Read Acts
12:12-19
12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the
house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had
gathered and were praying. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a
servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s
voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter
is at the door!” 15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept
insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” 16 But Peter kept
on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.
17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord
had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters
about this,” he said, and then he left for another place. 18 In the morning,
there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter.
19 After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he
cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.
“Knock knock”
“Who’s there?”
“Peter”
“Peter who?”
“Peter you’ve just be praying for”
“Okay, very funny! Who is it really?”
“No really it’s Peter!”
“Yes Yes I get the joke! Who is it?”
“It’s Peter!”
“Peter?! Is that you?”
“Yes I just told you it was!”
“Wait there I’ll get the others.”
“Can’t you let me in firs…Oh you’ve gone. Fine I’ll
wait.”
“Hey everyone it’s Peter.”
“Yes we know it’s Peter who has been arrested we’ve
been praying for him all night. Haven’t you been listening?”
“No I know that, but I mean it’s Peter outside!
He’s been knocking on the door.”
“Don’t be so ridiculous. Weren’t you listening. We
just told you. Peter’s in prison. That’s why we’ve been praying (turns to Mary and whispers) seriously Mary you need to get a new maid, this
one’s not all…”
“No it is Peter. I heard him speak. He’s outside
the door knocking. Listen can’t you hear him he’s still knocking!”
“Look I know you’re upset. You probably just
thought it was Peter.”
“No it was Peter. I mean it is Peter, he’s still there. Listen
he’s still knocking.”
“Oh no! Oh no! Ooohhh nooooo!”
“What’s wrong Mary?”
“They must have killed him already. I bet you’ve
just seen his ghost.”
“No it’s not his ghost it really is him…”
Aside from the tragedy at the start, the whole of
this chapter is funny. This section in particular is brilliantly funny. Loads
of the early Christians are in Mary’s house praying for what? Presumably
Peter’s release! And yet when Peter is released they don’t believe it. The
prison gate is opened before him but he ends up stranded outside the locked
door of those most eager to welcome him home!
So what do we make of this humour? Is there
anything we learn from it?
I recently watched an episode of a drama series
based on the life of a top barrister. Within this episode she was defending a
man with a vague alibi. She was not too concerned about this, however, as she
noted that innocent people generally do have vague alibis. Who remembers where
they were on, say, the 5th of May at 4:43pm unless – of course –
they were committing a crime?! If someone’s alibi is too perfect, then you have
good reason to be suspicious.
In a similar way the humour, idiosyncrasies and
honesty of the Bible is one of the strongest arguments for its authenticity. If
it were too perfect, it would be much harder to believe. For example, if you
were making up a story like this – a dramatic prison break of one of your main
characters – who would think to add this randomly hilarious story in? Surely
you would have the church filled with faith, looking out of the window waiting
for Peter’s return, confident that the God who had achieved so many miracles in
their presence would come good again? You wouldn’t have them doubting. You
wouldn’t have them leaving Peter outside. You definitely wouldn’t have them
suggest it was his ghost! Life is often stranger than fiction thus, perhaps
conversely, the slight oddities of Scripture support its credibility.
If you have a bit longer :-)
- What is humour and is it important? If so, why?
- God made us in his image. The fact that humans have a sense of humour therefore tells us that God does too. Do you think of God as having a sense of humour? If so, how does this affect your relationship with him?
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