I've always loved this passage, mostly for the visual image I get when I read it. It's dark, and Peter has just escaped from jail. He's furtively sneaking around, hoping he doesn't get recaptured, and then he finds Mary's house, where the people are gathered praying. He lightly knocks on the gate, but doesn't knock too loudly, because he's afraid to wake the neighbors. The servant hears that it's Peter, is super excited, and then runs inside but forgets to let Peter in.
So here's Peter, the rock upon which Christ is building the church, the church against which the gates of hell will not prevail, knocking on the gate of a house that he can't get into in the middle of the night while everyone else is inside whispering about him. The man escapes from jail but can't get into the house of his friends!
It's just so human. When I read the Bible, the people are real. The stories, even these that everyone probably sat around the fire for years and laughed about, come across as authentic. These are people like you and I, trying to figure out how to live in light of the resurrection. Christ is at work, through ordinary, everyday people, then and now.
No comments:
Post a Comment