Knock Knock Knocking - Rhoda

Acts 12:1-17

It’s one of the funniest stories in the Bible, featuring a seemingly scatterbrained servant girl in what you might call a “situation comedy.” Her name was Rhoda.

Christians were living in a tense time. While the church was growing, there was also greater persecution. James had been executed. Peter was arrested and imprisoned, awaiting the same fate. The believers met at a home in Jerusalem to pray for him.

The home belonged to Mary, the mother of Mark and thus a relative of Barnabas, as we know from Colossians 4:10. It seems she was an affluent widow originally from Cyprus, and she might have brought Rhoda from there. (There is also some speculation that the Last Supper was held in her home.)

Under high security the night before his trial, Peter felt his chains fall off. The guards were fast asleep. An angel led him out to the streets of the city. From there, Peter found his way to Mary’s house and knocked at the outer gate.

Enter Rhoda. Answering this middle-of-the-night knock, she was so excited to see Peter that she ran to tell the others . . . and left him out front, still knocking. Inside, the other Christians wouldn’t believe her. “You’re out of your mind!” they said, but she stuck to her story. Then they heard more knocking and went to see for themselves.

It was not the first time that a Christian was called crazy for delivering good news, nor would it be the last. When the women came back from the empty tomb talking about resurrection, it “sounded like nonsense” to the disciples, before Peter and John raced to the tomb to check it out (Luke 24:11). The apostle Paul, who was also called crazy, wrote that God has “used our foolish preaching to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21).

Rhoda is an early example of a courageous truth teller. She witnessed an answer to prayer and she said so, even though it was far fetched. The history of the Christian church is populated with truth tellers like this, whose simple insistence prompts others to see for themselves. We still need such truth tellers today.

This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

1 Corinthians 1:25