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Tabitha. It’s an odd story from the Acts of the Apostles. What exactly is it about?
The Tabitha story has close parallels (including vocabulary) to the story of Jesus’ raising of Jairus’ daughter (found in Mark 5). Is this reading to show that the apostles could perform miracles as Jesus did?
Or was it a metaphorical story pointing to what the disciples had been through: with her being in an upper room (like the Lord’s Supper), and that strange phrase “he showed her to be alive” (using words that are used in Jesus’ post-resurrection stories including Acts 1:3)?
Or was it just an amazing tale?
Which brings me back to Tabitha. The story starts out “Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha…” Pretty straight-forward we think. Except that the word used for disciple is “mathetria”—the feminine form for disciple which is used only once in the whole Bible—here. And that got me to thinking that we often gloss over the woman herself to get to the exciting magical part. Tabitha doesn’t get a speaking role. We hear of her good works and acts of charity, but then “she became ill and died.”
We hear all about the burial arrangements, and the sending for Peter, and the mechanics of her raising, but the focus is not on her. We catch a glimpse of who she was when the women she ministered to greet Peter in that upper room, wanting to show him what she had done for them. They are put outside, while Peter calls Tabitha back to life.
So let’s bring Tabitha front and center.
Who was this Mathetria—this “female” disciple? Tabitha certainly stands with the other important women in the Luke-Acts narrative: Mary and Elizabeth; the women who minister to Jesus; the women who keep vigil at the cross; Lydia and Priscilla. What does Tabitha have to teach us?
Seasons of the Spirit has imagined what a Widow who knew Tabitha might say…
Widow
Tabitha is my friend. She is a source of hope and life for me and the other widows in the community. Tabitha shows us that we matter, even when other people tell us we don’t. We come to her home and sing, eat, and pray together. I admire the things she does to help me and the other widows, making us clothes when we have none, offering a kind word, a sense of community. Because of Tabitha, I know that I’m enough. Even though I don’t have a husband to care for me, I am enough.
She tells us stories about Jesus, a man who also cared for the widows, orphans, and outcasts. Tabitha says that because of Jesus’ ministry with others, she wanted to help others, too. Because of what Tabitha has done for me, I want to do more to help others. I want to make a difference, just as she made a difference to me. (from Seasons Easter 2016)
Tabitha may have been one of the wealthy women who helped finance and house the early church (another was Lydia, the seller of purple cloth). Tabitha lived in a place with an upper room (a sign of wealth). She was important enough to send a delegation of men to Peter when she died requesting that he “come to us without delay” (does anyone hear the echos of the raising of Lazarus?).
We don’t know if she was a widow herself, but she seems to have made widows a particular focus for her “good works and acts of charity”—her ministry. Women who did not have the protection of husband (or father or son) were some of the most vulnerable people in that society. Throughout the Bible, Old and New Testaments, there are exhortations to treat widows and orphans with kindness and justice—something Tabitha made her mission.
We can imagine that her deeds and love might have created a community of believers, maybe one that met in that upper room. We can imagine that her life was a shining example to all.
Seasons of the Spirit has imagined what a Neighbor of Tabitha might say…
Tabitha’s Neighbor
There is always activity at Tabitha’s house. People are coming and going – especially the widows in the neighbourhood! They spend time together singing and what sounds like praying, I think. Usually, widows are rarely seen, rarely heard, but they seem to have found a place that gives them new life at Tabitha’s. She is a remarkable seamstress – she even made dresses for my daughter and me! She makes clothes for the widows and they look wonderful. Many of them can’t afford clothes.
Tabitha is always talking about Jesus, the man that some say was the Messiah. He was raised from the dead, they say! I don’t know about all of that, but I do know that Tabitha’s kindness toward the widows has definitely awakened them from their otherwise isolated lives. (from Seasons Easter 2016)
When I look at Tabitha (or what we can construct of her), I see a woman whose faith permeated her life. This mathetria has followed in the footsteps of Jesus and taken the words from Isaiah that Jesus read on his very first day of ministry to heart. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, and sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19 alt.).
In our time when income inequality is a topic of much discussion, and special treatment for wealthy people a concern, the story of Tabitha being the one restored to life (since so few people are resurrected in the Scriptures) might give us pause. But Tabitha herself, Tabitha’s choice about what to make a priority in her life, and Tabitha’s legacy—even in sketchy story, are an inspiration.
Tabitha’s work was done quietly, without fanfare. We only know about it because of the extraordinary thing that happened to her. She is a model of generosity and of outreach to the “least of these” in her community. And her story of “added time” and “new life” is an example of what God offers us in so many different ways.
So, whenever we feel that our contribution is too small, may we remember Tabitha.
Whenever we wish we could be doing a more glamourous mission, may Tabitha come to mind.
Whenever we imagine we just can’t go on, may we hear, like Tabitha, the call to “get up.”
Whenever we find ourselves near someone who is in deep pain or despair, may we be the ones offering what we can.
May we claim our discipleship,
As Mathetria or Mathetes
May we let the Spirit of God work through us,
And to God be the glory.
Alleluia. Amen.
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