· Acts 3:12-19
· Psalm 4 (3)
· 1 John 3:1-7
· Luke 24:36b-48
Some days, the lectionary makes you wrack your brains for hours trying to come up with something somewhat coherent and didactic. And other days, the lectionary says exactly what you wanted to say, in so many words. This is one of those days. But to make it clear what the message is, we have to back-track a little in the Acts and start from 3:1 instead of 3:12.
One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o'clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognise him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, "You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
Let me read a third time what Peter said: "why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?"
Notice that Peter and John never prayed over this man. Here is what Peter said to him: "what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." It's not a prayer, it's a command. Peter doesn't even ask God anything, let alone tell God. He tells the paralytic himself: stand up and walk. It's not prayer that heals the man, and as Peter points out, certainly not his own power or piety. Now if Peter doesn't think he can heal people through prayer and piety, by what strange flight of fancy does any of you figure you can do it?
What heals this man, in reality? "What I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." The paralytic beggar is healed the same way you and I are healed: by grace, through face. And I'm rather tempted to say "duh" because how else would Peter heal a paralytic? By works? How would Peter do that? He's only human. By asking Jesus with fancy canned formulae like "we ask this in Jesus's name"? He didn't ask Jesus anything. He commanded the paralytic in Jesus's name. He didn't compel Jesus with prayer; rather, Jesus compels the paralytic.
If you think you can heal people, then do it right. Do it like Peter did it. "What I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." Can you do that? I can't do that. I guess I don't have faith the size of a mustard seed. I can't tell a terminal cancer patient "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." I can't get my dog to do anything in the name of Christ. And I'm quite sure neither can you. Now Peter could do it through faith alone; even he couldn't do it by prayer. So if you can't do it by faith, why do you think you can do it by prayer?
There is only once I know of that Jesus used prayer for healing, which was in the case of a boy with a spirit. When he was done, the disciples asked him "why could we not cast it out?" and Jesus answer "this kind can come out only through prayer." (Mark 9:14-29) It wouldn't actually have occurred to the disciples to try to cast out a demon by prayer. But even so, Jesus still commanded the unclean spirit, and it still depended on faith. Even Jesus doesn't do things by sitting on his hands asking his father. Being God himself, he can create what he declares, which is handy for him, I suppose. But still though he can anoint the patient with all kinds of grace, he also needs the patient's faith.
All right, so what is needed to heal is faith and the grace of God. Prayer? Not even. So how about getting people jobs, boyfriends, new houses, what not?
Good question. Because you know what, at no time in the New Testament does anyone miraculously get a job in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Or a girlfriend. Nobody even thinks of asking Jesus for jobs and boyfriends. They ask for healing and casting out of demons. Nothing else. It just wouldn't even occur to anyone to bother the actual flesh-and-blood Jesus Christ of Nazareth to get them a job. So why are you bothering to pray for these things?
You can pray with your friends when they are afflicted. Use some psalms, or Job, or some other scripture they enjoy. Don't pray for your friend and tell yourself, much less tell them, that you're doing something productive. If you want to do something for your friend, then literally, do something. Prayer isn't "doing something." Neither Jesus nor Peter nor anyone else in the book uses prayer as a substitute for action. Pray with your friend, or do something for your friend. Don't confuse the two.
By the grace of God, through faith, someone may be healed, physically or emotionally. Not by your works or your prayers. Same with jobs, relationships, money, anything you can name, it will not come by your prayers. So if you want to help your neighbour, do something. Because it's simply not gonna get done by you harassing God about it. If Peter couldn't do it, neither can you.
Praise be to God, the Provider, the Withholder, the Eternally Besought, the Patient One.
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