Pious, Popular, and Powerful, or Pray, Proclaim, and Participate?
“Pious, Popular, and Powerful, or Pray, Proclaim, and Participate?” – August 27th, 2023 (Acts 12:1-24)
Remember the Herod in the gospels who was kinda sorta married to Herodias, the one who got her daughter Salome to dance for him at his birthday banquet? That was Herod Antipas, who is best known today for his role in Jesus’s trial and the subsequent execution of John the Baptist during his birthday celebration. Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, who had been appointed “King of the Jews” by the Roman Senate. He’s the Herod who, after hearing from some Magi from the East that another King of the Jews had been born, ordered the murder of all the male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem. We’re going to read today about yet another Herod who was a grandson of Herod the Great and both a brother-in-law and nephew of Antipas. This other Herod is known as Herod Agrippa I. Incidentally, Antipas’s wife Herodias was also Agrippa’s sister. Yep, we don’t only hear about those kinds of tangled up relationships and appalling biographies on soap operas or at family reunions but also in the Bible! Herod the Great had been King of the Jews for over three decades until just after the birth of Jesus. Then Herod Antipas was appointed, not as a king, but as a district governor or ethnarch of Galilee and Perea for 42 years. Now Herod Agrippa is appointed King of the Jews. He was known as a very pious Jew. First century Roman-Jewish historian Josephus gave Agrippa a positive legacy, telling us that during his lifetime, he was known as “Agrippa the Great.” Rabbinical sources portray Agrippa in positive terms, describing him as a pious man. Agrippa was also very popular with the people (especially his Jewish subjects). He also had close ties with and was hugely influential in Rome, having partied with emperors. And because his grandmother belonged to a priestly family, he even had the support of the Temple priests and Pharisees in Jerusalem. Agrippa was very powerful and influential during his three-year reign.
Now that we have some historical context, let’s start in on Acts 12. I’ll be reading all Scriptures today in the NRSV.
Acts 12:1-3 – “About that time King Herod laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword. After he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (This was during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.)”
Agrippa liked being pious, powerful, and popular. But this combination lead him to make some really bad decisions. Firstly, Herod Agrippa laid violent hands upon some followers of Jesus. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This is the same kind of language used to describe what Saul was doing to the church a couple of chapters earlier. This persecution against Christians, an attempt to wipe out followers of The Way, had been going on for over a decade now. Agrippa, as king, had the legal right of life and death. He has the apostle James beheaded. He likes the response he gets from his Jewish subjects, so he arrests the apostle Peter too. We can see where this is going.
Acts 12:4 – “When he had seized him, he put him in prison and handed him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending to bring him out to the people after the Passover.”
Does this sound like an ordinary, run-of-the-mill arrest to you? Who puts four squads of soldiers to guard a single person? That’s sixteen trained and armed soldiers to guard a former fisherman. Maybe they worked in shifts. But still, the way Peter was watched gives us some clues. Agrippa was afraid. Maybe he feared armed resistance. Maybe he feared losing popularity. Maybe he feared becoming less powerful. Following Roman custom, Agrippa was known for executing criminals for public entertainment. It seemed likely that this was the direction he was going.
Acts 12:5-6 – “While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him. The very night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards in front of the door were keeping watch over the prison.”
Luke slows down the action here to help us to see the persecuted church. During the Roman Empire, prisons were primarily intended as deterrents against crime, used mainly to hold prisoners condemned to death. Prison conditions were appalling – underground, dark, dank, filthy, smelly, inhumane, no prison garments, no toilet, few if any rations. Roman prisons were designed to degrade, demean, and distress detainees both physically and psychologically. There was no hint of goodness, truth, or beauty in a Roman prison. It would have been miserable for prisoners and guards alike. On this night, one of the squads was in the prison cell with Peter, two chained together with him, and two guarding the door. In Luke’s narrative, he continually makes us aware of both the presence of the Spirit and the presence of forces opposing the Kingdom of God. Theologian Willie James Jennings describes prisons as an attractive tool for the powerful, an addiction for those who wish to silence voices, destroy bodies, and maintain domination of all kinds – political, social, sexual, economic, and religious. Following Jesus includes confronting evil and speaking truth to power. Jennings says that “Christians, like no one else, should understand how easy it is to return to prison, not because of human failing but because of failed systems that are calibrated against the powerless, the weak, and the poor . . .”
There was no human hope of escaping the kind of prison Peter was in. One of Peter’s besties and fellow disciple, James, had just been executed. Peter’s only hope was divine intervention. The very next day, Herod was going to bring Peter out; in other words, Agrippa was planning with pleasure another one of his public executions for the purposes of entertainment. What better time than during the Festival of Unleavened Bread aka Passover, one of the three times in a year when large numbers of Jews would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem? We can imagine Agrippa’s anticipation rising. This would surely make him look even more pious, more popular, more powerful. But let’s not miss what verse five tells us: “While Peter was kept in prison, the church prayed fervently to God for him.” Peter was imprisoned; Agrippa was intending to murder; the church was interceding! We don’t know exactly what the other Jesus-followers prayed, but almost certainly their prayers included the prayer Jesus had taught them – “May your kingdom come.” God loves to answer that prayer!
