Daily Thoughts from Acts: The Why of Suffering (Acts 12:1-11)

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

   Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.  When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel left him. When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.”  (Acts 12:1-11 ESV)

Either Peter has come back to Jerusalem from his travels in order to attend the festival or this occurs before his travels outside of Jerusalem.  James the apostle and brother of John is arrested first and executed.  He has served the Lord’s purpose, but this is no doubt devastating to the church.  Herod Agrippa I, grandson of King Herod who tried to kill the infant Jesus, sees that James’ death delights the Jews.  They have come to hate the followers of Jesus because they claim that Jesus is the Messiah whom this people killed.  Herod arrests Peter and intends to execute him as well.

If not for the sobering fact that Peter is slated for death, his prison escape has a touch of humor to it.  To his credit, Peter is not up and worrying about his impending execution but is perfectly asleep between two soldiers, chained to them, we may assume.  A guard couldn’t keep Jesus in the tomb and won’t be able to keep Peter from escape.  Despite the obviously miraculous nature of this escape, the angel is hurrying Peter as well as giving him specific help to protect him from the cool night by making him get his cloak and sandals.  It does not feel real to Peter until he is safely out and the angel disappears.

Why does God allow James to die but releases Peter from jail?  We don’t know why the Lord chose this path for these two men, but He wasn’t finished with Peter.  In His infinite perspective He knew what was best.  He didn’t change Herod’s mind, though He could have even as He did Pharaoh’s, but rather uses His angel to make Peter invisible to the guards and to remove Peter’s chains and let him through the city gate.  Nothing is impossible for God.

We, of course, will, if we haven’t already, experience this kind of disparity of God’s choices in our lives.  So and so is cured of their cancer but someone we love is not.  This believer sees their ministry flourish but mine is struggling along.  Our temptation is to believe that somehow we have failed, have not had enough faith, or are somehow outside of God’s favor.  But the apostle James puts this view to the lie.  James was faithfully serving the Lord and being persecuted for it, just as Jesus was.  God’s purpose for him was just different than for Peter.  Our “why” for what happens in our life is the loving and sovereign hand of our Father.

When Jewish psychiatrist Victor Frankl was arrested by the Nazis in World War II, he was stripped of everything–property, family, possessions. He had spent years researching and writing a book on the importance of finding meaning in life–concepts that later would be known as logotherapy. When he arrived in Auschwitz, the infamous death camp, even his manuscript, which he had hidden in the lining of his coat, was taken away.

“I had to undergo and overcome the loss of my spiritual child,” Frankl wrote. “Now it seemed as if nothing and no one would survive me; neither a physical nor a spiritual child of my own! I found myself confronted with the question of whether under such circumstances my life was ultimately void of any meaning.”

He was still wrestling with that question a few days later when the Nazis forced the prisoners to give up their clothes.

“I had to surrender my clothes and in turn inherited the worn-out rags of an inmate who had been sent to the gas chamber,” said Frankl. “Instead of the many pages of my manuscript, I found in the pocket of the newly acquired coat a single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, which contained the main Jewish prayer, Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one God. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.)

“How should I have interpreted such a ‘coincidence’ other than as a challenge to live my thoughts instead of merely putting them on paper?”

Later, as Frankl reflected on his ordeal, he wrote in his book Man’s search for Meaning, “There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life . . .’He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.'”