Escape - Acts 5:17-33

The apostles are stirring up a lot of energy outside of the temple, and the chief priests, mostly Sadducees, “were filled with indignation,” and arrested Peter and all who were with him, again. As they were in prison, “the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.” In the tv show that I was watching about the apostles in the early church, the angel coming and letting the apostles out of jail was a very powerful scene. The interesting part is that the angel opened the door and let them out, but there was no show of strength or power, because the guards who went to inspect reported, “the prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.”

In other circumstances, like with Alma and Amulek or with Nephi and Lehi, the prison walls shake with God’s power and crumble in a big display, and even if the guards would have found the prison door just open, then they could rationalize that the apostles picked the lock, or somehow conned one of the guards into letting them out, or somehow gotten the keys for the door. If anything had been disturbed, then it could have been deduced that the apostles escaped from the cell using their own cleverness. And really if you think about it, if the apostles were to have escaped from prison, they wouldn’t go back behind them and shut the door and relock it, they wouldn’t have had the time or resources to do that. They almost certainly would have disturbed the people around them, so there guards wouldn’t just be standing there guarding an empty room like nothing happened.

Luke makes it a point to say that that they were being held in “the common prison” which would indicate to me that there would have been other prisoners around them in other cells, and if they saw the apostles escaping but not getting out themselves, they would not have been quiet about it. Nothing was disturbed in the jail, and no one seems to be aware that the apostles are gone. Logically the only way that they could have escaped with everything remaining undisturbed, is that something supernatural happened, like an angel releasing them. The Jewish leadership had absolutely no evidence to which they could point and claim that this release was anything other than a manifestation of God’s power.

Having just escaped from prison, knowing that they were facing almost certain death, most people would have run for their lives and become fugitives, but that’s not what the apostles do. The apostles obey the command of the angel and go to the temple and start preaching to the people. Again, as a manifestation of God’s power, these men face death and preach of Jesus. It’s like when Abinadi stood before King Noah, knowing that he was going to die, but he wasn’t afraid, he wasn’t begging for his life, he wasn’t capitulating to save his own life. Abinadi stood tall and testified of Christ without fear, he knew what was coming but it was Noah who “feared his word; for he feared that the judgment of God would come upon him.” Here, the apostles stood preaching of Christ without fear, but it was the Jewish leadership who “feared the people, lest they should have been stones.”

As the chief priests are learning of the apostles’ escape from prison, “then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people.” I bet that that was a surprise for them. They were “brought… without violence,” because they feared the people would bludgeon them to death, so I don’t know if that means that they were re-arrested or if it was more a “the manager would like to see you this way sir, if you don’t mind.” The chief priests are not pleased and ask them “did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” They finally understand what Peter has been accusing them of this whole time, of murdering Jesus, of shedding innocent blood. Interestingly, they are basically saying, “you’re trying to pin this on us?” but when Pilate was trying to free Jesus and finally washed his hands of the whole thing saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person,” these same men who are arguing with Peter answered, “his blood be on us, and on our children.” They are beginning to understand the significance of their words and they don’t like it at all.

To their question, “didn’t we tell you to stop talking about this guy?” Peter answers, “we ought to obey god rather than men.” This is a basic Jewish principle, God before men, heaven before riches, and it must have been a slap in the face for the chief priests to be reminded of that by this man they consider to be an apostate. Peter points out that the Jewish leadership, or any man for that matter, cannot destroy God’s work. He says, basically, “God sent Jesus to us and you killed him. But even though he allowed you to kill him, God made him our Savior so that we can repent and be forgiven for our sins. And I am a witness of these things through the Holy Ghost, which you could have too, if you would obey God.” That’s how I read these verses.

The Spirit must be strong in the room because “when they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.” They figured that the only way out of this mess is to kill these guys too. How tragic is it when your default way of dealing with things that you don’t like is to kill it? Even though these are the same men who cried “crucify him, crucify him” to Pilate without a second thought, Peter’s testimony and rebuke carried with it the Holy Ghost and the words stab them in the heart to the point where the only way out is death. The word “cut” is cross referenced with 1 Nephi 16:2 which says, “And it came to pass that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things again the wicked, according to the truth,” which is a pretty accurate description of Peter’s words to the chief priests. Nephi continues, “and the righteous have I justified, and testified that they should be lifted up at the last day; wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.”

I imagine myself as one of the chief priests who only wants to remain in power and keep getting money. I imagine that I have rejected all the words of Jesus, and even called for his death to Pilate. I was relieved when Jesus finally died because now I could get back to my life as I like it. Which begs the question, were the Pharisees really losing out on that much because of Jesus? Were their lives being impacted in such a way that getting rid of him was their only option to stay afloat? I think about the triumphal entry, hundreds of people came out to welcome Jesus as their Savior, but it was hundreds out of the hundreds of thousands that were there for Passover. Statistically, it was probably less than 1% of people who were embracing Jesus’ teachings. So with the 99% still supporting them, the chief priests probably wouldn’t have come to a point where it came down to Jesus living or them giving up their lifestyle. I mean, he was hardly ever in Jerusalem, he taught mostly in the country side and he was usually rejected there as well.

If I can assume that the Jewish leadership were not being financially impacted in any way, or at most very minimally, then I would have to assume also that their beef with Jesus was completely based on his criticism of them. Really, if they let didn’t kill Jesus that year, what would he have done? He probably would have gone back to the country and taught his gospel there, and he would have continued to do that until infinity. I always supposed that the Jewish leadership’s hatred of Jesus came to a head this third year of his ministry because he was popular enough to overthrow their system of governance so it was a “now or never” or a “him or me” kind of situation, but I’m starting to think that that wasn’t the case.

I think that he criticized them and they didn’t like it and they sought to kill him and this was the only time that he would allow himself to be killed. I don’t think there was ever a moment where they would have lost their power to Jesus’ “anti-Pharisee political party.” Their murderous reaction to him was only because he hurt their feelings, not because they didn’t want to give up their power or wealth or anything like that. He was never popular enough with the people to achieve any type of overthrow and that was never his mission. Maybe that’s why he didn’t have the Holy Ghost with him. They wanted him to die because he hurt their feelings, he didn’t have raging success and enough followers to change their political system. This has just flipped my whole perspective of Christ’s ministry upside down, and I’m not sure why.