Rhoda

A young believer
who believed

It was an unusually important prayer meeting, and Rhoda was there. Although she was only a fifteen-year-old she was as earnest as any of them and just as aware of the calamity that had overtaken them. She sat near the door, at the back of the room, next to sixteen-year-old John, whose mother's house it was in which they were meeting, and bowed her head in reverence as the strong voice of the elder John, leading the meeting, was upraised in supplication. Prayer was being made of the church unceasingly on behalf of Peter, cast into prison by King Herod and in imminent danger of death.

One of the appealing figures of New Testament history is this Rhoda, appearing on the stage with the dancing steps of a child and as quickly tripping off again. That she was barely out of her childhood is apparent from the word used to describe her, "damsel" (paidiske) which denotes a girl in late childhood or early youth, but not later. A different word altogether is used in the New Testament for young women of marriageable age. We meet her for just a moment at the memorable prayer meeting held in the house of Mary the mother of John Mark. Mary's house was the first centre of the church at Jerusalem and it was in that house that the first believers began to make progress in their new-found faith. Now the little community was faced with a crisis and the brethren had gathered together to make effectual fervent prayer. Whether Rhoda was the daughter of one of the believers and was herself just beginning to make the faith her own, or whether she had come in contact with the preaching of the Apostles independently and was attending the meetings on her own account we have no means of knowing; all we do know is that on this fateful night this young girl, hardly out of her childhood and necessarily quite new to the faith, became the means of impressing upon her elder brethren, at that meeting, and no less upon us, reading the story, several important lessons.

According to Acts 12 Peter, upon being miraculously released from prison in the dead of night by the angel, found himself standing in the darkened streets of Jerusalem. What he had thought, whilst it was happening, to have been a dream, he now found to be reality. It is probable that the intense coldness of the Judean night air quickly demonstrated to the somewhat lightly clad Apostle that it was no dream. The city was, of course, deserted at that time of night except perhaps for an occasional watchman. The immediate question for Peter was: What next?

Perhaps this is the first point we should take from the incident, one not connected with Rhoda, "When he had considered" Peter turned his steps to the house of Mary (which is traditionally believed to have been just outside the city wall on the south side of Jerusalem). He did so being tolerably certain to find brethren gathered there and that is our first lesson. We do well to be where we can associate with the Lord's disciples, fellow-Christians in the Narrow Way. In seeking first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness we will best advance our spiritual interests by finding our associations, our friendships and companionships, our activities and interests, among those who like us are consecrated to the service of God and are fellow-heirs in the High Calling. The first thing Peter did upon his release, even although it was twelve o'clock at night, was to make his way to the place where he knew there was always open house for the brethren.

It was really a rare compliment that Peter paid Mary in so doing. He might have surmised, but could hardly have definitely known, that there was a prayer meeting in progress at the time of his release, but he evidently had confidence that his welcome at Mary's house would be full and free even in the middle of the night.

So it came about that Peter was presently standing at the gate in the outer wall of the premises, knocking for admittance, and this is where Rhoda comes into the story. Perhaps the entire meeting heard the knocking on the outer gate, maybe only Rhoda heard and slipped out to investigate; in either case, for all her youthful eagerness, it must have been with a certain amount of trepidation that she crossed the courtyard and stood behind the gate, resounding with the thunderous blows which it was very probably suffering under the hands of the impetuous and not always too patient Peter. For all that Rhoda knew, the knocking might be the harbinger of Herod's officers, seeking someone else, or even all of them, to be taken to prison. Peter, however, on the other side of the gate, was probably reasoning that the sooner he got out of the public street and into the cover of the house the better.

So Rhoda's clear young voice, possessing a confidence she probably only partly felt, ringing out on the still night air, "Who's there?" was answered by a gruff and well-remembered but at the moment decidedly impatient response "Peter, of course. Let me in!" In her relief from apprehension, and joy that their prayers had been answered, Rhoda most inconsequently left him standing there and ran indoors to tell the others. One can almost imagine the lordly air of John Mark, from all the superiority of his twelve months' or so advantage in age, remarking "Just like a girl" when it was all over and the explanations were being made.

Now here is the most intriguing part of the story. The assembled brethren did not believe Rhoda. "Peter at the gate: Rubbish" they said "You must be mad". They knew perfectly well that Peter was in prison and people didn't get out of Herod's prisons so easily as that. The girl was imagining things; whoever it was, it couldn't be Peter. They had been praying unceasingly for Peter's release, and now they were told he was standing at the gate they refused to believe it. One is really justified in wondering how much of faith was mingled with their prayers. Perhaps though it might be more charitable, and maybe nearer the truth, to assume that these immature and inexperienced Christians had not yet appreciated the true power of prayer. After all, the authority of Herod must have been a very immediate and real thing to their minds. They certainly took a lot of persuading. "Thou art mad" they told her. "But she constantly affirmed that it was even so." One can imagine the young girl trying by every artifice of reiteration and emphasis to induce the stubborn grown-ups around her to take her seriously. It would seem from that last expression that the argument went on for some time - evidently the prayer meeting had been temporarily abandoned. Peter, of course, was still knocking but nobody took any notice of that. Finding it impossible to dissuade Rhoda, and being, it would seem, reluctant to test the truth of her news by sending someone else to the gate, the brethren decided that if there was anybody there at all it must be Peter's guardian angel—speaking apparently with Peter's voice. "Then said they, it is his angel." The early Christians had a very intense and definite belief in the existence of guardian angels, though why they should expect an angel to stand out in the street knocking for admittance does not readily appear.

"But Peter continued knocking - probably definitely thunderous knocking by now, so that at last for very shame's sake they had to open the door: "and when they saw him, they were astonished". This is the only place in all the Scriptures where a company of believers joining in supplicatory prayer are stated to have been astonished at receiving the object of their petition!

So Peter took charge of the assembly, and what had started as a prayer meeting ended in a stirring exhortation from one who by his very presence there evidenced how God can deal with the devices and plans of evil men in his own way and deliver his own people when it is his Will.

The meeting broke up; Peter, a free man, went his way; and Rhoda drops out of the story. The New Testament does not mention her again. Did she hold to the faith and in after years become one of the noble matrons who graced the Christian Church with their labours of love and good works? We do not know. Whether she lived the remainder of her days in Jerusalem and perhaps was one of the Christian community which witnessed the fall of the city when Titus besieged it some forty years later, or in later life found herself at Antioch, at Ephesus, or maybe at Alexandria in Egypt with John Mark who we know ended his days as Elder of the Church in that city, we have no idea. All we know of Rhoda is that she was the only one in that prayer meeting quick-witted enough to realise that the united fervent and unceasing prayer had been answered, and having given us that one brief glimpse of unquestioning simple faith she moves off the stage and is lost. But what we have seen is perhaps enough to give rise to some hope and expectation that in a day yet to be, when we have become citizens of the celestial land, among those whom we shall meet and recognise as our forerunners in the Narrow Way, we shall come face to face with "a damsel called Rhoda".

AOH