Acts 12:1-4
Luke writes a lot in these four verses: James is killed; the Jews are happy; Peter is imprisoned; and the disciples are praying (oops, one verse too many!). Here we see an identification for one of the three “James” names – this one the brother of John and son of Zebedee. We had already seen in Paul’s conversion in chapter 9 another “James” name, when Paul visited Jerusalem and met with Peter and “James, the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:19). The third James is listed in the Gospels as “James, the son of Alphaeus” (Matthew 10:2, Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15). If you will, there is also possibly a fourth, “James, the Lesser”, mentioned in all three Synoptic Gospels in conjunction with his mother Mary at the cross and resurrection (i.e., “…Mary, the mother of James, the Lesser and Joses”; Mark 15:40). So Luke unravels this mystery a bit – but only a bit!
He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (vv. 2-3) What bothers me here is “…he saw that it pleased the Jews…”. The Jewish leaders’ antagonism toward the Christians must have been very strong. Then later we have Herod …intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. (v. 4b) Sounds like a replay of Pilate bringing Jesus out before the people – who then denounced Him. Sad.
Only four verses, but again a lot packed in there…
Slava Bohu!
In this little passage we have two apostles with targets on their backs. One dies a martyr, while God saves the other. Don’t we wish that we could see God’s reasons? We have some hindsight here, but often we live with this same situation, why him, not her? The need for trust!!!!