Empty-Handed

Acts 3:1–10

Phrases that spoke to me today:
• “Look at us.”
• “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you.”
• “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
• He went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God.

Applying the Word to My Life:
A couple years ago I was at an outdoor convention with a friend. It was mid-summer in Iowa and the heat was intense. By late afternoon several people had already been taken to the medical tent with heat exhaustion. We had been drinking as much water as we could all day. We had finally wrapped up for the day and were heading back to the car when we saw a man struggling to walk. We were exhausted, but were getting ready to go help him when a volunteer in a golf cart came and started talking to him. Our first reaction was relief. Someone was already on top of it.

Imagine our surprise when the volunteer called out to us and asked what he should do. We took a deep breath and got to work. We gave the man some water bottles we had with us, tried to get a sense of how he was doing, and told the volunteer to get him into the cart and over to the medical tent.

What struck me later was how quickly I had assumed the volunteer must have the answer. He had the cart. He had the volunteer shirt. He looked like the one in charge of the situation. But he had just signed up to help and did not know what came next. My friend and I looked pretty rough, but we had spent enough time in heat like that growing up that we recognized what was going on and knew the next move. In that moment, the difference was simple: he looked like he had what was needed, but in that moment we did.

The beggar at the gate today reminds me a bit of the man we helped at that convention. He had been laid at the gate day after day. People with status, money, and religious standing had passed by him over and over. The ones who looked like they had the resources to help had not changed his life. Then two rough-looking disciples show up, and he asks them for help too.

The beggar probably was not too surprised when Peter told him, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you.” At that point, he was probably thinking these guys just needed to move on so he could try to get some money that would actually help him.

And if we think of it from a worldly perspective, Peter does not have a lot to give here. He really does not have the obvious things. He does not have money. He does not have status. He does not have the kind of visible power that usually makes people think help has arrived. If you were looking to someone to figure out where your next meal would come from, Peter is probably not the guy you would approach.

But Peter is not empty-handed. Not long before this, Peter was poor in a deeper way too. He loved Jesus, but he was still fractured in that relationship. He had denied Him. He had tried to live past that wound with activity and impulse and noise, but none of that could heal what had been broken. Before Peter could become a man who gave Christ to others, he had to let Christ restore him first.

That is what makes this moment different. Peter is no longer standing in front of need trying to offer whatever version of himself he can pull together. He is not trying to look impressive. He is not reaching for the kind of power people expect. He can say plainly what he does not have because he finally knows what he does have. Christ has met him in his failure, restored the relationship, and given him something real to hand on.

And now we can see why that healing matters so much. Peter does not just offer sympathy. He does not merely offer advice. He gives from the relationship he now possesses. “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” The man at the gate asked for alms, but Peter gives him something deeper than the small relief he was expecting. He gives him an encounter with the power and mercy of Christ.

A lot of the time I want to be useful, and sometimes I settle for looking useful. I offer energy, opinions, management, reassurance, problem-solving, or whatever else I can reach for in the moment. Some of that may help a little. But this reading pushes me into a harder question: am I actually giving people something that comes from a real life with Christ, or am I giving them a more religious version of myself?

Peter did not become fruitful because he suddenly gained the right trappings. He became fruitful because mercy had made him into a man who finally possessed what mattered most. That means the real measure is not how capable I look, how active I stay, or how often I put myself near religious things. What keeps coming out of me is usually a better measure of my spiritual life than the image I project of it.

If I want to know what I really possess in Christ I need to look at what I give. Am I giving Christ’s love to others or just giving them more of myself?

My Response for Today:
Today, I will look back on one conversation and ask what I actually handed on.