Why Do Good Things Happen?

Acts 12:3-17

Introduction

The questions that I most often encounter are things like why did this bad thing happen or why did this good thing not happen? Those are normal questions to ask but how often we ask those questions may depend our theological context.

I attended a church where many of the people believed that we had privileged status as Christians. We were “kids of the King” and so we should have all of the blessings that go with that. The church was heavily influenced by the prosperity gospel that taught that all Christians should expect to be healthy and wealthy. When something contradicted that, that was a real problem. We saw last week in the death of James that life is not about uninterrupted prosperity but a mix of blessing and suffering. No one is exempt from experiencing suffering.

I was in seminary as I was wrestling with these issues, looking at what the church taught, what the Bible presented, and what I saw in real life. I remember thinking that it would be easier if God always healed or if God never healed. But what I have seen is that there are times in which  God seems to respond the way we want to our prayers and other times that God does not. There seems to be no clear pattern, no code that we can crack to understand why God acts in the way God does.

This is perhaps most plainly demonstrated in Acts 12 and the arrests of James and Peter by Herod Antipas. We are going to look at this more carefully, but as we enter the story, I want you to think about how the early church was dealing with this. James is arrested and is killed by the sword. Peter is arrested and—spoiler alert—he is supernaturally freed from jail.

Do you remember what we said last week about life being fair? Was this fair? How did James’ brother John feels about James being killed and Peter being freed? Keep those thoughts close to your heart as we look at the story.

Peter and His Miracle

We saw last week that James, one of the Twelve and of the inner three was arrested and executed by Herod. Herod recognized that his show of force was lauded by certain people and so he decided to replicate his success. Peter, also one of the Twelve and the inner three was also arrested.

This was not Peter’s first time in jail. We see that he was arrested early in Acts but was released by the authorities as he had not really done anything illegal. That did warn him to stop preach Jesus, which of course he did not do.

We cannot know for sure but I like to imagine what these biblical figures were thinking. What did Peter expect to happen? Probably of this was earlier, he would have assumed he would be released by some intervention of God. But his good friend and fellow disciple James had just been executed with the sword by the same man who had just arrested Peter. Did Peter really have any good reason to believe that he would avoid the same fate? We cannot know but if I was Peter, I would be preparing to rejoin Jesus.

So Peter was sleeping in chains, bound between two guards with more guards watching the cell. This was much more than house arrest. Peter was not going anywhere. Or was he?

A light shone in the cell and an angel woke Peter up with a tap. The chains fell off and Peter followed the angel. Were the guards asleep or did they just not see what was going on? It was like a modern spy movie where the intruders tamper with security cameras so that no one saw them. The experience was so bizarre that Peter assumed that he was having a vision. Peter had visions before and he was probably trying to figure out what all these images signified. What they signified was reality and Peter found himself free and outside the prison. 

Peter, of course, knew where the other Christians were. They were actually gathered in a house praying for him. So Peter went to this house and knocked. The maid who went to the door recognized Peter’s voice but left him outside and went to tell the people. They did not believe her and when she insisted that it was Peter, they assumed that it was Peter’s angel and that Peter was dead. Meanwhile, Peter was still knocking, hoping to get into the house.

It almost seems like these praying people struggled to believe that God would answer their prayer in the way they asked. In some ways it is a humorous story, a comedy of errors, but it is also a challenge to how we consider prayer. Will God answer our prayers? We know God does not always answer our prayers the way we want but what do we do when God does answer them? That is a good question.

Answers to Prayers

Last week we looked at how we feel when God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want and the death of James was a good example of that. This week we are looking at how we feel when God does answer our prayers the way we want. You might think that is not even a valid question. Of course we are happy when God answers our prayer the way we want because that is what we expect. But do we?

When we look at the story of Peter, we see that even Peter was not sure what was happening was real. Certainly the maid at the door of the house church was not convinced.

Unless you are under the impression that God always gives us exactly what we want or that God never gives us anything we want, we are left trying to figure out what is going on. Does God answer prayers based on the mood of the day or does he have a random generator that determines which prayers get answered which way? Peter got luck while James was less so. I do not think that is the case.

Some people seek to find a very specific message in the answer to prayer. God answered this prayer in this way for this reason. I am less certain that we can discern those details. What did Peter do? He was not given a message about why he was rescued and James was not. What Peter did was continue to do the work of the gospel. I think that is about as specific as we can get.

I have had some very specific and dramatic answers to prayer. They have literally changed my life. Not every prayer has been answered that way but enough have that I know it is not just a coincidence. I can tell you how I responded or at least how I have tried to respond to them. They were reminders that God loves me and I tried to respond by drawing closer to God and trying to be more faithful in my following of Jesus. That’s it. I am well aware that many prayers seem to go unanswered, even prayers that seem so much more important. I have no explanation. My job is not to fit all of the theological pieces together to see the perfect solution. My job is to love God and love people. That love does not depend on a continued ration of answered prayer. I am not going to go to God and say “Yes, but what have you done for me lately?” What God did in Jesus Christ is enough. But those blessings that have been sprinkled throughout my life are helpful reminders to me of what I have already received in Christ. 

Conclusion

For the past decade I have been intrigued by the stories of James and Peter. Both arrested, one execute and one rescued. No obvious explanation for the different outcomes.

I find these stories interesting because they highlight a reality that we are not always comfortable talking about. We trust God, pray our prayers, and hope for the best. It is difficult to interpret the results. There is plenty that seems unfair on the surface. The world does not work they way we think it should. God does not always respond to our prayers the way we expect. I wish I could give you a comprehensive explanation. I cannot. What I can tell you is that God is real and that God is active. God cared about everything that happened to James and Peter and God cares about everything that happens to you. I believe God intervenes in this world, even if we cannot always understand how or why. Peter continues to serve Jesus. The brother of James continued to serve Jesus. And we should continue to serve Jesus, even when we don’t get what we expect or we get what we don’t expect.