peter's case, I think something else is going on as well.  Remember with me, if you will, Banu's sermon last week.  She spoke of the scene in John 21 in which Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him.  Banu mentioned the various nuances in the words used for love, and I think she said something about Jesus' threefold question to Peter as a response to Peter's threefold denial that he even knew Jesus.

Something she didn't mention, and something that only came to me while she was preaching, is that Jesus doesn't use the name "Peter":  he calls him "Simon."  He doesn't use the nickname he once gave his friend.  It's no longer Peter, "the rock"; it's back to just plain old Simon.  It's like they're back to the beginning, to starting all over again.

I think Jesus understands the mountain of guilt his friend feels, and he won't insult him by pretending that nothing has happened.  However much Simon has betrayed his Lord and friend, he has also betrayed the best within himself.  And he's in pain.  Simon needs to be restored.  He needs to be brought back to the level of intimacy at which the loving nickname of "Peter" won't feel like salt in an open wound.

That is the gift Jesus gives him.  He not only restores Peter to the place from which he had fallen, but he brings him to an even greater place.  Peter's relationship with Jesus had died; he had killed it himself.  But Jesus is too…awesome to let it go at that.  He makes Peter into a new man:  one who cares like never before, one who is so filled with the Spirit of life that, by God's grace, he's able to bring life to the dead.

What's more, Peter, like his Lord, increasingly understands how human-made rules tend to create obstacles to the free flowing grace of God.  In today's reading, after Peter presents Tabitha alive and well to her friends, we find out that "[t]his became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.  Meanwhile," as the scripture concludes very simply, "he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner" (vv. 42-43).  End of story.

This seems to be an innocent enough comment, at least until you consider that tanners of leather had a very low status in Jewish society.  The reason is found in the nature of the work itself.  Tanners of hides were required to work with animal carcasses, which were ritually unclean.  As a result, people like this Simon had no hope of gaining the approval of the religious establishment.  And by daring to associate with this outcast, Peter is showing his disregard for a rule that would establish a barrier, with people like Simon on one side and God on the other.

Peter, who has seen his Lord reach out to him, even when he had turned his back on him, knows the importance of reaching out in the name of his Lord.  And that includes reaching out to people like widows and tanners!

A week ago yesterday, I went with Lois and Chuck Keyes to the Stephen Ministries workshop just outside of Rochester.  It takes its name from Stephen, whose story is told in Acts 6 and 7, considered to be one of the first deacons of the church.  The workshop's focus on caring ministry took us through three sessions.

The first one was an introduction to ministering to those experiencing grief.  We looked at all the ways people can experience loss.  The second session briefly explained what Stephen Ministry is all about.  It's actually quite a well-organized way to train laypeople to do one of the key ministries of the church, which is caring:  identifying the needs of people and meeting them.  (All the while, of course, relying on God as the one who truly does the healing!)  The third session dealt with distinctively Christian ways of caring for people, as opposed to what more secular approaches can offer.  Among the things mentioned here were prayer, the scriptures, one's own experience with Christ, and the community of faith.