A TRUE WHODUNIT….by Robert Beike
(Peter…addressed the people:) “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or godliness we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus?…”
(Acts 3:12-13)
The picture of the church in the book of Acts is not a still life portrait, but rather a serial-action adventure motion picture. The episode in Acts 3 is a true whodunit best viewed in 3-D. It begins with amazing special effects, as a lame man is dramatically and completely healed, which produces a mystery that peter unravels for the baffled onlookers. Like a detective in a parlor full of anxious guests, Peter deflects attention from the obvious suspects and directs their focus to the responsible parties.
Peter is not afraid to name names. First he identifies the source of the miracle, and next the true guilty parties. “Why do you stare at us, Peter begins, “as though by our own power or godliness we have made him walk?” “We didn’t do it!” “It’s a God thing!” The fisherman turned fisher of men then launched out into the deep water of explaining God’s amazing grace to a thoroughly amazed audience. Tracing clues through the Old Testament, Peter connects the known with the unknown, demonstrating how the evidence points to a greater power than their own. The miracle’s true whodunit is identified as “Jesus Christ the Nazarene” (Acts 3:6), a.k.a. God’s “Servant” (Acts 3:13), “the Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14), and “the source of life, whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:15). The names reveal the man, His mission, His character and ultimate power, and Peter insists that it was faith in the name of Jesus that made the lame man whole.
After pointing them to the one who healed the lame man, Peter then pointed an accusing finger at them. In a twist of irony, they had chose to crucify the very one God chose to glorify. They preferred to grant life to a guilty murderer, and put to death the holy, righteous, giver of life. They plotted to have Jesus dead and buried, but God raised Him from the dead. Now, in spite of their evil schemes, because Jesus lives, they had a chance to re-script their life stories.
Explaining God’s whodunit in the world is a part all Christians must embrace. As God acts, our role is to deflect attention from ourselves and defer to the real star—Jesus Christ. Keeping His name on the marquee of our lives and making His story the feature presentation in our circles of influence is the action-adventure to which we’ve been called. Know whodunit in your own life. Learn the back story by reading the Bible. Prepare through prayer. Rehearse daily. Seek cues from the Holy Spirit. Lights! Action! You’re on!
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