To anyone who knows her, Joanne is not a significant person. Honestly, chances are, Joanne will never accomplish anything significant. In the town that she lives in, Joanne is never going to be someone who people in town will see as an important person. Joanne is the person the people in town would walk around to get ahead in life.
Joanne had no known relatives, she had no real friends and many stores in town would simply ask her to turn around and leave as soon as she walked through the door. Now, Joanne wasn’t homeless, she somehow acquired a small dilapidated house which she had completely furnished by hauling off stuff people left on the curb for the garbage men to pick up. (You know how you place an old T.V. or something by the curb and maybe someone will pass by and pick it up) - It was really quite impressive, a large T.V., a couch, a full dinning room set….how she got the refrigerator into her kitchen all by herself, I could never figure out as she couldn’t drive a car.
Joanne had dropped out of school somewhere around the sixth grade and had been in trouble ever since – even spending several years in jail, convicted of accessory to murder. On top of all this, Joanne had an unusual form of epilepsy and had seizures quite often. The state had provided her with a large black Labrador trained to help her with her epileptic seizures and they also provided her with a small subsidy to help her make ends meet. Joanne spent most of her day wandering around town with her black Labrador.
In this same town, I was an associate pastor in a church where a majority of the powerful people in town attended: Many of the physicians; The majority of the politicians; All the Bank presidents; A large number of the attorneys (yes, I know what you’re thinking, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing either); Almost everyone with a major business in town; Even the commander of the local military base was there front and center each Sunday; It seemed that if you were a person of any kind of importance, this was the church that you would attend. Every Sunday it was a gathering of the important and the powerful.
This is the church that Joanne decided that she was going to attend. To the shock of many of the folks at this church, every Sunday, she would walk in late during the first hymn and sit in the front pew with her dog laying at her feet. After service, she would hang out eating doughnuts and drinking large amounts of coffee, her dog in tow, every step of the way. Of course, all the children loved Joanne and her dog. Joanne would dole out doughnuts to the kids from the high counter, (this church kept the doughnuts up high so the kids would not eat them all) doughnuts that were reserved for the adults, and let the children pet her dog and feed him powdered doughnuts, he liked powdered doughnuts – quite the mess. I hate to admit it, but a few of the ladies repeatedly suggested that Joanne, “explore the possibility of attending another church”.
In spite of the frequent “suggestions”, Joanne just kept showing up, and one Sunday morning, Joanne, rose up in the middle of the service and walked forward to give her heart over to Jesus Christ. She had a powerful conversion experience and soon after, in spite of many objections, Joanne not only was accepted into membership at the church, but soon found herself on the board of deacons – who gave her the deacon tasks no one else wanted to do; They gave her things to do that they felt really didn’t matter, because they knew Joanne was going to mess things up anyway.
Soon enough, some of the ladies tried to have Joanne removed from the board of deacons – but they couldn’t. See, Joanne was now always at the church. She was always doing the things others ignored – AND Joanne had become good friends with the local Brain Surgeon, a very powerful man who put the kibosh on any plans to remove Joanne.
I left that church years ago, and of all the many wonderful people from that congregation, who do I remember with the most fondness? Joanne. She was the one who had the most impact upon my life during my time at that church. I found that in spite of my many flaws, my many mistakes and my lack of experience – It was Joanne who was the most gentle with me, the most generous, the most forgiving and the most kind – Now I can’t put a finger on exactly what she did, yet she was the one who had the greatest impact upon my life, far above all the other important and impressive people in the church.
Why is that? Why is it that this woman, who I can’t even remember exactly what she did, why is it that she had the most impact upon my life?
Because through the Lord Jesus Christ, the insignificant become significant.
Through the Lord Jesus Christ, the things that don’t seem to matter at all, in fact, come to matter very much.
In our Scripture this morning we have the story of Tabitha. Tabitha was just an ordinary woman in the city of Joppa, who did ordinary everyday things, for ordinary everyday people. She didn’t preach before thousands. She didn’t stand before governors and kings. She didn’t write a powerful theological set of commentaries or perform astounding feats -
she simply served those who were in need. She simply did what needed to be done, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, for us, Tabitha is one of those people who is almost a footnote in Scripture. She is someone who many of us pass over when we read the Bible. For us, Tabitha, is a minor character in the building of the early church, a person of no real significance. But for God, Tabitha is so significant, that He raises her from the dead.
