![]() The setting for this profound event was commonplace. After reviewing the events of the healing and different interpretations of the symbolic action of this healing, I will develop the image of healing and wholeness within the context of intertestamental views about ritual defilement and access to the temple. Symbolic action, like all symbols, can have multiple meanings and great depth. ![]() The subsequent healing, as recorded in Acts 3, contains a deeper spiritual message of Christ’s power than we may recognize. This ordinary event of being approached by a beggar while going to worship takes on extraordinary layers of meaning as the setting for Peter’s first miracle as the leader of the church in the post-Resurrection era. We read that he was “laid daily at the gate of the temple” (v. ![]() An entry point to sacred space would have been a strategic location for someone like this beggar who, unable to walk from birth, would have contributed to his family finances by begging for alms. This would probably have been a commonplace event for the Apostles and for any Jews who worshipped and prayed at the temple. They go to the temple to pray “at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour” (Acts 3:1) and encounter a beggar at the gate of the temple that is known as the Beautiful Gate. Lane was an associate professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University–Hawaii when this was written.Īfter Luke’s account of the events of Pentecost and the further establishing of Christ’s church in Acts chapter 2, we see Peter and John continuing to live and worship in Jerusalem.
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