By Bill Lamar
War is politics by another means. Herod launched a miniature war against the church in order to consolidate and extend his power. The powerful lack ingenuity; violence tends to be their order of the day. Herod murdered James and arrested Peter during Passover, when the influential religious opponents of the church were gathered in one place. They were eating out of Herod’s politically astute hand.
Herod planned to publicly lynch Peter. Multiple soldiers guarded Peter in prison. As he slept, shackled to two soldiers, God’s angel miraculously delivered Peter to freedom. Peter thought he was dreaming. He was not.
I often think of those men and women, past and present, who fight to bring God’s message of peace, justice, and salvation to the masses. They endure trials and tribulations. And their endings are often brutal and violent. But many small miracles, many testimonies of deliverance, attend their struggles. Peter is ultimately executed by the powers from which he is delivered in this text, but this incident will not stop his witness and his determination.
We are addicted to happy endings for ourselves and those whom we love. Peter’s end was not happy, but his life was lived in the service of something larger than preserving his own existence. Living to preserve your own existence and following Jesus are mutually exclusive. Our lives are soli Deo gloria (for the glory of God). That’s precisely why Herod dies the violent death he meant for Peter. Herod’s was an existence consumed by the preservation and extension of power. We exist to give ourselves away, and we know that when we die, if our lives have been caught up in the grandeur of God’s work of salvation and liberation, all shall be well.
- How do you remain faithful in the midst of real and perceived opposition to the work to which God has called you?
- Our culture weaves yarns about inevitable happy endings. How has your discipleship been tested by unhappy endings?
- How do you know if you are on God’s side? Do you just assume that you are?
Prayer: God, we want faithfulness to you to mean deliverance from problems and difficulties. But faith does not mean that. It never has. It never will. Keep us faithful through joy and pain. Amen.
