36 Now
there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas.
She was full of good works and acts of charity.
37 In those days she became ill and died, and
when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples,
hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to
us without delay.” 39 So Peter rose and
went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and
showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them.
40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt
down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she
opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 And
he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then,
calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it
became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 And he stayed in Joppa
for many days with one Simon, a tanner.
Acts 9:36-43
There was sadness in Joppa. A very dear lady whose life was dedicated to
taking care of the widows just died due to illness. Any death of a nice person would have been
very sad, and Dorcas was not just a nice lady.
Her works did not go unnoticed.
She was well known for her good works and acts of charity, Luke recorded
in verse 36. Dorcas or Tabitha literally
means gazelle doe or a female gazelle.
Dorcas is the Greek word whereas Tabitha is the Hebrew word of the same
meaning. As we might have known, Gazelle
is the symbol of grace and beauty, which fits this special lady very well. The sadness of her passing was great as
expressed in verse 39 when all the widows wept in front of Peter and showed him
the dresses Dorcas made for them. A
theologian by the name of Richard Lenski said this about Dorcas:
So
Dorcas was a dressmaker, but instead of enriching herself by sewing only for
money she enriched her soul by sewing for love. The garments she made for the
poor she really made for the Lord, and she has had many successors, both with
the needle itself and in other ways. She had only one talent, but see how much
she made of that! Many who found themselves in her circumstances would have
felt that they could do nothing; she saw the one opportunity and avenue open
for her and made the most of that.[1]
I
would agree with Lenski on his commentary here, in which he highlighted Dorcas’
quality that made her special and lovable.
She did not live for herself. She
did not work merely for profit. But
instead she used her only talent to the max, so that she could grace and bless others. In other words, she became God’s extension of
grace through the one talent and the gift of mercy God had bestowed upon her. Many of the widows in the first century AD
were poor and abandoned. God commanded
His people to take care of widows as well as orphans and those who were
abandoned by the society. These poor
widows would not be able to afford to buy dresses from Dorcas. Dorcas gave them clothing as they needed it,
and I suspect, without payment. If
Dorcas were merely doing business with these widows, then the mourning would
not be such as expressed in this passage.
They even sent for Peter to attend to this matter specifically. They wanted Dorcas to come back to life. Her quality was the driving force that had
made a huge impact in these widows’ life.
This selfless quality of Dorcas was what made the loss even more
devastating.
How confident are we in claiming
that our lives have been positively impacting others? I too from time to time ask this question to
my soul. It is not a question that we
can easily answer. I will let each and
every one of us to deal with this serious question. It is a struggle within our soul. Victor Frankl, a Jewish Christian
psychologist, called this struggle “a search for meaning.” According to Ravi Zacharias, one of the four
most important questions every human being must answer, is the question of
meaning, beside origin, morality, and destiny.
We grapple with the question of meaning every single day we are
conscious.
If we find that our lives have been
meaningless, we would slip into depression, and then despair, which might lead
to a devastating end of committing suicide.
Plato wrote in his “Apology”
(38a5-6) what is known as Socrates’ maxim: “The unexamined life is not worth
living.” And so, as we examine our own
life, what do we actually get? Our human
constitution actually does not allow us to examine our life merely to measure
how successful we are in terms of career, money, and fame. Many people who are the most desperate often are
those who have money, position, and recognition. It is simply because our life’s meaning can’t
be measured by how much money we make or have, or how powerful our position is,
or how famous we are. But the world
obviously is infatuated with money, power, and fame. However, our life’s true meaning will be
known when we leave this earth. The
honest comments by people who really know who we are disclose who we are.
When Dorcas died, the people realized
the devastating loss. Her life’s meaning
surfaced through the testimonies of the people she had blessed while she was
living. People’s appreciation were also
reflected on their faith as they put Dorcas’ body in the upper room. The custom of the day required them to bury
Dorcas in the same day. But instead of
burying Dorcas right away, they sent for Peter and put her body in the upper
room. They had high hope for the return
of Dorcas. They did not want to let
Dorcas go just yet. They needed
Dorcas. Their lives had been greatly
blessed by her gracious works. For what
Dorcas did in their life was that she restored their dignity.
When the first humans fell into sin,
they realized they were naked and they sewed some fig leaves into some kind of
covering. But it must have been
insufficient to cover their shame. So
God sacrificed animals, in order to obtain their skins, which He then made into
the dignified clothing for Adam and Eve, the son and daughter of God. I believe that the clothing God made for them
was way more beautiful than any clothing humans can make, even now. It must have been more beautiful than Dior,
or Prada, or Vera Wang, or Versace, and so on.
