“Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
“You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
Acts 12:13-15 (NIV)
This story almost reads like a sitcom, and the main character shares the same name as a sitcom star from a comedy show in the late 70’s, called “Rhoda.”
Even the opening scene begins like a joke. ‘An angel walks into a Roman prison one day’…..
That angel, who was shining like a blinding bright light, passed all the guards around the prison, unseen by anyone. He walked through doors and right into Peter’s dark prison cell. His bright light shone through the cell, but Peter remained sound asleep. When Peter didn’t wake up, the angel hit him on his side, to wake him up, telling him,
“Get up.”
Peter woke up, his chains fell off, and he was escorted out of the prison, to the main iron gate, which magically opened by itself. After passing all the guards again, the angel led Peter in the direction of the house where the disciples were gathered. Then he suddenly disappeared.
While still trying to process all that just happened, Peter knocked on the front door of the house, where the disciples were inside, praying for him. Rhoda, described as a servant, but was also a disciple, came to answer the door. Hearing Peter’s voice outside the door, she got so excited that she ran back to tell the disciples, without unlocking the door to let him in.
She joyfully blurted out to everyone that Peter was at the door. The disciples were praying diligently for Peter’s release, but they refused to believe Rhoda’s news. They never even went to the door to see for themselves. They told Rhoda that she either saw an angel or had lost her mind. They were so sure it couldn’t be Peter at the door, knowing he was in a Roman prison.
There are so many comical moments in the way Luke writes this story. It’s funny how the answer to what is being prayed for, is not believed or accepted, when it finally happens. Perhaps the disciples assumed that Peter’s only chance to be released could be at his trial, which was scheduled for the next day. How easy it is to have pre-conceived ideas of how God should or would answer a prayer.
Rhoda is the main character, aside from Peter and the angel. She knew it was Peter, the moment she heard his voice, before opening the door to see him. There is nothing comical about the character trait that makes Rhoda different from the rest, and that trait is an ‘expectant heart.’
She heard Peter’s voice, which confirmed her hope before ever opening the door to see him. To have faith like Rhoda, is to pray with an expectant heart, and to believe the slightest whisper of hope, long before we see the actual answer to our prayer.
Lord, help us to have expectant hearts like Rhoda, by believing the answer to our prayer is on the way, waiting behind the door of our hope. Amen
