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“ He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”“You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.” Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed. He motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers what happened,” he said. And then he went to another place.” — Acts 12:13-17.
Over the last few weeks on Friday, we have been looking at little-known characters in the Bible that we might, wrongly perhaps, skip over as not being particularly important. But some of these often-overlooked characters can be significant in other ways, showing us and teaching us something important through their lives, what happened to them, and how other people engaged with them. One was Rhoda.
We don’t know much about Rhoda. She’s a maid in Mary’s house, the mother of John Mark. We don’t know if she’s a slave or a paid employee. We don’t know her age. But first, a little context.
King Herod Agrippa killed James and put Peter in prison. Agrippa had planned on putting Peter on trial. (Acts 12:1-4) But an angel appeared in Peter’s cell the night before the public trial. The chains fell off Peter’s wrists, and the angel led Peter out of prison. Once on the street, the angel left him. It wasn’t a dream, he was free and set off for Mary’s home.
Mary’s home had an outer courtyard door that faced the street. The door did not have a window or peephole, and therefore, it only opened when someone inside the home recognized the knocker’s voice. Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and Rhoda came to answer the door. Rhoda’s job was to discern who to let in and who to contact the owner before admitting. We can probably assume that Rhoda wasn’t about to open the door in the middle of the night, so she probably asked a question like, “Who’s there?”
When Peter identified himself, Rhoda recognized Peter’s voice. She forgot to open the door and told the group inside that “Peter is standing at the door.” She believed that the people’s prayers were answered even without visual confirmation. Everybody basically told her she was out of her mind. She didn’t flinch and insisted it was Peter. Rhoda truly exemplifies the concept of childlike faith.
Childlike faith believes in the outcome of prayer that God answers prayers, not in spending time pondering reasons why God can’t or won’t answer them. Rhoda stood firm in her faith regardless of what everyone was saying and believing. (Acts 12:15)
Discussion Questions:
- What can we learn from the story of Rhoda?
- What is it like to have childlike faith?