“Say to Aaron: ‘For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a crippled foot or hand…’” (Leviticus 21:17-19)
“One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer – at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.” (Acts 3:1-2)
In preparation for story-telling on ‘The Jesus who gives hope’ at a recent SU residential, I read in Acts 3 the account of the man “lame from birth” who is carried to the Temple gate to beg every day. He is healed in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and he subsequently enters the Temple courts “walking and jumping and praising God.” Cue the golden oldie Sunday School action-song “He went, walking and leaping and praising God!” The commentaries I have on Acts show little interest in him and focus mainly on the identification of the precise gate he was carried to. A couple mention that his lameness prohibited his entry to the Temple. But I wonder if the story is far subtler and more significant and wonderful than we give it credit for. Luke recorded this healing and the man’s focus on praising God for a reason. I could be completely wrong here but there are some interesting clues to think on…
Firstly: The precise gate matters less than the fact that Peter and John are passing by. This is significant because it means this may have been a gate between two courtyards: that of the Women and that of Jewish Men. This would be well within the confines of the Temple complex and therefore very unlikely to be a place for the general begging of alms. This would be like a homeless person in a sleeping bag, dog and cup at their side, sitting in your church building’s vestibule begging as people arrive for the service. The ‘best’ place by far for begging would be outside the Temple complex at a gate on the city side into the outer courts. So, why is he placed here? He is clearly well-known and recognisable to every man passing by. Everyone in the court of the Men knows him.
Secondly: there is, in fact, no general biblical prohibition on a crippled man passing through this gate into the Men’s Court. His disability did not make him in any way ‘ritually unclean’ and would not (according to all the details in Maimonides’ commentary on Mishnah and Jewish Oral laws) be one of the impurities that barred him from entering. A lame Jewish man could perfectly legitimately be carried on into the Men’s Court and worship there. But apparently he is not.
The prohibition in Leviticus is specifically about descendants of Aaron. I wonder, therefore, if this man was of Aaronic descent? He could therefore be carried to a precise boundary which no ‘normal’ beggar could expect to access but across which he could not gain passage. If he is a descendant of Aaron then his plight is all the more tragic: of the line of priests, denied by his disability from his birthright of serving at the Temple offerings and of leading in the praise and prayer services.
Luke also specifically notes that this episode occurs at the time of the Minchah prayer. All his life up to this point then he has been close enough to hear the daily prayers recited, perhaps even close enough to glimpse the offerings being made, and all of it denied to him. He is reduced to dependence on others to carry him to the very threshold of hope and worship but then he is left there, reliant on charity for basic survival. There is in him a soul-ache to be included in the praise and worship and fellowship. And then – in Jesus’ name – he receives healing. For the first time in his life, he walks through the gate: “he went with them into the Temple courts.” (Acts 3:8) He walks into his birthright; into worship; into prayer; into praise; into fellowship; into the Lord’s presence. This is a glorious story of transformation and of a soul made whole.
There is so much then to reflect on here. Who are those we pass by every day unaware of their story or their soul’s ache? Do we think we have fulfilled our gospel-calling if we offer pity-payments of silver and gold when we should be offering healing in the name of Jesus? Do our rules and customs leave some stuck at an arbitrary boundary…looking on and listening in but left outside? Are we ourselves sitting in limbo, helpless to progress and longing for healing and hope? This story is a glimpse of unexpected, glorious, restorative, soul-satisfying hope.