Acts 9:36–43

The Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C

Paul Dazet, a wounded healer

May 04, 2025

She Got Up

Acts 9:36–43

Opening Reflection

Grief can feel like gravity.

When someone beloved dies, it pulls us down, into memory, into sorrow, into silence. That’s where we find the community in this story: held by the weight of loss, showing each other the tunics and cloaks their friend had made with love.

And then, unexpectedly, resurrection enters the room.

This isn’t Easter morning. There are no angels. Just a woman named Tabitha and a man willing to kneel and pray beside her lifeless body. The Spirit doesn’t need fanfare. Just love, faith, and a quiet invitation to rise.

“She opened her eyes. She sat up.”

Not even death gets the final word.

Context

Literary Setting: This story comes right before Saul’s conversion in Acts 9. It’s part of a series of signs and wonders that mark the Spirit’s work through Peter and the early church.
Historical Setting: Tabitha (also known as Dorcas) is a disciple in Joppa, a coastal city. She’s beloved for her acts of mercy and her ministry to widows, those often most vulnerable in society.
Theological Frame: Resurrection here isn’t only physical, it’s communal. This is a story of care, mutual love, and how the Spirit empowers the early church to embody the risen life of Jesus, not just proclaim it.

Read the Passage

Acts 9:36–43 (NLT)

36 There was a believer in Joppa named Tabitha (which in Greek is Dorcas). She was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor.
37 About this time she became ill and died. Her body was washed for burial and laid in an upstairs room.
38 But the believers had heard that Peter was nearby at Lydda, so they sent two men to beg him, “Please come as soon as possible!”
39 So Peter returned with them; and as soon as he arrived, they took him to the upstairs room. The room was filled with widows who were weeping and showing him the coats and other clothes Dorcas had made for them.
40 But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed. Turning to the body he said, “Get up, Tabitha.” And she opened her eyes! When she saw Peter, she sat up!
41 He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then he called in the widows and all the believers, and he presented her to them alive.
42 The news spread through the whole town, and many believed in the Lord.
43 And Peter stayed a long time in Joppa, living with Simon, a tanner of hides.

Key Insights

Her Life Was Her Witness - Tabitha isn’t remembered for sermons. She’s remembered for love, for coats and kindness, for generosity and solidarity. In her, resurrection was already at work before death.
Grief is a Sacred Space - The widows hold space for mourning. They don’t rush to fix it. Their grief makes room for resurrection, not as denial, but as a deeper healing. Resurrection doesn’t skip over sorrow; it moves through it.
Resurrection Is Communal - This story isn’t just about Tabitha rising. It’s about a community being raised up with her, restored, held, knit back together. The Spirit’s power always moves toward wholeness.