¹²And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. ¹³When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. ¹⁴When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. ¹⁵They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.”

As Peter moved down the street outside the jail, mental acuity settled in and he began to understand what had just happened. An angel had orchestrated his release from jail, his chains had fallen off, the iron gate gave way, and the guards were oblivious. Either he was unrecognized as he walked along in the dark or the miracle was continuing on; he traversed by foot to the home of close friends who were praying. Perhaps the news of his “escape” had simply not yet circulated to the authorities.

Luke turns us to Peter’s reception at the home where he went. Here we find the first mention of John Mark, who, as it turns out, accompanied Saul and Barnabas on the first mission tour. This young man is well known as being the source of heated contention between Paul and Barnabas, because of his bailing out of the trip (see Acts 15:36–41). At this point, we note John Mark was well connected through his mother’s hospitality: she hosted the believers for prayer, and their home was the first place the apostle Peter went upon his release from imprisonment. This family was wealthy enough to have a servant girl as well as a house large enough for “many” to gather.

The humor of this story is inescapable: Peter knocking, the girl recognizing his voice and becoming so excited that she leaves the apostle standing outside the locked door as she runs to interrupt the prayer meeting with the news! One can imagine Peter’s chagrin, hearing her running feet and excited voice.

The parallels are interesting. Like the girl, it was a female, Mary Magdalene, who first recognized Jesus’ voice (John 20:16) and ran to announce His return. There were doubters such as Thomas who wouldn’t believe until they saw for themselves, but even Peter and John ran to the tomb to check it out.

One contrast is fascinating: the prison “iron gate” and guards could not keep Peter in jail, but a servant girl and locked gate kept him out of the believers’ home. Is it too much of an application to challenge our souls? While we need to be on guard against Christian urban myths about miracles, we must never doubt the power of God to do incredible things for His believers.

Lord, no prison can hold us back when You bring release to us.