At this point in the early church, persecution has erupted. Christians have scattered, fleeing the wrath of Saul, who was charged with eliminating the church. Many, many people have died, martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. Many faithful followers of Jesus Christ have already died as we arrive here at chapter 9 in the book of Acts, but none of them have been brought back to life, none of them have been resurrected from the dead. Even Stephen, a strong and powerful man of God, who was stoned to death for preaching the Word, even Stephen was not brought back for the dead.
Tabitha is the first person that God raises from the dead after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Tabitha is so significant in the eyes of God, so important to the continuing work of the building of the kingdom of God, that God needs to have this woman brought back. This woman, who others might pass by on the street without a second look is so significant that the building of the early church cannot go on without her. This woman who we pass over as a footnote in the kingdom of God is the one who God deems the only one among thousands who is significant enough to bring back from the dead. Let us also note that not a single one of the twelve disciples were brought back from the dead – yet Tabitha was.
Significance in the kingdom of God, it turns out, is not defined by accomplishment, nor status, nor ecclesiastical power, popularity, impressive book sales or even massive global impact – Significance in the kingdom of God, it turns out….is defined by the Holy Spirit. Significance in the kingdom of God has nothing to do with our imagined concept of what is significance in life.
Years ago, in the same church I mentioned earlier, one of my tasks as an associate pastor was to go through the list of people who were on the rolls, but didn’t come to church anymore. My task was to visit these people, find out why they chose not to attend the church anymore, and then try to convince them to give it another try. So late one morning I went out to visit an elderly gentleman who was on the church rolls, but never attended.
He had a beautiful house, quite large and elaborate, not unusual for the members of that congregation. We sat down in the living room to talk and after a little chit chat he informed me that he had some friends he needed to join for a round of golf – clearly, he was not thrilled that his wife had said yes to me coming to visit that day. I asked him, “if he had been playing golf long, or if he was just learning to play the game”. He looked at me as if I was completely out of my mind and blurted out, “Don’t you know who I am? How could you say an insulting thing like that?” Now, I had no idea who he was, to me, he was a name on a list of church non-attendees that I needed to visit. To me he was just an fairly well off retired American who wasn’t going to church
Well, he got quite animated and told me that not only was he a retired professional golfer, but that he was also a retired professional baseball pitcher. He went on and on about the tournaments he had won and about the different professional baseball teams he had played for. Well, I’m not a sports guy, and so all of his references just had me drawing a blank. Finally, exasperated he led me to his trophy room.
His trophy room was lined with trophies and awards. There were signed baseball bats and gloves. There were piles of old baseballs, several sets of golf clubs and quite a few old photographs. He led me over to the photos and pointed himself out, clearly a player for professional baseball teams. “What do you think of all this?”, he inquired at the exact same time that I blurted out – “Hey I know these guys, that’s the Mr. Coffee guy, Joe DiMaggio and that’s Mickey Mantle.” Indeed, the man I was visiting was in uniform in the photo standing next right next to Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.
All this turned out to be too much for this man. He shouted at me, “You recognize Joe DiMaggio and you recognize Mickey Mantle, but you don’t know who I am!” and he ushered me right out of the house.
As I walked to my car I thought, “THAT didn’t go too well”, realizing that he certainly wasn’t going to be coming back to church anytime soon.
We live our lives and in various ways we attempt to become people of significance. We work hard and try to become the best at this or that, or known for this thing or that thing. We believe to be significant we need to conform to our society’s notion of success, or prominence, or even of reputation. Certainly striving to be the best, and striving to accomplish is not a bad thing, in fact as Christians we should strive for excellence in our work – but as Christians we should be very concerned with this question in all of our striving: Am I striving to be a person of significance for my own benefit, or am I striving to be a person of significance for the benefit of my Lord Jesus Christ?
Could our striving for significance be in vain? Our society teaches us that the more significant we are, the more impact we can have. Is that true? Our Scripture this morning doesn’t seem to be saying that, does it?
Looking at verse 36 in our text we see that Tabitha lived in Joppa. Joppa is on the coast of the Mediterranean sea and now is part of modern day Tel-Aviv in the state of Israel.
The name Tabitha is Aramaic for gazelle, which in Hebrew Tabitha would be Zambia. The book of Acts translates her name into the Greek, Dorcus, which also means gazelle. Now Dorcus isn’t the most romantic way to say gazelle among the three languages is it? Why would Acts emphasize the name Dorcus? We see that the name Dorcus comes from a root word meaning “to see”. Luke, who wrote this book, is pointing out to us right up front that Tabitha is a woman who can “see” what the kingdom of God is truly about.
