Devotion - Acts 3:2-3

(2) And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; (3) who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms.

We already know what Peter and John are doing there…but I want to paint a picture as to the other man in this context…the man “lame from his mother’s womb.” This man was born lame and unable to walk. He didn’t ask to be that way. It wasn’t some sort of injury that happened to him. No, his entire life he has had this issue. His entire life he has been a “special needs” person in a world where special needs people are burdens. These people were looked at as if they had done something wrong or that it was because of some sin from their parents that had caused this…

Let me further this train of thought so you can have some back story and to what might be playing through the minds of Peter and John when they come across this man…

John 9: 1-7

(1) Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (3) Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. (4) I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. (5) As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (6) When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. (7) And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

There is a deep truth here that isn’t for the faint of heart…

Can you see the disciple’s train of thought concerning the man who is blind? This is pretty much just like the situation we are seeing in the man that is sitting at the temple door. This blind man has been this way since birth, but he isn’t that way because of some sin he had or that his parents had in their life. No, Christ proclaims that this man was blind so that the works of God should be revealed in him. That is a powerful statement.
What Christ is basically saying is that this man has found himself exactly where he is at in life for such a time as this…that he would be presented before Jesus and that the glory of God would be revealed by the miraculous healing. If you look even closer at how he did it…it leaves some insight as to why this was an important moment…
He spit on the ground and the scripture says He made some “clay”. Is God not the potter and are we not the clay? I believe with all my heart that in this very scripture, Christ was not being unusual but rather being quite obviously visual about whom He was and what He was…which is…the Living God, the Great Physician, and The Potter that has power over the clay.

Something else I want to point out…

In the New Testament time special needs people were not considered anything of worth…and yet Jesus found worth in them. As a matter of fact…Jesus built a ministry around them. If you think back of all of the NT stories…most of them are built around signs and wonders…it is not to say that Christ ministry was about signs and wonders…because it wasn’t…and it’s unfortunate today that there are ministries out there that seem to be conceived only upon that premise…Nevertheless Jesus used these opportunities to place value on the what the public viewed as of no value…and nothing is changed unto this day.