Tuesday, many of us were on our way somewhere. We had plans—meetings to attend, work to do, errands to run and friends to visit. I left the house to attend a meeting on East Brainerd Road, and once I arrived there it became clear that this was not just some idle snow drifting across the roads. It was turning our home into a treacherous driving hazard. I swung through the church and made my way home, but by the time I arrived at the foot of our subdivision, it was too late. The hill had frozen solid, and as several of us stood there, wondering just what to do, we watched a helpless car slide feebly down the hill and into two more that had already met. It was a chaotic mess, a scene repeated countless times across the south on Tuesday as cars danced across sleek roads, as schools dismissed students to parents unable to reach them, as people sat in traffic, desperate to get home and yet unable to move at any speed beyond a crawl.
Out of this scene came uplifting stories of people willing to help, willing to reach out and lend a hand when a friend, neighbor or stranger needed it. In some places, this looked like teachers staying overnight with frightened children at closed schools. In others, it looked like individuals going out and dragging other cars out of ditches. Strangers were taken in and meals were given out, all in the name of selflessness. In our subdivision, this reaching out looked like people giving others a ride home on an ATV so they didn’t have to walk through the snow to reach home.
Reaching out. It often looks so easy, but it rarely is, because the opportunities tend to intrude upon us. It’s always easier to stay inside, to stay safe and warm and let the world slip by on the outside. By as Christians, we’re called to respond to interruptions with grace and selflessness. This is what Jesus constantly did—whether it was a bleeding woman grasping the hem of his garment or a beggar crying out for mercy, Jesus responded with patience and grace, often giving far more than the individual could have dreamed of.
Once Jesus ascended into heaven, empowering his disciples to carry on his mission, we see the same mercy and grace when faced with interruptions.
Here, in Acts 3, Peter and John are on the way to the temple to pray. There, between the two of them and prayer, there was a beggar who had loyal friends who carried him there every day to beg. He sat, expecting silver or gold to be tossed his way. From his birth he had been lame, so he had never walked a day in his life.
Then Peter and John show up and, looking down, Peter tells the man to look at them.
At this point, the man looks up, expecting some trifling amount of money to be handed over. Instead, he receives some far more valuable—Peter heals the man in the name of Jesus Christ. Peter reached down, took him by the hand, and helped him up, verse 7 tells us.
Peter reached down—he reached down from his standing position, stooping over to welcome this man into a new life, a new world, a new way of seeing things. Miracles that were now commonplace to Peter now enveloped this man, and he leapt and shouted and gave praise and glory to God.
Peter wasn’t afraid to reach down into this man’s world, and his outstretched hand indicated a love, a willingness to be selfless. Peter was clear about what he couldn’t offer, but in grace he reached down and welcomed the man into something new, all in the name of Christ.
Peter seizes the opportunity to tell those whose attention this healing has captured all about the grace and favor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter asks them the most ridiculous question of all, wondering why they would be amazed at such a thing, but then goes on to explain that something even more miraculous has happened in their midst. Peter is once more reaching down, from his position of one who has faith to the very people who shouted for Christ to be crucified. But, rather than judge, Peter reaches out in love to welcome others into faith. Peter explains in verse 16 that it was the power of faith in Jesus’ name that healed the man. Here, Peter reaches out once more, reaching out in love to those who are ignorant of just who Christ is.
Naturally, no good deed goes unpunished. The priests show up and throw Peter and John in jail. Peter and John are in a position where they could be afraid, but Jesus lives up to his promise in Matthew 10 and the Holy Spirit is with them. Peter speaks boldly about Jesus Christ, about how he was crucified but raised from the dead, and that there is no other name by which we might be saved. Peter could have kept to himself in fear, or he could have deprived them of this message out of spite for their arrest of him, but he once more reaches out with a message of love and forgiveness. We see this pattern over and over in the early church—when opportunities present themselves to be still or be calm, or to turn inward, the church reaches down, reaches out, and they seek to display the love of God.
Because this is what God does: God reaches out to us. God reaches down into our lives, into our sin, into our rejection of him, and he offers us forgiveness and grace. Not because he has to, but because he wants to see us healed, he wants to see us brought into eternal life with him. There is more power in the name of Jesus Christ than we can ever imagine, and God’s willingness to reach down to us sees that power crucified on the cross. The power of the name is focused on destroying sin and death, the enemies that bind us. Christ takes all of our sin upon himself, subjecting himself to the worst that evil can throw at him, because he wants to reach down to us.
Each and every one of us were in a ditch, one that happened because we couldn’t avoid it. We’re like cars, sliding on ice, trying desperately to make our way forward but constantly careening into one another and whatever surrounds us. We can’t help ourselves, try as we might, and we need someone to reach out, to reach down, to pull us up and wash us of the stains we have accumulated over the years. This is exactly what Christ does for us—reaches down, reaches out, and pulls us to safety, calling us to do the same to the hurting and stricken world around us.
Let us pray
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