Continuing the story I started in “In the name“

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Sometimes I walk into hospital rooms and I say, “Sometime I’m going to do that. I’m going to say, ‘in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.’ But today isn’t the day.”

In our first reading this morning, we hear what happened when Peter and John were taken to court. Because they were. They were arrested for causing a disturbance, for being part of a miracle, for somehow connecting back to Jesus.

And they faced the question I started with: “What were you thinking?”

How did you think you could do this, healing a man who couldn’t walk? Disrupting the flow of worship? Preaching about Jesus? Gathering crowds?

And Peter says to them, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Because that’s what he had said when he told the man to walk. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.”

And then Peter explained it to the leaders. “This is the same one you killed and God raised.”

Which wasn’t quite the whole story, of course. They killed him, yes, but as Jesus said, He laid down his life. They couldn’t have done it if he hadn’t willingly yielded.

But Jesus laid it down and picked it up for the care of the sheep, his sheep, those who recognize his voice calling, his hand of compassion.

The kind of love God has means laying down our lives for the good of others. Treating our resources, our skills, our time, our attention, as something God has made available to us to use for the wellbeing of others.

Decades later, John may have been thinking about this beggar when he was talking about what belief looks like.  John says, “If you look at your brother or sister and you have anything that can help.”

He’s not talking here about great wealth. If you have ordinary possessions. If you have.

If you look at your brother or sister, and you see that they have need, and you have no pity on them, how are you showing that you have the love of Jesus Christ of Nazareth?

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Reflecting on Acts 4:5-12, 1 John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18