Dynasties: Help Me Rhonda

 

Every great story needs a hero. And to make the story even greater, every great story needs an antihero. Maybe not a pure villain, but someone who is out to make it on their own; own the world and have the most power, wealth and notoriety. We see heroes and antiheroes all through our popular culture – where would Superman be without Lex Luther, Skywalker without Darth Vader, Aslan without the White Witch, the Smurfs without Gargamel, Toothless without Grimmel the Grisly? We even see them in our Bible, where would the story of Exodus and Moses be without the Pharoah, Elijah without Jezebel, Daniel without Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius and Cyrus and Jesus without…

Well, I guess here, logically you would guess and say Satan ... but is he the only antihero talked about all through the gospels and into Acts?

What I am going to suggest that there is another family of anti-heroes in the Jesus story.  A family that also features in the story of Acts. A family whose evil intent shows up around the festival of the Passover. A family that loves to follow the Roman tradition of calling itself gods and beheading an enemy or two. That family is the family of Herod. Today, we are going to learn about Dynasties and the importance of answering the door – Help Me Rhonda is more than a song.

We are doing this so that the reality of Acts becomes so much more richer to us. The reality and the story of Acts sits in a historical context. We learn though Acts that the church at its best is a witness to the Gospel. We also learn that, even the church in this context, finds it hard to recognise a miracle when the world around it just wants to take off its head.  

Let’s start with Herod. Now, we need to not be confused here. There are many Herods in the Bible.

So, it is easy to be confused. King Herod the Great was indeed a very great and busy man. He had to be. He had ten wives and many many sons. One of these wives was intent on killing him and had a mother-in-law straight out of the television series Game of Thrones who loved to twist the innocent minds of her great children. This mother-in-law also schemed to kill the great king, with her friend Cleopatra. Yes, the Cleopatra of bathing in milk fame.  And yes, Herod’s eldest sons got caught up in the plot and soon lost their heads – both figuratively and literally.

King Herod the Great had his title gifted to him by Antony, Cleopatra’s lover and the land was gifted by Cassius and Brutus – yes the Cassius and Brutus who killed Julius Caesar. Jesus and the early Church were firmly planted in the great Roman Empire of our history books.

King Herod’s children would be gifted the regal name of Herod and thus King Herod had many sons, and those that sat in power carried the name Herod as well. That’s where the confusion falls in. Some scholars say that there could be up to five Herods in the Bible. But today we are going to focus on three, Herod the Great, his son Herod Antipas and his grandson to another wife, Herod Agrippa.

Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great to his fourth wife. We first see this great antihero in the Gospel of Mathew. It is back in Mathew 14. Herod’s brother Philip, also known as Herod, has a wife, Herodias (I wonder where she got that name). Herodias dances for Herod and gratifies him so much, that he, being the good Greek ruler pledges to give her heart’s desire. She, being of the name Herod, asks for the head of John the Baptist on a plate. Herod instantly serves this up.

And this is not children’s story. This is how Grecco-Roman rule worked back in the day. We also learn in Mark 6 and Luke 9 that Herod ruled out of his own fear as well. Like a typical tyrant, he knew that his power was limited. Just as Caesar Augustus saw himself as a God in Rome, Herod was his own God over Israel and all other gods had to be tested. So, when Herod hears about the miracles of Jesus, his instant reaction was – but I killed John the Baptist. How can John the Baptist come back from the dead?

As we know, John the Baptist didn’t come back from the dead – but Jesus would. Even after Herod Antipus and Pilate condemned him to death during the holiest of Jewish festivals – the passover.

By the time Acts 12 comes onto the scene, Herod Antipas has been exiled and, in his place, the grandson of Herod the Great, Herod Agrippa is now ruling. Agrippa was not the son of Antipas but the son of one the sons that Herod the Great executed. Agrippa was raised in exile in Rome in the imperial court. He would become close friends with Claudius, another Roman Emperor. The reality is the Herod family do not just have a history connected with Israel but pretty much can name drop every famous Roman leader around the time of Jesus and Acts.

We get to meet our antihero Agrippa at another Passover festival in Acts 12. And both his grandfather and uncle would be so proud of him as he has continued in the family tradition of power, violence and wealth:

That's when King Herod got it into his head to go after some of the church members. He murdered James, John's brother. When he saw how much it raised his popularity ratings with the Jews, he arrested Peter--all this during Passover Week, mind you-- and had him thrown in jail, putting four squads of four soldiers each to guard him. He was planning a public lynching after Passover.

All the time that Peter was under heavy guard in the jailhouse, the church prayed for him most strenuously. Then the time came for Herod to bring him out for the kill.

That night, even though shackled to two soldiers, one on either side, Peter slept like a baby. And there were guards at the door keeping their eyes on the place. Herod was taking no chances!

Suddenly there was an angel at his side and light flooding the room. The angel shook Peter and got him up: "Hurry!" The handcuffs fell off his wrists. The angel said, "Get dressed. Put on your shoes." Peter did it. Then, "Grab your coat and let's get out of here." Peter followed him, but didn't believe it was really an angel--he thought he was dreaming.

