Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter

But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison,

led them out, and said,
“Go and take your place in the temple area,
and tell the people everything about this life.”

Acts of the Apostles, after the Book of Jonah, is the funniest book in the Bible. This story today, which describes God’s mastery of the situation despite the best attempts of the Sanhedrin, is typical.

They have securely locked the disciples Peter and John in the temple jail, for lack of anything better to do with them. The disciples have broken no law but the leaders cannot let them go on preaching about Jesus, and especially about their abortive attempt to suppress the Gospel. Their outrageous crucifixion of Jesus, which compromised every sacred responsibility they ever knew, had failed to put him down. Now their disciples were doing what Jesus had done and greater, just as he had predicted.

So they set the temple guards on them and put them in jail for the night. That might perhaps cool their ardor.

The next morning, hoping the miserable experience had effected the preaching healers, they ordered them to be brought out of the jail.

But they weren’t in jail.

“So where are they?”

“There they are, over there, preaching to the people again!”

“Well – get ‘em over here!”

Then the captain and the court officers went and brought them, but without force, because they were afraid of being stoned by the people

Easter celebrates the victory of Jesus over sin and death and it’s nothing if not funny. We see our enemies flustered and frustrated before the irresistible mercy of God. They can no more stop the work of the Holy Spirit than they could control Jesus. We have to laugh as we rejoice – ha ha ha halleluiah.