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Acts 9:36-37
In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room.
Tabitha and Dorcas both mean Gazelle. Here we have a strange scene, which seems to interrupt the story of Saul’s conversion and subsequent ministry. It is the story of Gazelle using her gifts to practically help the poor. In the first century the poor were often women, a result of the fact that they were denied status in society. Women who had no male figures in their life to gain for them security were very poor, so widows were often forgotten about.
Tabitha is a disciple. This use of the word here is the only time in the whole of the New Testament that the word ‘disciple’ is used in the feminine form. This female disciple, like the others, is given life, energy, ideas, and direction by the Holy Spirit. She moves from the place that the world might say she should be, to the place that God calls her. She runs a welfare charity for the poorest in society.
But then she dies, and the world seems to have a stronger case as to where she should be. But Peter prays a courageous prayer, the widows need Tabitha, and through the death of Christ death has been undone. We could ask questions about raising people form the dead, we could wonder if the same can happen today. But we should first reflect on the power of God which allows us to leave the places that we should be. Tabitha may be a woman, but she can help the widows, Peter may be a fisherman, but he can appeal to Christ and raise the dead.
