Imitating Jesus
by Pauline Simonsen
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Peter said to him, ‘Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat’. Immediately Aeneas got up (Acts 9:34).
Read Acts 9:32–43
‘I have set you an example, that you should do as I have done’, Jesus told his disciples in the upper room on the night before his death.
Peter takes this instruction to heart! Much later, after Jesus’ ascension, after Pentecost, the apostles are taking the word of life abroad: Philip to the Ethiopian official and to the coastal towns; Saul to Damascus and Tarsus; and Peter around Judea.
Our reading today shows Peter imitating his Lord, repeating miracles that Jesus did first. Using the words that Jesus used to the paralysed man in Mark 2:11, Peter tells paralysed Aeneas, ‘Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat’. And Aeneas walks! As with Jesus’ healing back in Capernaum, the miracle has a profound effect on the townspeople.
Peter is called on to Joppa, where a dearly loved believer named Tabitha has died. Peter remembers how his Lord raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead, and so he copies Jesus (in Mark 5:40–42), putting all the mourners out of the room, commanding the dead body: ‘Tabitha, get up’. Like Jairus’ daughter, Tabitha sits up, alive! As Jesus did, Peter takes her hand and helps her up and gives her back to her loved ones. Peter has literally ‘learned from the master’, and trusting in the power of Jesus’ name, speaks the words of his Lord to heal people.
Paul also learned this principle of imitating, passing on to others what he himself had received from the Lord Jesus. ‘Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me’, says Paul to the Philippians, ‘put it into practice’ (Philippians 4:9). And to the Thessalonians: ‘you became imitators of us and of the Lord … a model to all the believers’ (1 Thessalonians 1:5–7).
And so the word of life, spoken by Jesus, is passed on and on and on, as God’s people learn from their forerunners in the faith, and in turn pass Jesus’ words and ways on to those who come after.
Who have you heard the words of life from? Who taught you the ways of Jesus, the Master? Thank God for them now.
And who are you passing the word of life on to?
Father, thank you for giving us your word of life in your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for those who spoke your word of life to us. Continue to plant your word in us, and grow us in the pattern of your Son, so we bear the word to others. Amen.
Pauline Simonsen is the dean of Emmaus, a Christian training provider for adults in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Pauline is also a spiritual director and enjoys leading retreats or guest speaking for the wider Christian church. She is married to Roger, and they live with two much-loved cats in the beautiful Manawatu region of New Zealand.
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