NOTES for Act 9:32-43
After many other healings, the healing of Aeneas no longer surprises us, but the raising of Tabitha is striking even against the background of the “familiar” miracles. Even today, however, one may encounter such reasoning: should a righteous person’s earthly life be prolonged, or should that person be restored to temporary life, if he or she has earned a place in paradise after death? No one doubts that Tabitha is righteous, but are the widows she cared for interceding with Peter on her behalf only for practical reasons, because their helper has left them?
Such reasoning would be unjust. If earthly life were valuable only as an antechamber to the life beyond, Christ would not have needed either to rise from the dead or to promise people the resurrection to come. But unlike other religious teachings, the Bible speaks not only of a spiritual afterlife, but also of the transformation of the created world and the importance of life on earth. Tabitha was therefore raised not only so that she could continue caring for those who remained. The Lord is the Giver of life, and the gift of raising the dead bestowed upon Peter is a visible sign of the coming victory over death at the end of time.