The Healing at the Gate Called Beautiful
The Healing at the Gate Called Beautiful.
“Once, when Peter and John were going up to the Temple for the prayers at the ninth hour, which is 3 o’clock, it happened that there was a man being carried along. He has been crippled from birth, and they used to put him down every day near the Temple entrance called the Beautiful Gate so that he could beg from the people going in. When this man saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple he begged from them…” (Acts 3:1-3).
The Gate called Beautiful, or in Aramaic, Wonderful, was a well-earned name for this gigantic gateway in Herod’s Temple. It was completely covered in Corinthian brass, was a 60′ wide double-door entrance, and it was so heavy it took twenty men to open and close it. It held a prominent place in the Temple entrance system, and so it was heavily trafficked by Jewish worshipers, especially during their specified hours of prayer. The Apostles, including here Peter and John, maintained their Jewish hours of prayer faithfully since they retained their Jewish faith as Christians. The 3 o’clock hour was also known to the Christians as the “hour of mercy,” since that was the time Jesus died on the Cross. And we can see as we read on in the story that it was indeed an hour of mercy.
“Seven times each day I stop and shout praises, because of your righteous judgments.” (Ps. 119:164).
There may be many different ways to “pray yourself hot” in the course of a day. One prayer system that has stood the test of time comes from the Apostolic tradition. The early Church based the idea of fixed prayer times on Jewish law, which expected believers to pray three fixed times a day: in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. The early Christian leaders decided to take that verse in the psalm literally, constructing each day with 7 fixed prayer times for each day. It gradually became known as the Liturgy of the Hours. Seven times… the complete way to sanctify a day. This ancient structured system of prayer can be a Christian’s way of learning to think prayerfully, to cause one’s heart and mind to refer to the Lord during a day that does its best to distract one from God. The Hebrew concept in the Jewish Bible is that of “Kavvanah.” It refers to “directing the heart” to God in such a way that we are “inwardly turned toward God’s presence, offering our words or deeds or gifts upon an inner altar, the humble heart. When it comes to prayer, kavvanah is required, because kavvanah is the very essence of the act of prayer. Without it there is only the empty recitation of words.” (Arthur Green).
The 7 times for prayers established in the Liturgy of Hours are:
(1.) 6:00 a.m. sunrise;
(2.) 9:00 a.m.;
(3.) 12:00 noon;
(4.) 3:00 p.m.;
(5.) 6:00 p.m. vespers;
(6.) 9:00 p.m. compline;
(7) 12:00 midnight.
“The familiar rhythms of fixed prayer serve ideally as a language familiar to the heart, one that can stir it to wakefulness like a friend who comes to remind one of the affections of a silent lover.” (Arthur Green).
So Peter and John were just about to enter the Temple for their hour of fixed prayer, and they came across a crippled man at the Gate, begging for money from worshippers before they went in to prayer. This man expected Peter and John to contribute like so many others did. This man chose an excellent post to ask for alms, since the Law of Moses encouraged believers to give to the poor, and faithful believers were certainly going to be present at the Temple. Peter, though, didn’t do what the crippled man expected. Peter asked him to look straight into his eyes, and said to him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you.” (v. 6). Peter then gave what he had available to the crippled man… the healing power of “the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Peter proceeded to take the man by the hand and helped him to stand up, “and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.”(v. 7).
And then one of the most joyous scenes in all of Scripture occurred: “So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the Temple with Peter and John, walking and leaping and praising God.” (v. 8). The healed man was unabashedly ecstatic and couldn’t contain himself. The freedom, the gratitude, the relief, the victory must have been overwhelming at that moment. This man who had never been able to walk in his whole life, who had to be carried everywhere, was leaping and jumping for joy! This man went from a paralyzed beggar to a fully mobile worshipper of God. And now here he was, inside the Temple where he could thank the Lord personally for this totally unexpected healing.
There were plenty of eyewitnesses of this dramatic healing at the Temple Gate. The observers were filled with wonder and totally amazed. Some translations say that the crowd was astonished, perplexed, bewildered, and even filled with consternation. In other words, the people were troubled as well as amazed. This was something new at the Beautiful Gate, and they weren’t sure what to think about it. Sure enough, though, here at the hour of mercy, there was a demonstration of grace, a time when there was a powerful physical healing as well as the spiritual beauty of inner healing that ended up with a man praising God in profound gratitude. This really was the Beautiful Gate.
The perplexed crowd surrounded Peter and John and the crippled man right there in Solomon’s Porch. Peter, ever the spokesman, then asked the crowd, “Why are you so surprised at this healing? Certainly you’re not staring at us as if we had the power and holiness to perform this healing! It was actually Jesus Christ who did this! Remember Him? He was the Man you killed not long ago, the Holy and Righteous One. No, we didn’t make this crippled man walk by our own authority or power. For the Name of Jesus has healed this man standing before you. It is the faith that comes through believers in Jesus’ Name that has made the crippled man walk, right here in front of your very eyes! You know this man! You see him every day here at the Gate! Yes, it is faith in Jesus that has restored this man to health.” (3:12-16).
But, whose faith was instrumental in this healing? The crippled man in no way demonstrated any faith. He didn’t even know who these men were who healed him, and he didn’t seem to have a clue about this name of Jesus. It wasn’t this man’s faith that healed him, it was the faith of the Apostles. This is somewhat similar to when the friends of a crippled man lowered him through the roof to be healed by Jesus in Mark 2. It wasn’t that crippled man’s faith, it was the faith of his friends, that brought about his healing. “When Jesus saw their faith…” (Mark 2:5). And so it is with Peter and John. They had the faith in Jesus, they trusted that the Name of Jesus represented the power and authority of the Holy One, Jesus Christ, and that when they called on His Name, Jesus would heal this man through the power of His Holy Spirit. Peter and John knew there was supernatural power in Christ’s Name, and they put that Name to work.
The healing ministry of Jesus in the gospels is rather unpredictable. Sometimes He requires faith from the person to be healed, and sometimes it seems there are stand-ins, so to speak, the faith of friends, to facilitate healing. The fact is, when it came to healings then and now, Jesus has His reasons for who and when and how, and we can only trust in His wisdom.
“His Name is Power, His Name is Healing, His Name is Life…”