2024_09_06 Insight Post- Karenna Rowenhorst
This week’s reading- Acts 9:36-43
The story of Dorcas is astonishing because of its simplicity. Luke (the author of the gospel of Luke) writes in Acts the account of the first person raised from the dead by an apostle, and the account takes place over just a few sentences.
Peter first heals a crippled man named Aeneas in Lydda, a town not far from where Dorcas lives in Joppa, and believers send word to Peter that she has died. We know that our legacy matters and this is a perfect example of a legacy that has touched so many people that they cry out to Peter for help. I’m not sure they knew exactly what they expected Peter to do, but knowing that Peter had the ability to heal, it’s possible that they expected a complete healing – even from death.
Kim and Rusty did a great job this week focusing on Dorcas’ life and the example she sets in how she chose to live her life. Even her name, which in both Greek (Dorcas) and Aramaic (Tabitha) means “gazelle,” sounds like a perfect fit for a woman who was busy helping others and full of energy to do the work God called her to do.
I want to look at this healing experience from Peter’s perspective and put it in context with what happens to him afterwards. This area of the country, called the Plain of Sharon, includes the cities of Joppa and Lydda and was primarily populated by Gentiles. Peter was Jewish and had no doubt grew up learning all the Levitical laws about what was ceremonially clean and unclean. One such law was that it was unclean to touch a dead body (Lev. 21:1, Num. 5:2). We see Peter following this law when he visits Dorcas’ deathbed: Peter enters the room and prays for her. “And he gave her his hand and helped her up; and then he called in the saints (God’s people)…” Acts 9:41. Peter only reaches out to touch her after she is alive. But it was also unclean for them to enter the home of a Gentile, which it appears Peter was willing to do. I wonder what was going through Peter’s mind as he made these two decisions – visiting sick (or deceased!) Gentiles in their homes, yet staying away from touching ceremonially unclean things.
We know that there were struggles between the Jewish believers, who felt they needed to follow all of the Jewish laws, and the Gentile believers, who didn’t know if they needed to or not! Through a series of amazing events, including a vision from God (read Acts 10 for the whole story), God shows Peter that the Jewish laws about being clean or unclean are no longer in effect since the Jesus was the perfect sacrifice who reconciled us to God.
Jesus spent significant amounts of time trying to teach people that our hearts and our motives are what matter to God. “Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth.” Matt. 15:10-11
How we speak and act to those around us is what makes us clean or unclean in God’s eyes – not what we eat or don’t eat or touch or don’t touch. Jesus looks inside at our hearts. Even Peter, who had the power to raise someone from the dead, struggled with this new concept.
You may not be worried about offending God by what you eat or touch like Peter was, but we encounter the same challenges as we choose to speak with kindness and compassion or judgment and bitterness. Going through the motions of following God does not fool God one bit. Going to church and serving on a team, none of that means anything to God if you are not doing it with the right heart. I think it was Dorcas’ heart for the widows she was helping that got God’s attention, not how many cloaks she sewed or meals she served.
Let’s remember today that our faith is living and God sees us and loves us right where we are. He cares about all of us, not just what we perform or produce in the name of Christ. God wants our outside to match our inside. That is true faith.
Karenna Rowenhorst
Senior Director of Education