Acts 14
The healing of the lame man at Lystra made a great stir in the town. Lystra was a wild place. The traditional meaning of the name was wolf-land, and the character of the people corresponded to this designation. They were easily excited and knew no self control. Paul was preaching and this lame man was in the audience. He had been a cripple – “a creeple,” one who creeps – from his infancy. He had never walked. There seems to have been no request from the man himself for healing. There was something, however, in him which interested Paul. Probably it was the man’s infirmity. His condition made its own appeal. As Paul observed him from time to time, he noticed his intentness and earnestness, and saw that the man was accepting Christ. So he spoke to him, saying, “Stand upright on thy feet.” Instantly the man’s faith responded, and he leaped up and walked.
People say there are no miracles in these days, and that if there were they would believe on Christ. But are there no miracles? Christianity itself is the most marvelous miracle the world ever knew. We have but to think what it has wrought in the world. Every day we see about us evidences of a divine power in the changing of lives, and in victories over weakness, temptation, sin and sorrow.
The effect of the miracle upon the people was startling. “When the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying … The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.” What they said was true in a sense. God had come down in the likeness of men in Jesus Christ. Christ had returned to heaven, having accomplished his work on the earth, but now he lived again in the lives of these missionaries who had come to ell the people of God’s love and mercy. God himself, though unseen, walks ever with us and lives among us. We do not need to go far to find him. Christ lives also in all his true followers. “Christ liveth in me,” said Paul himself. We do not need to speak of Christ’s kindnesses in the past tense.
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