Last year I published a post on Acts Chapter 3 on beggar who was healed at the gate Beautiful, this morning I read in my daily devotional I use (Word for Today) a piece on the same chapter. As usual my mind went off at a tangent and thought on an entirely different aspect of this chapter than that which the devotional dwelt on. I thought of the men who had been observed carrying him to the vicinity of the Temple. There is no record of them thanking Peter and John for healing the beggar. As Peter and John were arrested in the evening which was when one would expect they men to have returned to collect the beggar and take him home. Possibly expecting a share of his takings for carrying there and back. No doubt they thought that they were doing a good deed only to be upstaged by the apostles. My suspicion is that they then complained to the Temple authorities which then resulted in the arrests. After all the former beggar had been celebrating his healing for several hours before any action was taken. Their relationship with the beggar had clearly changed. He was no longer dependent on them for his mobility. It could have easily caused their resentment, how much is, of course, speculation. When a child is born it is dependent upon its parents, but as it grows it slowly becomes stronger it becomes more independent. Some parents have difficulty in accepting how much their children are maturing and are sometimes shocked when they begin to act independently. In the Christian life spiritual authority figures can be glad when new believers mature sufficiently that they are no longer the spiritual equivalent of being breast-fed and needing their nappies changed. But when they begin to listen to other preachers, or adopt other styles of worship, then resentment can easily arise and they try to become very controlling. Parents can sometimes be shocked when their children reach some milestone or another. Equally, there are occasions where parents still treat their adult offspring as if they were children. My father related to me that his mother would insist on holding his hand if they were crossing a road as if he was still a schoolboy, he said he was mortified when that happened. It is impossible to stop children getting older, but spiritually we can remain immature. The danger is that church leadership want people to be disciples of themselves rather than Christ and that causes resentment when young believers show too much initiative. Paul claimed that some Christians were still on milk when they should be eating meat, the question today is:- “are some churches deliberately keeping their congregations on spiritual baby food?”
David Rose, 2015.