The word “beggar” has gone out of fashion. I’d guess it’s not your immediate label for the folks you encounter at traffic intersections or on the peripheries of parking lots as they hold up cardboard signs or ask you directly for spare change. I’m not sure what the proper term is now. Perhaps it’s better that there not be catchall category and that we regard each person in need simply as another human being and try to understand his or her plight in its own unique character.
Yet the activity of “begging” persists, whether it’s a homeless person seeking help from a passerby or a recognized charity soliciting by mail or a child pestering a parent for a toy. Much of it leaves somewhat of a poor taste in our mouths. We teach pets to beg, but don’t feel it to be an honorable activity for people.
That negative perspective on begging may be part of why some find biblical faith so distasteful. As our text for this Sunday highlights for us, our relationship to God is often to be in the position of beggar, asking for the help we need. Acts 3:1-10 does not use the word “beggar,” but the man in the story is often characterized as “the beggar at the Beautiful Gate.” He is crippled, unable to walk and friends bring him there everyday to beg alms from those entering the temple. Peter and John encounter him much the same way you and I meet those who beg at street corners.
I don’t know about you, but in those meetings with needy people I never have the confidence and courage with which Peter and John greeted the beggar at the temple gate. Peter looked directly at the man and asked him to return the gaze (it’s likely that beggars were expected to advert their eyes from those they were soliciting). Peter then confidently declares the lack of any financial gift and then offers something far better.
The text raises a couple issues for us. First, how might we follow in the footsteps of the apostles in our own relations with people in need? Even if we cannot offer a miracle of healing, do we have something better to give than some coins or bills to meet a temporary need or desire? Much helping ministry in our own church and community at least tries to operate on the basis that folks need genuine relationship with others and with God as much or more than they need food, clothing, shelter, money, etc. At its best, this principle is not an excuse to withhold the material help, but a desire to come alongside and befriend people in a way that may lead to more lasting solutions, just like the return of the crippled man’s mobility. There’s much more to say about this, but the idea of befriending those in need points us toward the second issue.
If we are going to genuinely befriend people in need, then there must be some acknowledgement of commonality. We are not completely different, and especially not really any better, than the people who ask us for help. As the old phrase goes, we are “beggars all.” The last bit of writing by Martin Luther expressed his consistent understanding of our need for God’s help and grace, even to understand the Bible. Just before he died, Luther wrote, “We are beggars. This is true.”
Acknowledging our own beggarly need for God and His grace is the foundation of a true relationship with Him and a power to transform our relationships with others, including those who seek our help. When we realize that we do not stand above those we help, but come together with them to seek God’s help, to draw on the same divine source of strength and provision, then it’s easier to drop the barriers which divide us from the poor, the sick, and the stranger. In relation to our Lord we too are helpless like the beggar at the temple, not even knowing for what we truly need to ask.