The Book of Acts, like the Gospels, says much about healings performed by the apostles, and today's passage even tells of Peter raising Tabitha from the dead. These accounts are, of course, first of all a vivid...
The Book of Acts, like the Gospels, says much about healings performed by the apostles, and today's passage even tells of Peter raising Tabitha from the dead. These accounts are, of course, first of all a vivid illustration of one of the Savior's promises fulfilled.
He had promised His disciples that everything He did during His earthly ministry would also be possible for His followers. During His life on earth, He healed and raised the dead; the apostles do the same. But this is not only about promises fulfilled. It is about the Kingdom. The Kingdom that has entered the world and now spreads through it, embracing ever more people. Even before, when He Himself healed during His earthly life, healing was possible only when the person being healed came into contact with the Kingdom. Of course, such contact guarantees nothing in itself: by no means all those Jesus healed became His disciples and followers.
Yet the very fact of sharing in the Kingdom, however briefly, changes a person's life so that it will never be the same again. Now, after the Resurrection, the Ascension, and Pentecost, this process continues with the participation of His disciples and followers, who have themselves become inhabitants of the Kingdom. What matters is not only that He has fulfilled His promises, but that the work He began continues: the work of spreading the Kingdom in the world. The very work for which He came.
It continues, of course, with His direct participation. Even now, after Pentecost, the apostles are as closely united with Him as when, during His earthly ministry, He sent them to bear witness to the Kingdom which, in His words, had “drawn near.” This inner, essential spiritual unity between what began during His earthly ministry and what is happening now, after Pentecost, is what the sacred writer wants to emphasize. That is the main thing: the story of the Kingdom Christ brought into the world continues. And we too can take part in it, if only we wish.
9
9:35 Lydda was a large town, one day's journey from Jerusalem.It stood in the plain or valley of Sharon, which extended from Cesarea to Joppa, and was noted for its fruitfulness.
9:36 Tabitha, which is by interpretation Dorcas - She was probably a Hellenist Jew, known among the Hebrews by the Syriac name Tabitha, while the Greeks called her in their own language, Dorcas. They are both words of the same import, and signify a roe or fawn.
9:38 The disciples sent to him - Probably none of those at Joppa had the gift of miracles. Nor is it certain that they expected a miracle from him.
9:39 While she was with the in - That is, before she died.
9:40 Peter having put them all out - That he might have the better opportunity of wrestling with God in prayer, said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, sat up - Who can imagine the surprise of Dorcas, when called back to life?Or of her friends, when they saw her alive? For the sake of themselves, and of the poor, there was cause of rejoicing, and much more, for such a confirmation of the Gospel. Yet to herself it was matter of resignation, not joy, to be called back to these scenes of vanity: but doubtless, her remaining days were still more zealously spent in the service of her Saviour and her God. Thus was a richer treasure laid up for her in heaven, and she afterward returned to a more exceeding weight of glory, than that from which so astonishing a providence had recalled her for a season.