Past the first guard and then the second, they came to the iron gate that led into the city. It swung open before them on its own, and they were out on the street, free as the breeze. At the first intersection the angel left him, going his own way.

That's when Peter realized it was no dream. "I can't believe it--this really happened! The Master sent his angel and rescued me from Herod's vicious little production and the spectacle the Jewish mob was looking forward to."

Still shaking his head, amazed, he went to Mary's house, the Mary who was John Mark's mother. The house was packed with praying friends. When he knocked on the door to the courtyard, a young woman named Rhoda came to see who it was.

But when she recognized his voice--Peter's voice!--she was so excited and eager to tell everyone Peter was there that she forgot to open the door and left him standing in the street. But they wouldn't believe her, dismissing her, dismissing her report. "You're crazy," they said. She stuck by her story, insisting. They still wouldn't believe her and said, "It must be his angel."

All this time poor Peter was standing out in the street, knocking away. Finally they opened up and saw him--and went wild! Peter put his hands up and calmed them down. He described how the Master had gotten him out of jail, then said, "Tell James and the brothers what's happened."

He left them and went off to another place. At daybreak the jail was in an uproar. "Where is Peter? What's happened to Peter?"

When Herod sent for him and they could neither produce him nor explain why not, he ordered their execution: "Off with their heads!"

Fed up with Judea and Jews, he went for a vacation to Caesarea. But things went from bad to worse for Herod. Now people from Tyre and Sidon put him on the warpath. But they got Blastus, King Herod's right-hand man, to put in a good word for them and got a delegation together to iron things out. Because they were dependent on Judea for food supplies, they couldn't afford to let this go on too long.

On the day set for their meeting, Herod, robed in pomposity, took his place on the throne and regaled them with a lot of hot air. The people played their part to the hilt and shouted flatteries: "The voice of God! The voice of God!"

That was the last straw. God had had enough of Herod's arrogance and sent an angel to strike him down. Herod had given God no credit for anything.

Down he went. Rotten to the core, a maggoty old man if there ever was one, he died.

Meanwhile, the ministry of God's Word grew by leaps and bounds. Barnabas and Saul, once they had delivered the relief offering to the church in Jerusalem, went back to Antioch. This time they took John with them, the one they called Mark.

(Acts 12:1-25)

Often when we read Acts, we focus on the miracles. We focus on the extraordinary in the times of the ordinary. But I want to posit two things. Another way to read Acts is to focus on the world in which the church lived. And added to this, another way to read Acts is to look at how the church itself responds to the extraordinary Acts of the Holy Spirit. Reading Acts like this enables us and empowers us to reflect on how we are responding to our own world around us today and how we accept or reject the Acts of God in our presence.

Acts 12 is so powerful for this, some commentators talk about it being a humorous moment in a serious story. I want to suggest that Acts 12 is a serious reflection of the world in which the early church lived. I also want to suggest that the whole book of Acts is a challenge to us on how we ourselves respond to the world of today.

We have already been introduced to the family of Herod. We have focused on three Herods but also found another couple along the way. And Paul later would encounter the last of the Herod rulers. But if we really want to know about the world that the church of Acts encountered we have to have a firm understanding of the Grecco-Roman world in which this church was located.

As a western Christian church, I think we have done some serious damage to our Bible over the centuries. What is this? I believe we have sanitised it. We have been so keen that our Bible is accessible to children, we have removed the gruesome details from it. When we do this, we decontextualise the Bible. While we see the message in Acts as one of miracles and God with Us, we fail to see the ‘in what’ of God with Us. God with Us – in what? In the context of Acts, it is God with Us in the brutal reality of Herodian rule in a Roman Empire.

This is incredibly important. Herod the Great, his sons and grandsons ruled out of fear. Herod the Great had married into the Hasmonean family. The Hasmonean family were a Jewish family who were instrumental in freeing Judea from Seleucid rule through pure violence. They served as high priests, governors and kings until Roman occupation. Herod the Great and the dynasties that followed wanted to secure their claim to their Jewish heritage, but they also wanted to claim their Roman titles. Each generation of Herods sought to do both by pleasing both Rome and in particular the Sadducees; the aristocratic families, priests and merchants of Judea.

This is why there is so much violence and infighting in the family. And the violence was real. It was horrific and it was the context of the early church in Acts. Herod Agrippa had already murdered James, the brother of John when we get to Acts 12. And now Herod was after Peter.

Added to this, there is another factor at play in the early church. You see, as far as Rome was concerned. Christians were atheists; they were non-believers in the Roman pantheon, nor did they worship the Imperial cult of Ancient Rome.  Christians worshiped a God outside of the Roman tradition and they did not recognise Caesar as a God. Christians were seen as a threat to Roman rule because of this and, for the Jews, they were a threat to tradition.

From the time of Herod the Great to Herod Agrippa, one thing was very clear to their maintenance of power – kill the Christians and please both Rome and the local Jewish community. Please both, and your throne will be maintained. Kill the Christians and your power will be declared to the world. We see this here in Acts 12, Agrippa sees that he pleases the Jews, so he is even more determined to have Peter’s head on a plate.

