Acts 9:36-43
36
Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is
Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 37 At that time she
became ill and died. When they had washed her, they laid her in a room
upstairs. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, who heard that Peter
was there, sent two men to him with the request, "Please come to us
without delay." 39 So Peter got up and went with them; and when he
arrived, they took him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him,
weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she
was with them. 40 Peter put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and
prayed. He turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." Then she
opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up. 41 He gave her his hand and
helped her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he showed her to be alive.
42 This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43
Meanwhile he stayed in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.
I think from
time to time we all ponder the big questions of our own existence. “Why am I
here?” “What difference can I make?” “Will I be missed when I’m gone?” Perhaps
it’s a bit of a confession to say that I’ve asked that last question more than
once, so I’ve done what most people do when they’re seeking the answer to a
deep and particularly perplexing question—I turned to Google, and sure enough,
I got an answer.I eventually clicked on a link that took me to a website called
www.gotoquiz.com. There I found a short,
fourteen-question quiz that was guaranteed to tell me whether or not I’d be missed
when I was gone.[1]
The first
question was simple enough: “What is your age?” I clicked “25 to 30 Years Old.”
Question #2 was also pretty simple and straightforward: “What is your gender?”
I clicked “male” (in case you were wondering). Question #3 was when the quiz
really started to get deep: “Would you consider yourself a ‘nice person’?” Now,
I’d like to think I’m a nice person, but I’m sure there are others who might
think otherwise. Either way, I clicked “yes.”
Question #4: “Do
you always wish friends and family a happy birthday?” Now, I have to stop here
and explain something to you. Birthdays were not a big deal when I was growing
up—at least my birthday was never a big deal. I’m also not the best at
remembering when other people’s birthdays are, and I’m that one friend you have
on Facebook that doesn’t post on your wall on your birthday simply because
everyone else is doing it, and I tend to have a habit of being a dissenter. So,
for question #4 I checked the answer “sometimes.”
Question #5
asked if I was a good listener. I like to think I am, so I checked “yes.” Then,
question #6 asked “When someone asks for help, do you help them?” I feel like I
do what I can when I can, so again, I checked, “yes.” In order to keep from
revealing the rest of my answers and coming across as someone who is totally
self-unaware, I’ll just skip the rest of the quiz questions and get to the
results.
After answering
all fourteen questions, I clicked “submit answers,” and in an instant I got the
answer to the question “Will I be missed when I’m gone?” According to the results
of this quiz, I have an 81% chance of being missed. In fact, my results said,
“Yes, you will be missed very much. Your family will weep, your friends will
sob, and all others in your community will mourn. You will have a nice funeral,
and everyone who knew you will come, many will speak a few words about you.”
You can imagine my relief when this fourteen-question quiz on the internet
prophesied my future and the emotional state of my family and friends after my
departure from the world of the living!
In all
seriousness, though, I do think we all wonder from time to time if we’ll be
missed. We wonder if we’ll make enough of an impact in this life that others
will remember us when we’re gone; we wonder if they’ll say things like, “They
broke the mold when she was born,” or, “They don’t make men like him anymore.” I
think if we’re all honest, we want to be missed; we want to know that we’re
significant, that we’ve made a difference, that people love us. I think
sometimes some of us wish we could be like Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Joe
Harper, who had the oddly unique experience of witnessing their own funeral and
the way their friends and family missed them.[2] We
want to know that we will be missed. In some ways, I think we want to be like
this woman in Joppa in our text today, a woman so desperately missed by her
community that they sent for an apostle in the hopes that she could be
resuscitated.
Now, it may
seem strange to us to think that this community of believers in Joppa would
keep the body of their beloved friend Tabitha (or Dorcas) washed in an upper
room, after sending a couple of men for the Apostle Peter, who just so happened
to be in the nearby town of Lydda healing a man named Aeneas, who himself had
been paralyzed and bedridden for no less than eight years. It may seem strange
to us despite our cultural traditions of wakes and evenings spent “sitting up
with the dead”,[3]
but it would have been stranger still in a time and culture where the body was
typically buried the day a person died out of respect for that person. The fact
that they kept her body in an upper room and sent for Peter suggests that they
were expecting something to happen—some kind of miracle that would revive their
sister, Dorcas. [4]
But why? Why
not simply say a few last words and bury her body in the respectful way their
tradition demanded? If we were to witness such a scene today, we might label
the believers in Joppa as “codependent.” We might say they have attachment
issues, and perhaps the more practical but less sensitive among us might even
go so far as to tell them to move on, to get on with their lives and deal with
the reality that Tabitha died. That still doesn’t get to the heart of the
matter though—why did these disciples at Joppa want to hold on to their sister
so strongly? Why were they willing to risk the faux pas of an unburied corpse
in order to wait on a traveling apostle? Why did they miss Tabitha so much?
Perhaps it’s
worth noting here that while this story of resuscitation isn’t necessarily a
unique story in Holy Scripture, there are some unique points in the story worth
pointing out.[5]
You may recall the story of Lazarus and how Jesus raised him from the dead, but
can you remember anything about what Lazarus did during his life? Can you
remember anything at all about Lazarus except for the names of his sisters and
that he followed Jesus? What about the daughter of Jairus, another person whom
Jesus brought back to life? Matthew, Mark, and Luke can’t even recall her name.
