You'll Like This One! It's About a Prison Break!

Pastor’s Ponderings

July 2025

“You’ll like this one! It’s about a prison break!”

One of my favorite scenes in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” is that moment when Andy Dufresne, who has just acquired a significant supply of books for the prison library after persistently bugging the Maine legislature for more books and funding, begins recommending specific books for his fellow inmates to read. One of the inmates, Heywood, picks up a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo and Andy tells him, “You’ll like this one. It’s about a prison break!”

If anyone you know is reluctant to read through The Acts of the Apostles, you could say, “Oh! you’ll like this one. It’s about a jail break.” Prison breaks are great for some exciting adventure reading, especially when it’s the heroes, or the protagonists, who are breaking out of prison. We prefer not to have the villains escape from prison, unless the villains get transformed (which is yet another theme in Acts).

In total, there are three jail breaks in the Book of Acts, and in each case, it is the heroes of the story who are breaking out of jail. See Acts 5:17-26; Acts 12:5-11; and Acts 16:25-30.

In the second story—Peter’s escape from prison in Acts 12—the angel facilitates Peter’s miraculous escape—but Peter is unable to get through the locked gate at the house where his fellow Christians are praying and must wait for Rhoda to finally open the door. In the words of New Testament scholar Matthew Skinner, “At the end, the church has to figure out what God has done and take action themselves. God doesn’t take care of every door. The people of God have to open a few on their own.”

With the eyes of faith, we know that Christ has already set us free. Knowing that we are free, what doors remain that we need to open on our own? What does it mean for us to walk through the already-opened prison doors and flee our own captivity? We may feel confined in prisons of our own making because of our past actions. We may feel confined by addictions or unhealthy patterns. We may feel confined because we feel powerless in the face of everything that is happening in our lives and in our world. We may feel confined because the world has changed and we wonder how the church might need to change to respond to the new situation.

In my mind, the church ought to be about the business of opening doors. We can open doors as we share with each other our own stories of liberation. We can open doors as we encourage others to visualize their freedom in Christ and to internalize that they have a God-given identity as children of God that can never be taken away. We can continue to love and serve our neighbors and advocate for them so that they can be free to thrive. We can reach out to people who are incarcerated in real life. We can reach out to people who are spiritually searching and invite them to join us as we seek to follow the Spirit’s leading. And we can work together on opening the doors that are the most challenging to open.

And if it all seems too daunting, I know some thrilling jail break stories that might help inspire us and give us courage.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jack