Acts 9:36-43, “Tabitha, Arise!”
Today’s scripture comes from Acts 9:36-43, which tells the story of raising a woman from death, whose name was Tabitha in Aramaic and Dorcas in Greek. We know that being raised from the dead is a very rare incident even in the Bible. Being born, aging, getting sick, and dying are the life processes all humans go through, including those twelve disciples of Jesus Christ. In the book of Acts, godly men such as Stephen and James, the brother of John, were martyred; they remained dead after their deaths. However, Tabitha/Dorcas, which means “gazelle,” was raised from the dead. There was something special about Tabitha’s life and how Peter raised a dead woman to life, something we want to examine and learn to apply in our lives.
First, we want to know who Tabitha was. She was a woman disciple, the very first and only female disciple mentioned in the New Testament. Verse 36 states, “Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha…” She was known for following Jesus’ teachings wholeheartedly. There were and are many Christians, supposedly following Jesus Christ, but not all of them were and are called “disciples.” Only those whose faith was exceptional, devoting their lives to Jesus wholeheartedly, are called “disciples.” Tabitha was one of them.
She was a doer, not a talker or a thinker. As the latter part of verse 36 states, she was “full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.” In other words, she did not just talk about what Christians are supposed to do or think about what she, as a Christian, is supposed to do, but she “did.” She was a doer. It is not enough to know or to think about it or become aware of the need around us. What counts is whether we do what we know and become aware of. Our actions can be the difference between life and death.
Tabitha led a welfare program among the poor people of Joppa out of her pocket. In her day, widows languished on the very bottom rung of society’s ladder. They had no one to either protect or represent them. So, widows are society’s most vulnerable citizens to whom Jesus’ disciple Tabitha gave hope. Every believer in Joppa knew and thanked God for this disciple of Jesus. No wonder when she died, it plunged the whole community into profound grief because with her death, her ministry of caring for the hopeless widows died right with her. Dorcas’ old friends, most of them widows who might have wondered how they would survive, showed Peter, when he arrived, weeping, how Dorcas had helped them, displaying some of the clothing she had made for them. We know that in her day, clothing was costly.
Tabitha was not powerful with words like other disciples of Jesus, but she was a doer, motivated by compassion and love. She served the poorest members of society as she would serve Jesus. As our text describes her, “she was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.” So full that there was no room for self and self-interest. She had a heart of Jesus, being selfless and compassionate, willing to sacrifice herself for the good of others. Being compassionate means sharing the pain and suffering of others as if one’s own. Tabitha was such a rare disciple that we cannot find easily around us.
Modern-day Christians like you and I can learn a lot from Tabitha. If we truly understand what it means to serve and be compassionate, we would not just send ready-made cards with our signature without taking the time to visit those who are lonely, homebound, shut-ins, or in a nursing home, longing for someone to talk to and feel the human warmth in person. Many of us simply send cards and feel that we have fulfilled our Christian duty, making all sorts of excuses for being lazy. Having Patty at our church leading the card ministry is essential and necessary. However, beyond Patty, every one of us ought to consider what would be most appreciated by those in need. I sent many cards to people, but when I visit them in person, that is when they appreciate it most. If you talk to Jean, Dixie, Bruce, or Rita, you will soon realize how they long to have someone to talk to and feel a human touch.
As I prepared for this sermon, I wondered why God raised Tabitha from the dead, rather than Stephen or James. Perhaps it was because there were many preachers and thinkers, but a person like Dorcas was very rare and hard to replace?! God needed Tabitha longer there for the needy.
Secondly, we want to focus on Peter raising Tabitha from the dead; how did he do it? Throughout history, raising the dead is something unheard of, especially in pagan religious traditions. Even in our entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments, only five incidents of being raised from the dead are recorded. With that said, in the first-century context, when and where the spreading gospel of resurrection was foremost duty for all Christians, the miracle of raising the dead to life was necessary as a powerful demonstration of God’s mighty power. In such a context, there are so many miracles recorded in the book of Acts, showing that only God is the true God, having the power over sicknesses and death. It is still true in mission fields, where Jesus is being introduced in pagan soils. With simple prayers of missionaries, healings of deadly sicknesses, casting out demons, or causing rain to fall, breaking the drought season still happens today. I am receiving reports from missionaries monthly, and I see a continuation of miracles recorded in the book of Acts.
We must know that Peter’s raising of Tabitha to life was not his own doing or by his will. We note verse 40, which states that he “knelt down and prayed.” While he prayed, he must have been instructed on what to do. That was why he turned to Tabitha’s dead body and commanded, “Tabitha, Arise!” He was following God’s command to raise Tabitha from the dead. If it were his own will and own doing, then why was this the only time Peter raised anyone from the dead? When I was a chaplain at Children’s Hospital of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, I often prayed for dying children. When I started out praying for healing, sometimes it ended with praises coming out of my mouth; sometimes, it ended up with words like, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” Then I know if they would be healed or die. Christians, including all the apostles of Jesus Christ. They were just God’s instruments doing what God willed. Going back to those missionaries who performed so many miracles in their mission fields, when they returned to their own countries, almost all of them said that they could not do that in their own countries. Do we see that it is God’s doing?
However, we ought to know that being instruments of God requires us to be kneeling down and praying.Kneeling is an act of humility; we kneel before situations that seem too tough for us to handle on our own. Yet in kneeling, we tap into the power of God. After he has prayed, Peter looks at the body and says, “Tabitha, arise!” With prayers, we know that there is power in Jesus’ name. With prayers, we have strong faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, Peter’s being an instrument of God raising Tabitha to life is a result of his close relationship with Christ, who is risen in power and glory. Peter was an average guy; he was nobody in the eyes of people, from Galilee, a town that people looked down upon. Yet he became a powerful instrument of God, raising the dead to life!
We are all called to be instruments of God, not by our own power, knowledge, or strength, but by the power of God, who gives us the power, strength, and knowledge to know what and when to share the good news with whom. We are all called to raise people from the dead, the place of powerlessness, frustration, and helplessness. Nowadays, I see more and more young people being admitted to the hospital due to their alcohol problems or drug addictions. When I visited this one particular young man, handsome and well-behaved, but a drug addict, he nodded when I asked whether I could pray for him. During my prayer, it occurred to me to remind him of how precious and special a person he is to God, that God gave him a special mission only he can fulfill on this earth. After prayer, I noticed his eyes were welling up with tears. I realized that that is an act of raising the dead to life. Of course, once is not enough, but by constantly reminding them who they are in Christ with prayers.
Do you have people around you who live like dead people, not having hope or the will to live? Then you are the instrument God wants to use to raise them to life for God. You are to kneel down and pray to fulfill God’s mission given to you. Amen!
