Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. Jesus. I love how blunt Peter was in his statement, and how quickly he got to the root of this man’s problem, Peter saw a need and he met it. He gave this man the one thing that no amount of money could give him....A Cure. An eternal cure and an immediate cure. Money could only dull the symptoms of what this man had, but Christ could heal Him in the truest sense of the word. Christ could not only heal the inability, but the broken heart that must have been harbored within this man.
Simply for being born without the ability to walk, this man would have been ostracized in his community, ridiculed and mistreated. The pharisees of the day would have looked upon him with eyes of disgust and tongues of condemnation, bringing into remembrance every time they saw him that the reason he was lame was because God was punishing him. Imagine being told that you are suffering God’s punishment every single day since you were born,that the reason you could not run around with the other children, or climb trees, or swim in the river was because God was mad, and you were bearing His wrath. It’s enough to break any soul, and rip apart any hope of approaching God, feeling His Love, or being Forgiven.
Imagine thinking, does that mean that His promises for the nation of Israel don’t apply to me? Does that mean that the promises for Abraham and his descendants don’t apply to me either? Asking the question Does God hate me? ....God, what did I do?
With one name all that hopelessness that this broken man ever felt went away. With Christ I am restored. The feeling of worthlessness that so many times seem to consume me all vanish. The shame of my spiritual lameness is covered by the glory of the Lamb that died in my place. Peter was not only saving this man from his physical state but from his spiritual brokenness as well.
I was that lame man, the one who would situate himself (herself in this case) around the temple gates, I would attend church, go to youth group but it still wasn’t enough. I was still broken, I was still spiritually lame. It wasn’t until I received the invitation I had heard given so many times before that I was finally able to leave that shame behind me, and start to rebuild. It wasn’t until Christ Himself grabbed my hand that I was able to get up and walk away from my past, from my hurt, from the hatred I had for myself, from the daily blame I placed on myself ,and step into His Love. In that Love I realize that God didn’t hate me, and my life wasn’t a punishment but a opportunity to live it out in a way that would glorify the only One that should ever be glorified.
Application: I will share with someone today what the Lord has done to restore my Life, in an attempt to give Him all the glory for the works which He has accomplished.
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