One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.
Acts 3:1-2
The story of Peter and John encountering a disabled man on the way to worship is multi layered containing a number of challenging truths, or mistruths if you like, about the stigma of disability. Too complex to look at in just one issue we’ll focus on context first because the setting for this encounter is highly significant. Herod’s Temple was a huge place. The Gate called Beautiful being the main entrance into the inner temple courts. While anyone could come within the outer wall, there were strict ethnic and gender rules about who and how people could pass through the Beautiful Gate. Disabled and disfigured people were excluded from entering through the gate completely. But this is more than just a story about Access!
Temple rituals dictated that the atonement for sin through sacrificing ‘blemish-free’ animals had to be done by priests who themselves were free of impairments or disfigurement (Lev 21: 18-21) and thus the justification for the exclusion of disabled people from the temple. But with Jesus’s own sacrificial death as the lamb without blemish (1 Peter 1:19 NCV), referring more to Jesus being free of spiritual and moral imperfections rather then physical, the Beautiful Gate should have been wide open for ALL to enter by the time Peter and John showed up.
But the highway towards progress can be slow to change and never more so than religious institutions and traditions, as I myself experienced one Easter Sunday not so very long ago. It wasn’t that the there was no suitable access into the church building holding the Easter service. There was! The main barrier to worship for the four people with mobility aids waiting to be let was the attitude of the ‘temple official’ who came to greet us. “Its not worth opening the door as the March of Witness would be commencing afterwards, you might as well just join that.” Did she not think Jesus’ death and resurrection applied to us, or that our wanting to recognize that in the temple was not valid? Whatever the reason for our exclusion that day, we are unlikely to know, but I am grateful that now the door is wide open there.
REFLECT…
PRAY…
& STEP OUT
On Leviticus 21:16-23 in the light of David T Lamb’s blog; and then on your own temple whatever it may be. Discuss with others if you can.
Pray for knowledge and understanding within your own missional and church leadership…
This Quick Guide to Disability Etiquette might help remove some of the attitudinal barriers in your place of worship.