Then there was the son of Zeraphath’s widow, raised by Elijah in 1 Kings 17 and
Elisha’s raising of the Shummanite woman’s son in 2 Kings 4. In both of these
instances they are sons raised in order to restore worth and hope to women in
an ancient patriarchal society. But what makes this story in Acts 9 so different?
Is it different at all?
Unlike these
others who had been revived, we have at least a little information about the
kind of person Tabitha was. In verse 36
Luke tells us, “She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.” The “acts of charity” which Tabitha
performed were likely the giving of alms to the poor.[6] Furthermore, at the beginning of that
verse, Luke calls Tabitha a “disciple,” in Greek, maqhtria (this is the only place in
the entire New Testament where the feminine form of the word is used). Tabitha
is a do-good disciple, a leader in the church at Joppa. What is more, she used
her resources for the good of the community, for in verse 39 we see that after Peter arrived on the scene “All
the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing tunics and other clothing that
Dorcas had made while she was with them.” The way the language reads
here suggests that the clothes these widows were showing Peter may have been
the very clothes they were wearing.[7]
Dorcas/Tabitha was the not
the kind of church and community leader that pointed to others and said “do
this…go there.” No, she was the kind of disciple who cared for her sisters and
brothers (especially the widows) by doing herself! She was not missed because
of the plaques on her walls, the buildings the bore her name, or the charitable
foundation started by her money or named in her honor—no! She was missed
because she was an active and providing member of the church and community
there at Joppa. She was missed not because she remembered to wish her friends
and family a happy birthday, not because she thought she was a good listener,
and certainly not because she considered herself a “nice person.” She was
missed because her presence brought faith, hope, and love to her community.
What happens there is Joppa
in that upper room is surely miraculous. In verses 40 through 42 we hear that “Peter
put all of them outside, and then he knelt down and prayed. He turned to the
body and said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ Then she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter,
she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then calling the saints and
widows, he showed her to be alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many
believed in the Lord.” Tabitha’s resuscitation became news, and it led
to many believing in the Lord, but I can’t help but believe that the way she
lived her life before her death had also led many to believe in the Lord.
Long before
Peter had told Tabitha to “get on up” her life had served as a witness to the
Lord who calls each of us to love our neighbor as ourselves, to care for the
widow and the orphan, to give to those who have need. Long before Peter, the great apostle, had arrived on
the scene in Joppa, Dorcas the disciple was clothing the widows of her
community, giving alms to the poor, and devoting herself to good deeds. Tabitha
was missed not because of a charming personality or excellent taste in art; she
was missed because of her actions of obedience in following Jesus had made her
a vital and important part of her community. To put it another way, she was
missed because she had been the hands and feet of Christ to her community.
This week, in Boston, West,
and countless other communities around the world, people are mourning the loss
of loved ones. Communities are missing those who have died. They miss the sound
of their laughter, the sights of their smiles, and the ways they made their
communities whole. We are still living in the midst of these tragedies as
recovery begins and communities are being revived. In the wake of such
tragedies we often find ourselves all pondering the big questions of our
own existence. “Why am I here?” “What difference can I make?” “Will I be missed
when I’m gone?” We cannot predict the future, nor can we alter the past, but we
can begin to change our community and our world now, in the present. We can
begin creating the kind of testimony that Tabitha/Dorcas left behind a
testimony of a life lived following the loving example of Jesus, a life of
giving without the need of praise or congratulation. She did not live a life in
selfish pursuits, but she lived a life marked by good deeds and acts of charity.
When
devastating news of loss comes our way, when we mourn with communities around
the world who have lost so much and so many, may we find encouragement and hope
in Tabitha’s story. May we find the courage to get on up and begin creating a
legacy of faith, hope, and love that will change our communities and eventually
change the world. May we begin living lives of purpose and meaning, following
Jesus as his disciples. And when we ask ourselves if we will be missed when we
are gone, may we hope the answer is yes, but not because of our own selfish
achievements, but because of the way we followed Christ by giving of ourselves
and being vital parts of our community. May we who live in a world rocked by
loss, death, and tragedy, remember the example of Tabitha and begin creating a
new world filled with the hope of Christ today.
Let us pray…
Lord Jesus, we pray as we live
in a world twisted by sin that you will use us, your Church, to bring hope. Use
us, O Lord, to change our community and our world by the power of your love and
the Holy Spirit. Help us to have mercy as we show others the grace you have
freely given to us all. Son of God, empower us this day to live lives of
discipleship that will cause others to miss us when we’re gone, to miss your
presence living through us. Show us this day how we can begin to change the
world. In your holy name we pray. Amen.
[2]
From The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,
chapter 17.
[3]
For background on the tradition of “Sitting up” with the dead, http://www.effinghamherald.net/archives/1654/
[4]
Darrel L. Bock, Baker Exegetical
Commentary on the New Testament, “Acts.” Baker Academic: Grand Rapids, MI
(2007). pp.377-8
[5] Lewis
S. Mudge, Feasting on the Word, “Fourth
Sunday of Easter: Acts 9:36-43 (Theological Perspective).” Westminster John
Knox Press: Louisville, KY (2009). p. 426-30
[6]
Bock, p.377
[7]
Robert W. Wall, Feasting on the Word, “Fourth
Sunday of Easter: Acts 9:36-43 (Exegetical Perspective).” Westminster John Knox
Press: Louisville, KY (2009). p. 429
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