Fr Matthew Reese

“And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a maid named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she did not open the gate but ran in and told that Peter was standing at the gate. They said to her, ‘You are mad.’ But she insisted that it was so. They said, ‘It is his angel!’ But Peter continued knocking; and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed.” —Acts 12:13-16

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our New Testament lessons today, from Acts and John’s Gospel, are a meditation on freedom, bondage, and persistence. What does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be set free?

The Book of Acts (the continuation of Luke) is a breathless, sometimes downright swashbuckling account of the early Church. Today’s passage follows the miraculous escape of Peter from Herod’s jail––on the eve of his execution––and his return to the disciples.

Our passage from John follows Jesus’ dialogue with his fellow Jews who wish to believe, but struggle with his teaching that “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” “We are Abraham’s descendants,” they say, “and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

Volumes have been written about “the truth that sets us free,” about the Son “whose service is perfect freedom.” There is much richness––and not a small amount of peril––in the spiritual discourses surrounding bondage and freedom. Freedom from sin, freedom from the world, freedom from ourselves.  

But today I wonder if we might consider another commonality in these passages: the fallibility of human senses. Peter cannot believe his eyes, even as the shackles fall from his wrists, and prison doors and city gates miraculously open to speed his way. In the same way, Jesus’s hearers cannot believe their ears. Do the walls of our own perception and expectation prevent us from seeing and hearing God?

Surely. The disciples themselves are constantly unhearing, unseeing, unbelieving––indeed in this very scene. But like the women at the empty tomb, today we have “a maid named Rhoda,” who hears and knows, and forgets herself in joy. The Bible is full of such people––unexpected prophets who see, hear, feel, taste the work of God when others cannot. Who are they in our lives? Do we have openness to believe them?

Amen.

—Fr Matthew