Tabitha made an impact

Phil Cobb
Karen Fulton First Presbyterian Church Elder

Last week, I looked at Tabitha’s place in the story of Peter and the early church. At first glance it might seem everything that could be said about Tabitha/Dorcas has been said, but no. Who was Tabitha in life? How did she function in the early church of Joppa. What did others think of her?

Unlike Lydia, Tabitha doesn’t speak for herself. We learn the answers to these questions from those around her.

First, she is a woman of power in the church. Like Lydia, she seems to host the gatherings at her house. She is surrounded by people who care about her. They wash her and place her in an upper room. They respect her enough that they send couriers to Lydda to implore Peter, the highest-ranking member of the church, to come immediately. And he does. To bury her? To give her a valedictory send-off for all she has done? To get a sense of her standing, imagine the head of your denomination being begged to come to your funeral.

How has she functioned? We are told that living, she was devoted to good works and acts of charity. Not only did she host a church, she was active in the community: feeding the hungry and caring for the sick. Like Jesus, she reached out to the poor, the hungry, the sorrowful, the outsider. She is a model of what Peter will preach in the following chapter when he opens the church to all, but especially those Jesus blessed in the beatitudes.

When Peter reaches Joppa, and goes to the house/church, he is confronted with a group of “widows” who cry and display the clothing and tunics that “Dorcas made when she was with them” (Acts 9: 39).

What a remarkable scene. Widows (the cast asides, the outsiders) have found a home and place with Dorcas/Tabitha. Normally widows were marginalized. In this church, they found acceptance and Tabitha’s death left them bereft. They can only hold up the clothing and tunics that she has made to show her worth.

“Look!!” they seem to be saying to Peter through their tears. “This is how she cared for us. This is what she left us. What will we do without her? Where will we go?”

While they speak of clothing, they are uttering an unspoken prayer for her to be returned to them.

Something in their grief must have moved Peter. This group of women mourning the loss of a caring woman who looked after them, in the presence of her body, must have touched him. No man spoke. Instead it is the women who communicate their need to Peter.

He responded by putting everyone outside, kneeling down and praying. Unlike the healing of Aeneas which precedes this incident, Peter is not looking down. Instead in Tabitha’s presence, he looked up to her from his knees. He was suppliant when healing her.

In healing Aeneas, Peter called on Jesus Christ to heal Aeneas’ paralysis. In raising Tabitha, the reader sees a much more intimate scene. There is no need to say Jesus’ name. Tabitha and Peter had faith that Jesus was there, responding to the need of the widows and the call to “get up.”

Tabitha’s resurrection converts many people in Joppa. Her impact alive was compounded and expanded by being raised from the dead.