Now put this miracle here in this context. Put the whole of the books of Acts here in this context and what do we learn? Some have said that a key message can be that the church is at its best in times of persecution. I want to add something more here. What we learn from Acts is the response of the church to brutal rule. What we learn from Acts is how we should respond to worldly powers.

What we learn is this. At a time of high persecution in Acts. What did the church do? Did it protest? Did it attempt to take all operations completely underground? Did it die out? Did it speak into the persecution? Did it cry out for peace? Did it fight? Did it pray against the rulers of the time? Did it speak up against the Jewish leaders?

The learning we can take from Acts, is that it did none of these things. The church merely did one thing. It was a witness to the Gospel, to the love of God and to the sacrifice that we are called to be for each other.

So the question to us is – are we a witness today? And this is not a question for us as individuals but for us here as a church. As Wainuiomata Baptist Church are we a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the sacrifice that we are called to be for each other?

I don’t think the answer is a complete no, but I also don’t think that the answer is a complete yes. Why is this? Well if it was a complete yes, I think we would find our conversations being very different, our actions being very different and our response to our own world completely different.

I personally think we would find ourselves talking more and more about the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, rather that our stance on national or global positions. I think we would find ourselves just wanting to fellowship more and more. I think collectively we would find ourselves on our knees in prayer more and more. I think we would be seeking more and more together opportunities to witness to Jesus Christ rather than share our own opinion.

What we learn from the church of Acts, is a healthy church is not of the world. Nor does it respond to the events of the world in predictable ways. A healthy church is a witness to the testimony and victory of the cross. Afterall, what turns the ordinary into the extraordinary, it is the presence of the Holy Spirit, the counsel of the Holy Spirit and the freedom of the Holy Spirit.

A contemporary example comes from a testimony captured in the secular magazine, the New Zealand Geographic. The reporters are capturing what is happening on lifeboats in Whakaari/White Island eruption. Remember, we, as a church, are called to be a witness, this is more than just a response, it is to be light in the darkness of our world:

Those who had sustained the worst burns had been placed at the front of the vessel, and two doctors had stepped forward from among the passengers to tend to them—a general practitioner on holiday from the United Kingdom, and another from Germany. Geoff Hopkins, a pastor at Arise church in Hamilton with a St John certificate, provided assistance.

His daughter, Lillani, was at the back of the vessel with the other victims, doing her best to stave off hypothermia and shock. She found herself singing the evangelical song “Waymaker”:

You are here, moving in our midst… You are here, working in this place… You are here, healing every heart…

And if she stopped there’d be a touch on her leg, and a whisper: “Keep singing.”

Church, are you prepared to be a witness to the cross rather than a mere response to the things that are happening around you? And are you prepared to recognise the extraordinary or the Spirit when it happens. You see the core message of Acts is to be witness to the Gospel and respond, not to the world, but to the call of the Holy Spirit.

I mentioned when I started this message that it was called – Dynasties: Help Me Rhonda. I did this because of another character in this chapter – the young woman, Rhonda. We don’t know much about her but what we do know is that her fame is her response to her excitement of realising that Peter had been released – she forgot to open the door. Imagine meeting Rhonda in Heaven, what would you say … oh you are the dipsy teenager who forgot to open the door? But I also think the praying friends were just as dipsy as they kept questioning Rhonda, praying for a miracle while, all the time, it was knocking on their door.

Church, how do we respond to miracles, how do we respond to the extraordinary of the Holy Spirit? Do we keep praying for a miracle witness of the Gospel truth while it is right there occurring before us? Do we get so excited that a miracle has occurred without stepping into the miracle and opening the door? I could do a whole sermon on Rhonda but in summary, I think it is fair to say that there are times that our excitement of what is possible keeps the door shut because we have failed to act.

There are two verses in the New Testament that refer to someone knocking on a door and the response to that knocking. Both refer to the church response and unfortunately one is often misquoted to refer to the response of the lost. Church, open your eyes, tune into your ears, are we as one prepared to open the door and let the extraordinary in – to let Jesus in and the counsel of his Holy Spirit. Church when Christ is knocking at our door – what is our response?

You see by the end of the Chapter, Herod Agrippa would be dead. He saw himself as an equal to the God of the Christians and the Message captures this so well:

That was the last straw. God had had enough of Herod's arrogance and sent an angel to strike him down. Herod had given God no credit for anything.

Down he went. Rotten to the core, a maggoty old man if there ever was one, he died.

Meanwhile, the church witnessed continually to the Gospel message. And the ordinary was turned into the extraordinary.  Are we prepared to be that witness? But then added to this, are we prepared to respond to the Holy Spirit when it knocks on our door and the extraordinary has occurred?

The Herod family were obsessed with beheading all of its enemies. The family never realised one truth – the head of the Church is Jesus Christ. And you can kill him, you can hang him on a cross but and shut him away in a tomb, but he has overcome death. He has conquered the grave. He is our hero. He is our saviour. He is our God, and he is the call to our witness to the world and we will respond to that call and be counselled by the Holy Spirit.

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

(Mat 28:18-20)