Chapter 12:6-25 The Church in Captivity

Acts 12 starts with the execution of James by Herod the king (a different Herod than in the Jesus’ birth narrative). The new church is being scattered and attacked. When Herod sees how the killing of James pleased certain people, he had Peter arrested as well. The church is in captivity. The people of the church are familiar with the prison, with the power of the state.  Then these fantastical things happen.  

• a light shines in the Peter’s cell (what is happening will not be concealed in darkness) 

• the angel taps Peter and wakes him up (the church is awoken in times of opposition, “He woke me up again to sing Hallelujah.”) 

• Peter’s shackles fall off, the angel tells him to get ready to leave, to dress for escape. 

• Peter is led past the guards and out of the prison. 

• He is unable to conceive that what is happening to him is real. 

• Peter is free. When he goes to the where fellow followers of Jesus are gathered, they are unable as well, to conceive that it is Peter, that he is free. 

Then tragedy ends the story as the guards are blamed by Herod for the escape and put to death. The guards are victims as well, but they had been working for the opposition, for the power of the enemy, for the darkness over the light. As Willie Jennings says, we must work for the deliverance of not just the prisoner, but also the guards. 

There are two captivities in the story. First there is the obvious captivity of Peter and then there is the less obvious captivity of those desensitized to protect the power of the status quo even if that status quo denies life and denies the presence and love of God. 

The chapter ends with the death of Herod. Herod is presented as almost comical. Herod claims what only God can claim and accepts the praise of the people. The people holler out that Herod’s voice is that of God and not of man. Soon, though, Herod’s voice will be silenced.