Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Directed focus is what struck me about this passage. This lame man had been at this gate most days of his life. He certainly had directed his focus on his faith that his needs would be provided for. He organized his friends to get him to the gate at the right “hour” after the hour of sacrifice had been completed when he could expect the people coming to pray might notice him and have generous hearts. Peter and John have come to pray too which is interesting. The focus of their faith is no longer praying for God to accept the Temple sacrifices offered an hour earlier. It’s been changed into thankful belief because Jesus has fulfilled that hour of sacrifice. That was the act of God that had changed their own expectations of faith into belief.
After all these years this lame man was like an unnoticeable fixture at that gate. Did he expect his faith in their alms would make life on earth more bearable for him? Of course he did. What other choice did he have? What God did for this lame man was use Peter’s words, “look at us,” to change his focus from the unnoticeable expectations of his faith into the new and miraculous reality of a very noticeable expression of his belief, “walking and leaping and praising God.”
“Perhaps only medical men can fully appreciate the meaning of these words; they are peculiar, technical words of a medical man. The word translated feet is only used by Luke, and occurs nowhere else. It indicates his discrimination between different parts of the human heel. The phrase ankle-bones is again a medical phrase to be found nowhere else. The word ‘leaping up’ describes the coming suddenly into socket of something that was out of place, the articulation of a joint. This then is a very careful medical description of what happened in connection with this man.” (The Acts of the Apostles, p97 — George Campbell Morgan) The miracle was complete, God had changed the focus on expectations of faith for “all the people” and become the reality of belief and they were filled with wonder and amazement.”
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