Cash-Free Baptism

The third page of my website offers access to several articles I have written.

If you have read Being Baptized, which is posted on that third page, you will quickly see why I call Peter’s cash problem in Acts 3 a baptism. Peter and John encountered a man at the gate called Beautiful as they went to the temple at prayer time. The man seems to have been brought there frequently, and gained his income from begging from people heading to the temple. The crowd that gathered as a result of his excited noise and leaps seemed to recognize him immediately as “the lame man at the gate.”

So, Peter had probably given him money before. This day, Peter had no money, so he dug deeper into his treasures and remembered that he should be able to do miracles if he needed to. Then, he grabbed the man by the hand and commanded him to be healed by the name Yeshua of Nazareth. He could probably have healed him earlier. His first thought when he saw the man asking for money that day resembled something like, “Wow. I don’t have any money. That’s bad.” I suggest that Peter’s lack of money was a setup by the Spirit to push him into a greater blessing. The blessing of Peter’s temporary lack of cash touched the lame man, the crowd, and me.

Expect that when things look bad that they are hiding something good. Don’t stop beating the situation until you beat the blessing out of it.