It would have also been very functional for their needs to move and to
handle the elements of nature. But most
importantly, the clothing was meant to keep Adam and Eve’s heads up. God would not let His children to lose
dignity before all of creation. So He
gently clothed them with dignity. This
similar act of clothing was what being done by Dorcas for all these
widows. For them the dresses were not
just to cover and protect them from the elements of nature, and for sure not
for their dress collections, but most importantly for keeping their heads up
with dignity and honor. Such act of
grace was beautiful, and even more wonderful because these widows were
abandoned by the society as it was the norm of the world at that time.
Had Dorcas work for money, she could
have been very wealthy and famous, because the high class of the day would love
to have dress collections to fill their closets and to show off to their
friends and colleagues.
Peter heard all these. He understood the positive impact Dorcas had
made to these people. He knew how
precious Dorcas’ life and works for these small band of Christians in
Joppa. So the Spirit of God moved him so
as to produce a miraculous act. Peter
resurrected Dorcas. What Peter did and
the good works that Dorcas had done met, the result was harvest. It was a great harvest for the Kingdom of
God. Luke reported in verse 42: “42 And it became
known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.” God purposefully set these series of events
up so that He could accomplish His goal.
Even Dorcas’ death was instrumental in God’s hands. Remember the event when Lazarus was very sick,
and Jesus delayed His coming so that Lazarus eventually died? He did it on purpose so that the glory of God
could be revealed when Jesus raised Lazarus up from the dead after he was four
days in the tomb.
You see, even her death was turned
into joy. God orchestrated her death
right as Peter was in Lydda, a town near Joppa, so that he could quickly come
when the people from Joppa came to him.
God designed the event of her death so that He could raise her up from
the dead through Peter. God even worked
through her life of grace so many people who were abandoned would receive God’s
grace and lived in dignity and honor.
The feeling of loss were very instrumental in this final goal of
God. The famous story of her selfless
life and charity works was also crafted by God to build the momentum of her
being raised to life. And then when all
came together, Dorcas’ lifeless body in the upper room, the people blessed by
Dorcas’ works and life mourning, and Peter ready to raise her from the dead,
God’s grand purpose for these series of events was eventually revealed as
Dorcas came back to life. The story was
heard all over Joppa, and now all over the world, and many believed in God
because of it.
Brothers and sisters, my question for
you is: “Would you be willing to be used as God’s instruments to bless other
people in your life?” I trust you all
will say yes up to this point. So let me
ask you further: “Would you be willing to be used by God to bless others even
when your profit is not as much as you would want, even as you do not get the
position you covet, even when the prospect of your hall of fame status is taken
by someone else? Would you be willing to
sacrifice the worldly comfort you could have had so that you could bless other
people? Would you be willing to make the
most out of every situation and context you are in so that the purpose of God’s
Kingdom would be achieved? Like Dorcas,
would you be willing to even use your only talent and gift to the max in order
to have a positive impact to other people’s life?” I will let you answer these questions before
the Lord in your personal time with Him.
Now, to close, let me tell you about Nicolo Paganini.
Kent Hughes, as he gave commentary on
this passage, retold the story of Nicolo Paganini to illustrate how
difficulties in life is dealt with in positive attitude and strong character,
which then produced a great impact.
Nicolo
Paganini, the great concert violinist, stood before a packed house, surrounded
by a full orchestra. He played a number of difficult pieces, then came to one
of his favorites, a violin concerto. Shortly after he was underway, as the
Italian audience sat in rapt attention, one of the strings on his violin
snapped. Relying on his genius, he improvised and played on the next three
strings. Shortly thereafter a second string broke on his instrument. He again
began to improvise and continued playing the piece. Almost at the end of the
magnificent concerto, a third string snapped! Amazingly, he finished the piece
on one string.
The audience stood to its feet and
applauded until their hands were numb. They assumed the concert was over. But
Paganini proceeded to play an encore with the full orchestra. He made more
music out of one string than many violinists ever could on four. Paganini took
what appeared to be a most difficult situation and turned it into a triumph.
His attitude made all the difference.[2]
Paganini
could just stop the concert and walk away.
The snapped string(s) would just be the perfect excuse to quit the
concert. But he did not stop the
concert. He made the best out of his
limited situation. Dorcas was even far
greater than Paganini, as she sacrificed her own comfort, prospect of wealth
and power and fame, and thus her own glory, so that she could help the poor
widows get their dignity and honor once more.
Jesus is greater than Paganini or Dorcas or even Peter, as He sacrificed
His heavenly comfort, His eternal glory, His right not to enter into the sinful
world, so that He could make a positive impact for your life and mine. And much more than just a positive impact,
but to give His life as The sacrifice, so we could forever live with God for
all eternity. He entered the sinful
world, so we all could become like Him, to live a life as God’s children who
would bless others through our good works.
And brothers and sisters, this is God’s marvelous grace for you and
me. My prayer for you is that we all
would make the most of this opportunity, to glorify our Lord and to be a
channel of blessings to others. Amen!
[1] R. C. H.
Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the
Apostles
(Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 388.
[2] R. Kent
Hughes, Acts: The Church Afire, Preaching
the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1996), 141.
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