Acts 12:7-11 – “Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him, saying, ‘Get up quickly.’ And the chains fell off his wrists. The angel said to him, ‘Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.’ He did so. Then he said to him, ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.’ Peter went out and followed him; he did not realize that what was happening with the angel’s help was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. After they had passed the first and the second guard, they came before the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went outside and walked along a lane, when suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.’”
There are so many things going on in this prison that day!
As suddenly as the angel of the Lord appeared, a light shone in the cell. Wherever God’s presence is, there is light! Jesus said of himself, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Jesus also said of us, “You are the light of the world . . . let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14a, 16). The Lord’s light is shining in the cell; God is present with Peter.
Notice that the angel woke Peter – he had been sleeping! The gospels tell us that Peter had slept on two other significant occasions when he should have been awake and alert – on the Mount of Transfiguration and in the Garden of Gethsemane. But on this night, during a time of intense persecution when one of his best friends had just been beheaded and there was no reason for him to think that his life would be spared, Peter slept. And he slept in the beautiful way that Psalm 4:8 describes – “I will both lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.” Peter slept soundly enough that he needed a tap on the side to wake him up.
Notice also that Peter had a hard time distinguishing between reality and fantasy here. We’ve all experienced this. Sometimes it’s because we’re stressed or sleep deprived. Sometimes it’s because it reminds us of something we’ve heard before. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody opens with the questions, “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” The genre of speculative fiction has been asking these questions since time immemorial. Peter had likely heard the well-known Greek story of Dionysus who had made chains drop off and locked doors open. He would likely have also heard the account of Artapanus of Alexandria, in his history of the Jews, in which Moses was thrown into prison the first time he tried to speak to Pharaoh, and that night, the doors of the prison opened of their own accord, allowing Moses to walk right back to Pharaoh and confront him. These were familiar stories. No wonder Peter thought he might be dreaming. It wasn’t until he’d passed through the iron gates to the city and walked along the lane, by this time having inhaled plenty of fresh air, that he came to himself and realized he was free!
I suspect Peter, being a fisherman, might have thought something along the lines of “Off the hook! That was some fishy business – no more red herrings – God has reeled me in!” but Doctor Luke tells us that Peter actually said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hands of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”
Peter then shows up outside of a prayer meeting where many had gathered and were crying out to God. Peter knocks at the gate, causing absolute joy and disbelief and finally amazement that God had answered their specific prayers because there he was, in the flesh, not his angel, but Peter himself! Peter tells them what happened but cautions them to respond in silence, showing us how very dangerous a time this was for the early church. When morning came, Peter (who had been imprisoned) had left and gone to another place to continue the work God had given him to do; Agrippa (who had intended to murder) was angry, adulated, and abrogated in the worst possible way; the church (which had been interceding) was overjoyed and amazed, and “the word of God continued to advance and gain adherents” (Acts 12:24).
It was largely because of Peter’s and the other disciples’ prayers for, proclamation of, and participation in the Good News of Jesus that the church was growing rapidly in numbers and in maturity as it spread out all over the world.
God calls us today also to pray, to proclaim, and to participate; to contemplate, to orate, and to demonstrate; to be, to say, and to do. We can look at the problems in our lives and in the world, as vast and insurmountable as they appear, and feel helpless and bound. So many people in this world are trapped in very real prisons, especially the powerless, the weak, and the poor. The Holy Spirit moves our hearts to pray, our mouths to proclaim, and our whole selves to participate.
When God showed up in Peter’s prison cell, Peter was released from his captivity and his humanity was restored. Not in a single moment but in unfolding in real time and space – angel, light, voice, chains, clothes, walking, guards, gates, and then finally he came to himself. God chooses not to act outside of his beloved creation, but to partner with us inside of space and time, especially with his image-bearers, all persons. And our part in this partnership is to pray, proclaim, and participate together in his mission, his all-comprehensive and mind-blowing plan to rescue, renew, and transform all of humanity and all of creation.
We need the light of Christ to be able to see the horrors of human suffering. And we need the courage to not turn a blind eye but actually look at what’s happening and then do something about it. One of the hallmarks of long-term incarceration is the strangling of the senses and the sapping of the soul. Sometimes people have lived in prison so long (whether physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, financial, mental) that they no longer dream of freedom, because that dream seems elusive, not real, just a dream. It wasn’t until Peter came to himself, when he became fully awake, that he was able to both realize and act upon the freedom he’d already been given.
I quote Irenaeus often – “The glory of God is the human being fully alive.” The Holy Spirit wants us to partner in awakening others to life, freedom, hope, and joy. Listen to and pay attention to God’s invitation to you today. Where is the Holy Spirit directing your gaze? Which person or group or persons is in need of awakening, life, freedom, hope, and joy? What injustices do you notice? What would God have you pray, say, or do? Each seemingly small step towards freedom is precious to the Lord. May we remember to submit to God’s guidance and direction over and above any worldly power. This is God’s mission we are on. All worldly systems and rulers will come to an end, but God’s kingdom endures forever.
As Bob Dylan said, we’re all gonna have to serve somebody. It might be the world, the devil, or yourself if you want to be pious, popular, and powerful. Or it might be the Lord. Are you willing to trust Jesus and follow him wherever he leads, to pray, proclaim, and participate?
Ephesians 3:20-21 (The Message) – “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!”
