Thursday, May 9, 2013

The Jailhouse Rocks (Acts 16:16-40)

When I was little I didn't know who Elvis was until it was big news that he died.  Growing up, I had no idea he was such a revolutionary in the world of music and considered "The King" of rock and roll.  But in a related story, I do remember going to a Bands of America band camp in Whitewater, Wisconsin before my junior year in high school and of all the things that I learned and experienced at that camp, one moment sticks out to me.  There was a college jazz band that was made up of several of the camp staff members and they played a little concert for us.  All of the sudden, one of the guys grabs a mic and he and the band break out in this incredibly enthusiastic version of Jailhouse Rock.  The guy singing was all over the place and everybody in the bleachers was going nuts and having a great time.  It was in a gymnasium and kids came down out of the bleachers and started dancing. It was the night before the last day of the camp and we were all tired, but suddenly we were rejuvenated by this silly old Elvis song. But it wasn't just the song, it was the fun and the passion in which it was presented.  I couldn't tell you if it was secretly planned or if it was truly spontaneous, but it felt like we were all at a concert or a program and suddenly a party broke out.  As a teenager, I had never experienced anything like it.  It was awesome.

I think Elvis would've loved to have been at that event, because from what I know of Elvis, this is what he was all about.  Whenever he showed up, spontaneous celebrations and parties broke out.  Girls would scream with excitement at the sight of him.  Even though many criticized Elvis for what they thought were antics, moving his hips around and singing this music that people really couldn't categorize, all he was doing was what he really loved.  And what he loved was making his own kind of music and having a good time.  I'm sure Elvis caused many an argument around the family dinner table in the '50s and '60s.  Highly admired entertainers like Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan and even Frank Sinatra at one point or another expressed their dislike of his music and his performances, but what they couldn't deny was his passion and sincerity and the fact that regardless of the critics, the younger masses loved Elvis.  He was a phenomenon that couldn't be ignored.

Elvis didn't write the song Jailhouse Rock, but I think it personifies what his attitude might have been to his critics.  It's as if Elvis and the song are saying "You can criticize me.  You can try to put me in a cage, but me and my pals are gonna sing, dance and have a good time no matter what you do or say."  Sadly Elvis found himself in a self made cage at the end of his time on Earth as he lost his life in a battle with drug addiction. 

Now maybe you're wondering what Elvis has to do with Paul.  (As I write this, I'm wondering the same thing myself, but I do have a point in the making.)  In the Acts 16 passage, we find Paul and his cohorts on their way to prayer meeting with their new friends in Philippi.  Unlike Elvis, Paul wasn't being chased down by screaming teenage female groupies but he does have a screaming, demon possessed, fortune telling, slave woman following him around for days telling everyone who he and his friends were.  Paul gets so annoyed by her, he orders the demon to leave her.  This does not please her owners as they had been making a pretty penny on her fortune telling and that came to an abrupt end when Paul cast out the demon from her.  We also get a sense that Jews were not warmly welcomed in Philippi as part of the argument of the woman's owners was that these "Jews" were causing trouble.  It seems as though their ethnicity was emphasized and linked to the problem at hand.  We can also take notice that earlier in the chapter Jews were gathering by the river to have prayers, instead of in a Synagogue.  Synagogues could only be formed if there were 10 Jewish men within a community thus suggesting the Jewish population in Philippi was slim.

So with the mob in an uproar, they gave Paul and Silas a beating and threw them in jail.  But it wasn't just any old cell block, it was an inner cell complete with stocks to go around their ankles, wrists and possibly even their necks.  Yet at the midnight hour, one could've heard a couple of rousing voices singing Psalms in praise of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  This, to me, is where Paul is like Elvis, only better.  Paul and Silas have every right to be discouraged.  Earlier in chapter 16 it tells us that the Holy Spirit had blocked them twice from traveling to the east, but in a dream Paul had a vision of a man calling him to "come to Macedonia" and so they went west to Philippi.  Paul had patiently waited upon the Lord and followed his guidance.  They seemed to be making progress as Lydia and her family had given themselves to Christ. Yet now in the process of doing God's work and healing this woman of demon possession, they found themselves with bloody whip marks on their backs in the inner sanctum of a highly secured prison.  Could they not catch a break?  But Paul and Silas did not see it as a set back, but as an opportunity to worship.  Paul and Silas were saying in one voice "you can persecute us, whip us, throw us in jail but we are still going to do what we love, and that is to give praises to Christ, our Savior."  What happened next?  The Jailhouse started to Rock!  The cell door flew open, their stocks came loose and it appeared that the Lord had given them a way out.  Yet when the dust cleared and the Roman guard went for his sword to kill himself, they cried out to him pleading "Don't do that!  Your prisoners are still here."  The Roman guard was prepared to take his own life because he knew that if his prisoners escaped he would be forced to serve their sentence, which apparently was death or at least a sentence he was not prepared to face.  So out of the pit of despair, another was won for the Kingdom of Christ and his family as well.  It took no fancy speeches, no spiritual laws or scriptural quotations, but two trusting souls who having been shackled in a prison cell, but suddenly set free, valued the life and the soul of another over their own freedom.  Their actions of love spoke much louder than any words ever could.

I don't know if we can say the jailer threw a party that night, but it says he fed Paul and Silas and He was filled with joy because of his new found friends and his new found Savior.  Perhaps this jailer became "the warden" who "threw a party in the county jail."  Maybe...maybe not, but I would bet many who came through his "Jailhouse" were "Rocked" by the gospel of Jesus Christ and the story of two men who miraculously had the chance to be set free from their cell, but instead chose to help set a jailer free for life and the life after.

    Jailhouse Rock            

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