NOTES for Act 12:1-25
Today's reading gives us the chance to see the Kingdom from a new and somewhat unexpected side. It concerns the incident with Peter (vv. 6-11). At first glance it may seem that the miracle that happened to Peter is not very different from the miracles we read about in the Gospel. Yet there is one important difference.
Of course, appearances of angels are quite well known to the authors of the biblical books; references to them occur in both the Old and New Testaments. But earlier every appearance of an angel was regarded as an event that was, to a certain degree, mystical.
Here a clarification is needed: strictly speaking, the Bible knows nothing mystical at all. Mysticism assumes that we live in an originally divided world whose different regions do not intersect with one another at all, or almost not at all. The Bible, however, from its first pages describes the world as one, and any division in it, from the viewpoint of the authors of the biblical books, is the consequence of evil and sin that entered the world. Such division cannot be absolute, and therefore a person who has normal, full relations with God sees the world not as divided, but as God conceived and created it: whole. In such a world God is always near, and one can meet an angel simply while sitting at the entrance to one's own tent, as Abraham did. Yet for the authors of the Old Testament books the Kingdom was still the reality of "the age to come"; its time had not yet arrived. Jesus constantly reminds people that it is near throughout His earthly ministry, revealing it to those ready to see. Still, before Pentecost the Kingdom remained limited in space and time; it was bound to the person of Jesus Himself and moved over the earth together with Him.
Now everything is different: the Kingdom enters the world, no longer limited by any boundaries. It can open anywhere and at any time; it is always near, and what earlier was only partly revealed in a vision now becomes part of the reality in which we live. Earlier, to see the Kingdom one had to look into the future; now one needs only to enter the Kingdom for it to remain always near. The Kingdom becomes the reality of our world. Of course, far from everyone in the world notices it, but it does not become less real because of that. The age to come has become the present age. The Kingdom enters the world.