Daily Devotional • June 23
A Reading from Acts 5:12-26
12 Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. 14 Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. 16 A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.
17 Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, 18 arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, 20 “Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.” 21 When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.
When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22 But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, 23 “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” 24 Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perplexed about them, wondering what might be going on. 25 Then someone arrived and announced, “Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!” 26 Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
Meditation
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, “a large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick” (John 6:2). A little farther along, Jesus told the disciples, “Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these” (John 14:12). In today’s reading, we find a fulfillment of Jesus’ promise.
Just as a sick woman once touched Jesus’ garment to be healed, now the people are eager even for Peter’s shadow to fall on them. The chiefmost desire for some, probably most, of these folks is someone’s healing. Even so, they recognize that the healing comes from the power of the disciples who heal in Jesus’ name; we read that “multitudes…were added to the Lord” (Acts 5:14).
Have such miraculous healings continued since the apostolic age? Do they occur today? Indeed they do. Probably a good number of the readers of this devotion can bear testimony to a miraculous healing. Miracles rarely occur for one who has no faith; sometimes a miracle can affirm a faith in one who has been leaning that way already; and the faithful find healings now and then as a normal part of discipleship.
More curious are those who do see such a miracle without having faith, yet who persevere is their unbelief. In today’s reading, so it is with the high priest and those who are with him. These are the ones who also saw the eye-popping miracles that Jesus performed himself, such as the raising of Lazarus, and yet persisted in their unbelief with ever-growing hostility. The lesson says it was because they were “filled with jealousy.” Like Herod at the time of Jesus’ birth, nothing was more important to them than to remain in their positions of power. It is very sad, but the Gospel continues unabated, then and now.
David Baumann is a published writer of nonfiction, science fiction, and short stories. In his ministry as an Episcopal priest, he served congregations in Illinois and California.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, McKinney, Texas
The Diocese of Nakuru – The Anglican Church of Kenya
