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Context No. 692 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 5:17-23: in context

17But the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy 18and laid hands on the apostles, then put them in public custody. 19But an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night, and brought them out and said, 20“Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” 21When they heard this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and taught. But the high priest and those who were with him came and called the council together, with all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22But the officers who came didn’t find them in the prison. They returned and reported, 23“We found the prison shut and locked, and the guards standing before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside!”

The apostles are drawing crowds in Jerusalem, healing and preaching in Jesus's name, and the temple authorities have had enough. The high priest and his Sadducee party, filled with jealousy, arrest them and lock them in the public jail to await trial. That would seem to be that. But during the night an angel opens the prison doors, leads them out, and gives them an order that is not what a rescued prisoner expects to hear. Go, stand in the temple, and speak to the people all the words of this Life.

Not flee, not hide, not lie low. Go back to the exact place you were seized, and say the exact thing you were seized for saying. And they do; at daybreak they are in the temple teaching again. Meanwhile the council gathers and sends for the prisoners, and the officers come back baffled: the prison was shut and locked, the guards were standing at the doors, and inside there was no one. The point of the open doors was never the apostles' safety. It was to put them back on their feet in public, doing the thing again.

The apostles were freed not to hide but to go straight back to what got them arrested. When I am given a reprieve, do I use it to lie low, or to return to the thing I was freed to do?

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