Why Are You Surprised?
Acts 3:12 – 19
As I always say, context is important to understanding our scripture lessons and today is no different. For our lesson today there is a prelude, a pre-amble if you will to the scripture that we just read. So just before our message lesson today, at the beginning of Chapter 3 we find John and Peter are going to prayer at the temple in Jerusalem. You see that devout Jews go to pray at 9:00 AM, 3:00 PM and then again at sundown. The scripture tells us that John and Peter arrive at 3 PM.
As they get to the temple, through what is known as the Beautiful Gate, the favored entrance into the temple, there is man lying on the ground there, he is there every day, everyone knows that he will be there. This is someone they’d seen every day for his entire life. His friends take him there because he is lame, he has been since birth.
In Jewish society, giving money to beggars was considered praiseworthy, so beggars, those in need, would position themselves at the gates of the temples where they would be more easily seen by those going to pray. The rich and elite maybe because of heartfelt sympathy for the beggars, or more likely out of piety and societal expectations, would toss nonchalantly a coin or two toward the beggars, never deigning to actually look at these unfortunate and forgotten souls. For these beggars, it was the only way that they could provide any kind support for themselves.
As they get to the gate, this beggar without eye contact calls out to John and Peter asking for money. Peter says to the man “Look at us” and the man looked up expecting to receive a monetary gift from the men. But Peter tells him that they do not have money to give to him, but they have something infinitely better than a few coins. Peter calls our “In the name of Jesus Christ, Walk!”
Then he reaches out to this man lame since birth, takes him by the right hand and helps him to stand. Instantly the man’s feet and ankles become stronger than they had ever been. He jumped to his feet and began to walk.
Still holding on the Peter they all go into the temple courts, and man is walking and jumping and praising God. When the people in the temple saw this man that they had known for so many years as lame, running and jumping for joy, they were filled with wonder and amazement over what had happened.
In the lesson that we just read, we see that all of the people are astonished and came running toward John, Peter and “the now previously lame man” at the entrance of the temple. There is an energy, a buzz, a great commotion amongst the crowd! Can you hear the excited and bewildered conversations in your mind? Things like “Did you see what those followers of that Jesus character have done?” “How can man do such things?” “These two men be evil sorcerers of some sort!” But Peter, feeling the power of the Holy Spirit compelling him to speak to the people simply asks them “Why Are You Surprised?”
Peter asks “why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?” You wonder if this is done through the power of man. Do you think that things such as these are done by mortal man? Do you really believe in the power and wisdom of man to do such things? These things, these miracles cannot be done by man himself. They can only be done by man through the power and authority of the name of Jesus Christ himself.
Peter reminds them, as faithful Jews, they already know this stuff, so Why are You Surprised? You know about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of your fathers sending his glorified servant a Messiah. You grew up memorizing the verses of the Hebrew scriptures about the power and authority of the one that was to come. More recently you have heard the stories, the exploits of Jesus, about him going from town to town doing miracles. Why are You Surprised?
You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, even though he was willing to let him go. You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released instead. By your disobedience, denial and rejection you killed the author of life. But that was part of God’s plan and He raised him from the dead.
Peter tells them, we are here today as witnesses of Jesus’ continued power and authority over the evil and pain in this world. It is only by faith in the name of Jesus Christ, that this man whom you have seen and have known as weak and lame, is now made strong.
Why are You Surprised, why do you doubt that it is through Jesus and not through man, that this man has completely healed? Peter asks the Jews there that day, Why are You Surprised that your God can do these things, why do you doubt that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of your Fathers can, will and does do miracles on behalf of His people?
Two thousand and some odd years later we have the same problem. Joanne Taylor asks the question, “Why do miracles Surprise” us if we say we believe in Jesus? Shouldn’t we be anticipating – even expecting miraculous signs with some certainty? When Peter asks the crowd, “Why are You Surprised?” he’s really asking, “Why are you surprised that God is at work in the here and now, in this place, for these people? Why do we doubt the power of miracles in the world around us and in our own lives?
I guess the point is that we humans have a long history of being dubious about the reality of miracles. In fact, we see it in our Gospel lesson today in Luke 24, we see doubt from the ones that should have been the last to be surprised by the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
Just days after Jesus was reported to have risen, the day after Jesus walks alongside the two men on the Road to Emmaus, our Gospel lesson tells us that the disciples are in the Upper Room talking about these things when Jesus appears to them out of nowhere. They are startled and frightened. Jesus asks them the same thing that Peter asks the Jews at the Temple, Why are you Surprised?
He says, look at my hands and my feet. It is me! Touch me and see the holes in my hands and feet. Why are you Surprised to see me? Why did you doubt what I had said to you, what I had shown you, what I told you in this very Upper Room the day before the cross, while I was still with you? I told you the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations? Why are you Surprised?
He tells them, “you are to be witnesses of these things. Do not doubt, do not be surprised but believe in me, become witnesses to the miracles that will happen in and through the name of the Messiah!
So, you see it is easy to understand that if those first Disciples that lived with Jesus, talked with Jesus, learned from Jesus, and saw firsthand the miracles of Jesus over his three years of ministry were confused and had doubts, then we too can have them.
Even those of us who have experienced the risen Christ, do not have all our doubts wiped away. A life of faith still includes some doubt and questioning, a seeking to understand. It is part of the growing edge of our journey of faith.
Hear the Good News my Friends………..
The Easter resurrection did not solve all the riddles of life for the first disciples or for us. Rather, it demonstrated the faithfulness of God who was more powerful than death. Our faith in the graciousness of God must be experienced in the spiritual realities of life. The complexity of our life, filled with both doubt and wonder, is the reality in which Jesus continues to come to meet us as the resurrected, living, and giving Christ.
Theologian Jonathan Edwards had it right: There is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed, in the continuation of the spiritual miracles through God in our lives. We are dependent on Him in every way, for everything and in every time.
Martin Luther made a similar point: one is not called a Christian because he does much to earn favor and grace, but because he receives much from Christ, draws from Him and lets Christ to consistently and profusely give to him. So Why Are We Surprised in the good that we are given?
- It is through faith and calling on the name of Christ that our broken and muddled souls have been cleansed, that we have been redeemed.
- It is through the name of Christ that we receive relief for our troubled and weary souls.
- It is through the name of Christ that we receive healing of sick, broken and diseased bodies.
- It is through the name of Christ that we are carried safely through the stormy seas in our lives.
- It is through the name of Christ that we are protected and held safe against all evils.
- It is through the name of Christ that we find peace and comfort for our saddened hearts. God is at work in the here and now, in this place, for these people.
Next time you are in need, do not be surprised by the gracious touch of Jesus in your times of trouble and need in your life. Do not be surprised when your sin-sick soul finds renewal and the replenishment of forgiveness and redemption. Do not doubt, do not be surprised but believe in Him and become witnesses to the world of the miracles that happened to you and for you, in and through the name of the resurrected Messiah! Dear ones, we should, we must anticipate, we should expect miraculous signs of His love toward us with great certainty! Do NOT be surprised but rather EXPECT! Amen.