Tabitha Arise: An Imaginative Retelling of Her Resurrection

Genesis 9; Matthew 9; Ezra 9; Acts 9

An Imaginative Retelling

I look over the shoulder of the man in front of me and catch a glimpse of her ashen face. She looks like she is sleeping. A suffocating wave of sadness swells in my chest stealing my breath. It’s true. Tabitha is dead.

My fingers tighten around the shawl she made for me when my husband passed. Tabitha told me she had prayed for Yeshua to comfort me as she had sewn the garment.  Widowed at such a young age, those prayers brought me such comfort on those lonely endless nights.

I glance around the room. Several other women, tears streaming down their face, clutch similar garments in their hands. Burly men fight to hold back the tears, but sorrow etches their brow. Tabitha was truly a woman of The Way. It seems that all of Joppa mourns her loss.

“Do you think he’ll come?” a woman asks her husband standing next to her. He shrugs his shoulders.

I know a group of brothers went to find Peter in Lydda. Does it matter now? What can he do? I had prayed. We all prayed, but Tabitha still died. But there was something on the inside that tells me to only believe. If anyone can do something, Peter can.

Hours pass. My legs ache from standing, but I refuse to take the limited seats from the older widows, but I don’t want to leave either. Maybe I should go. Should I go? What good am I doing here? As I stand there, I grapple with the decision to leave and the sharp pains shooting through my legs.

“He’s here! Peter’s here!” a man bellowed from downstairs. The creaking of the old stairwell accompanied the rhythmic pattern of the footsteps climbing. With a sudden creak, the door is pushed open. Despite never meeting Peter before, I knew he was the suntanned man standing between two brothers from Joppa.

I watch the crowd part as he makes his way to Tabitha’s bed. As he passes by, our eyes meet, and he nods his head acknowledging my presence and pain. There was something about the way Peter carried himself that reminded me of Tabitha. It’s not his gait, as much as it was something in his presence. Maybe it’s the fact that he walks in The Way too.

He looks around the room at the people gathered. Then motioning with his hand, he says, “Please leave us and draw the door.”

I wait until everyone else exits the room. I look Peter in the eye, and he nods to me again letting me know it is okay to leave.

I stop just beyond the threshold and pull the door closed. At first there is nothing but silence. I hear Peter whispering. What’s he saying? After a few minutes, I realize that he is praying. Then I here in an authoritative baritone, “Tabitha, arise.”

Silence.

“Come here brothers and sisters!” Peter calls from the other side of the door.

Snatching the door open, I bolt into the room and see Tabitha standing by Peter.

“She’s alive!” I scream, as I drop my shawl to the floor and run to embrace her. Wrapping my arms around her, I remember the story of how Yeshua raised Jairus’s daughter to life. Peter, the one who walks in The Way, has done the same.

Scriptural Truth & Prayer

In Acts 9: 36-43, the Apostle Peter performed a similar miracle as Jesus did with Jairus’s daughter (see Mark 5:21-43). Peter, along with James and John, were the only one’s permitted to see Jesus raise this child to life. Through parallels of these two passages, it’s apparent that Peter modeled his actions by what he witnessed Jesus do. Jesus taught that the mature disciple would be like his master (Luke 6:40). Peter, as well as Tabitha, walked in the footsteps of Christ. Both their lives were marked by faith and service seen in Christ’s own life.

Lord, help me to follow your example and live a life marked by faith and service to others.