Tabitha is noted as a person who is willing to help out those in need. She is a person of faith in action.
She becomes sick and dies and they ready her for burial (verse 37). So they bring her up to the upper room in the house, perhaps those who bring her upstairs are thinking of the prophet Elijah, who, in the book of 1kings 17:19, takes the widow’s son to the upper room where God heals her son. Perhaps they are hoping for the impossible. They place Tabitha upstairs in the upper room and call Peter (verse 38).
What were they expecting? Why are they calling Peter? Up to this point in the history of the church, many had been healed, but no one had been raised from the dead other than Jesus Christ himself. Maybe they are not sure what to expect, but they call Peter anyway. They may even realize that if Jesus was raised from the dead, perhaps others will be raised as well.
Now, usually the upper room of a residence was as a rule, one of the smaller rooms in the house in this part of the Roman Empire. Yet a number of women have gathered in the room where Tabitha is laid. Mourners who gathered at the bedside of the deceased were usually relatives, here this is not the case. Here, those who gather are the ones who Tabitha served in her life. Here we see that those who are not related to Tabitha are the first on the scene to show their great sorrow. This shows how loved she was. This also shows what a great impact she had on the community. Those gathered are not those obligated to gather, rather it is those whose lives have been impacted by her love that gather.
This Scripture here is not talking about random acts of kindness, like we see on bumper stickers around town; and this Scripture is not about some sort of silly notion that the good energy that you put out travels from person to person, or some crazy idea that if I somehow produce enough good works, the world will be a better place….NO, this is not about some empty philosophy of the random universe - This is about the person of Jesus Christ transforming, something small that we do, something insignificant that we do - something we may see as a mindless detail, this is about Jesus Christ taking the ordinary things we do and molding them into something powerful.
Peter arrives and heads up to the upper room. There the women are gathered and they present to Peter what Tabitha had done for them. This is not some sort of a fashion show, in fact these may be the only clothes these women own. They are in effect saying, “I literally had nothing to wear but rags, and this woman before you gave us our dignity back”. Now it appears she did sewing for them, but it is more likely that she did a lot more than just sewing. It appears that she met quite a bit of their needs. And I want us to note that Tabitha didn’t write a check, Tabitha just did what needed to be done. They need food, I’ll find it. They need housing I’ll get it. They need something to wear – I’ll not only get it, I’ll make it.
I want us to also note that here in this passage that this is the only time in the entire New Testament that the feminine form of the word disciples is used. This in itself indicates that the insignificant ministry of Tabitha made her significant in the eyes of God.
Peter gets down on his knees and prays for Tabitha tells her to get up – and the second resurrection of the early church occurs right in front of their eyes, Jesus was the first to resurrect. Acts 9:42 “This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.”
I have used this Scripture on Mothers Day because I think it represents what our mothers have done for us throughout the years – and it represents what those who are moms here today for their families. If you are a mother, I’m sure that you can compile a long list of minor, insignificant things that you do for your family everyday – things that society as a whole would ignore, walk by and deem as ordinary and insignificant. But I think that you of all people know how untrue such a sentiment is. You know that the small ordinary things that are done for your family and others are not a waste of time, nor are they things that can be ignored. And you know that in spite of many in our society deeming the things you do as insignificant – you know how powerful they can be.
But I also want to point out for all of us here that it is not simply that Tabitha did ordinary things for others that makes her life a powerful life – NO, it is that Tabitha did ordinary things for others in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that made her life a powerful life, so powerful that God brought her back from the dead. The insignificant becomes significant through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me end with this: Years ago the retired church janitor had passed away and the family had asked the Senior Pastor to do the funeral services. The Senior Pastor informed me that I was to do the funeral service and not he, because, (and I am not making this up) because, “as senior pastor, not only would he not do a funeral service for under $100.00, but also, as senior pastor he would not do a funeral for anyone under his high social status”. Let me tell you, I did almost all the funerals at that church.
Here is a man who would walk right passed Tabitha and not give her the time of day because of her obvious insignificance. Here is a man who would walk right passed the one whom God deemed so important that He had to bring her back from the dead to continue to serve the church. Here is a man who held on tightly to the world’s definition of what is significant – and completely missed the true understanding of the kingdom of God.
Brothers and sisters, on this Mothers Day, let us remember the insignificant, let us remember the ordinary, let us remember to step out and attend to those things others ignore, for in the kingdom of God, through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the insignificant, becomes the significant.
