Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”
When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Acts 12:8-12
“When Peter escaped he took his way straight to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark. From that we learn that this was the headquarters of the Christian Church. It has indeed been suggested that it was in this very house that the Last Supper was eaten and that it continued to be the meeting place of the disciples in Jerusalem. Note what the Christians were doing. They were praying. When they were up against it, they turned to God.”
William Barclay in The Acts of the Apostles (DBSS; Philadelphia: Westminster Press 1976) 95.
In the early church, Mary, the mother of John Mark, was a prayer warrior. She opened her home despite the risk, and it became the center of the Christian church. It was a house of prayer.
This is not an insignificant point. She had space in her home and made margin in her calendar. Those dedicated to prayer are not peripheral but central to Christian mission.
People ask me about my global work with GTP. Let me tell you about my mom. As today is her 80th birthday, I want to honor my mother, Patricia “Patsy” Hoag. She prays for me every day.
If I navigate hard situations, have wisdom for difficult tasks, and find courage in crisis, it comes, at least in part, as a result of her prayers. I continue to be sustained by her encouragement and intercession.
And she extends this not just toward me and my family. For her whole life, she has opened her home and heart to others making it a pivotal place for God’s worker to fellowship and get fueled for service. Happy Birthday Mom!
And thanks, Mary, the mother of John Mark, for your example of faithful intercession coupled with generous hospitality. Imagine your home as the place where Peter would ran when miraculously delivered from chains by the angel!
Wow! God, make us people like Mary so people run to us for refuge.