The text of Acts 3, 1-10 is the first miraculous story recorded by Luke in the book of Acts. It is connected with the preceding text, Acts 2, 43, which states, “Many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles”. The heart of this story is that these wonders and miracles were done “in the name of Jesus-Christ of Nazareth” (v. 6): hence, the Lord saves human beings through Jesus, via “salvation”. Salvation is thus the principal theme of Acts, its narrative being centrally concerned with the realization of God’s purpose to bring
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salvation in all of its fullness to all people.349 God so loved the world that he sent his only beloved son into the world so that, “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3, 16). This links to the “programme speech” of Jesus, “the Kingdom of God come to the earth, so that those who are poor, marginalized, prisoners and oppressed must be free and recover the light of joy (Luke 4, 18-19)”. Jesus encountered people with disabilities through his healing and miracles, because he preferred to spend time with the ‘least’ rather than with people of wealth, influence, power or even those in the religious hierarchy” (John 9, Mark 2, 17).350
Therefore, the book of Acts is a continuation of Jesus’ action through and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The connection between Acts 2, 43, and Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2, 28-32) demonstrated “the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’ disciples and announces the Good News with healing and miracles”.351 In other words, the healing and miracles in the Gospels and in the book of Acts show how the excluded have been integrated into society by Jesus’
ministry, emulated by the apostles.352
The re-reading of this text with its picture of healing will lead to an understanding of inclusive healing, in the sense that the marginalized are included in this healing, but also in the sense that the healing is “holistic healing”, rather than focusing on either physical or spiritual healing only.
The next part I will explain how I constructed the CBS questions and the relevance of my theoretical framework of this study, which are liberation theology of disability, the psycho- spiritual aspect of personality and Christian education, in each question of this current passage.
349 Ralph P. Martin & Peter H. Davids, Salvation in Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments.
(England: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 19; William R. Farmer, Acts 3, 1-11: The Cure of the Lame man in The International Bible Commentary: A Catholic and Ecumenical Commentary for Twenty-First Century (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1998), 1514.
350 Joni Eareckson <http://www.lausaneworldpulse.com/811-207?pig=all> ][ 22/05/2011.
351 R. E. Brown et al, Acts 3, 1-11, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1948) ; 735.
352 Matt Desmonds states that the “divine healings” are commonplace in the Old and New Testaments and the Gospels record over forty healing miracles in the ministry of Jesus (Matt Desmonds, A Theological Diagnosis:
A New Direction on Genetic Therapy, ‘Disability’ and the Ethics of Healing. (London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2011), 141).
151 6.1.1 Construction of Contextual Bible Study
It should be remembered that the CBS questions were the result of a workshop held with Patricia Bruce, Gerald West and I held in November 2008. Our individual experiences and expertise related to disability informed this workshop.353
The time-frame for the Bible study was one hour. This Bible study was held two weeks after the previous two Bible studies.
The questions on the text were as follows:
1. Re-tell the story to each other beginning with “once upon a time”.
2. What is this text about?
3. Who are the principal characters and what are their relationships?
4. Why does the disabled man sit outside the temple?
5. Do people notice the disabled man? If yes, how do they see him?
6. What are the different ways in which the disabled man is healed?
7. What are the normal ways in which we respond to people with disabilities and how does this text challenge us to respond differently?
8. What is your action plan after reading this text?
I will next explain how each CBS question is constructed with reference to my theories and methods.
The first question, “Re-tell the story to each other beginning with “once upon a time”, gives the participants the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the text by retelling it in their own words. This question leads participants into the process, and helps the facilitator to understand different versions of the story.
The second question, “What is this text about?” assists the participants to connect the text with their context, which CBS calls, “community consciousness”. This question is an open question which allows participants to express what they do think about the text. However, the
353 See detailed information in chapter 1, section on Methodology.
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intention behind this is to see whether participants can discover other themes related to diverse healing than what it is clearly expressed in the text.
The third question, “Who are the principal characters and what are their relationships?”
leads the participants to the text which in CBS is called, “critical consciousness”, meaning it offers resources from biblical scholarship, by drawing on literary analysis. This question is supported by a liberation theology of disability, which deals with recognition of identity and relationship with God and people, and is intended to help participants to understand the character like the “crippled man”, why he does not have a name and his relationship to God and to people.
The fourth question, “Why does the disabled man sit outside the temple?” again invites the participants to focus on the text. The themes which come out of the text such as “temple”, and “Beautiful Gate” in v.3 might require a socio-historical and cultural viewpoint for a richer understanding of the text. The theories of a liberation theology of disability which deals with inclusion, and also Christian education, which focuses on liberation and empowerment, motivated the question in order to make participants (who were church leaders) aware of the situation of people with disabilities in the church.
The fifth question, “Do people notice the disabled man? If yes, how do they see him?”
invites participants into the text. The theory of Christian education was applied to construct this question, which involves an awareness and empowerment of church leaders of the situation of PWDs in church and society.
The sixth question, “What are the different ways in which the disabled man is healed?”
retains attention on the text, especially on v. 4-10. It shows the basis of this Bible study in the sense that through this question, participants would discover that there is more than one way of healing in this passage. The theory of Christian education as a basis in this Bible study, led participants to understand the disability issue and could form part of the training programme for church leaders; it could also empower PWDs who have received prayer for healing without a “successful response”354.
354 I mention “successful response” in showing that most people think that healing should be spectacular and physical. The concept of healing has affected many PWDs who have been prayed for without success of their healing miracle; and some of them even think that healing texts in the Bible are legendary.
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The seventh question, “What are the normal ways in which we respond to people with disabilities? And how does this text challenge us to respond differently?” returns the participants to the first question by focusing on their context. This is called, “community consciousness” in CBS, and it invites participants to link the text to their context. This is a challenging question for PWDs. Here again, the theory of Christian education motivated the question for conscientization and empowerment of church leaders.
The eighth question, “What is your action plan after reading this text?” is the last question in this Bible study. It brings the participants back to their context. The intention behind this question is to challenge church leaders to make concrete action plans for the programme of disability.
6.2 Participants
I conducted the Bible study on Acts 3, 1-11 with Presbyterian Church leaders and with religion lecturers. The intention was to include more people with disabilities in this Bible study session, along with church leaders and lecturers, as they had already been introduced to CBS, but only two people with disabilities were able to attend. The group had 73 participants, 33 of whom were male pastors and 40 were women (7 pastors, 31 pastors’ wives and 2 persons with disabilities) aged 34 to 73 years old.
The venue was at one of the Presbyterian parishes, “CPK Lemba”.