Not Everything Works Together For My Good

How the death of James and the rescue of Peter helps us understand our own place in the story

Losing a Coin

The gospels recount a story of a temple tax collector who approaches the disciples and asks if Jesus is going to pay the two-drachma tax. Jesus talks about how sons of kings don’t pay taxes, and He says, “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

While coin conversions can be tricky, a drachma is usually considered a day’s wage, meaning the fish had quite a bit of cash in its mouth. What a provision! What a miracle!

Losing that four-drachma coin was someone’s worst day.

Of course, we know nothing of this person, but I like to imagine their panic and disappointment realizing they had lost 4 days’ worth of work. Perhaps they madly started praying, “God, please help me find that coin.” I don’t know, and I don’t really enjoy adding details where the Bible does not. Someone lost that coin. And their individual loss was the kingdom’s gain.

The Verse in Question

Paul says, “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28), and this can often be taken to mean that God will do things that benefit me. The words “for good” can easily be thought of as “for my good.” And the word “good” can quickly be interpreted through my own human desire to avoid anything uncomfortable. And just like that, a verse about how God is in control of the universe can be understood to mean that my well-being is at the centre of the universe.

It is essential when speaking about God working things for good to remember:

1. Good is defined by God, and therefore does not necessarily include comfort or material prosperity

2. God always has a purpose and a plan, but not every individual gets to see or understand why things happen the way they do

Losing a Life

In Acts, we are told, “It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword (Acts 12:1-2). James (presumably the disciple, the son of Zebedee) gets martyred. The next day, Herod arrests Peter, evidently intending to have him killed as well.

“The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists” (Acts 12:6-7).

Photo by Tim Hüfner on Unsplash

Peter, in the same chapter James was killed (perhaps even in the same cell), experiences miraculous deliverance from an angel. Why did Peter receive miraculous rescue when John did not? Because good is defined by God, and therefore does not necessarily include comfort or material prosperity, and God always has a purpose and a plan, but not every individual gets to see or understand why things happen the way they do.

Peter went to the church. They were praying in the house of the mother of the man who had just been killed. Roda, the servant girl, met him at the door, but the others did not believe Peter had been rescued. When they were eventually reunited with him, they all learned a valuable lesson about believing your prayers can be answered. That lesson was passed to us, and for two thousand years, we have been celebrating what God did to rescue Peter.

And James is still dead.

God’s plan to see the gospel advance from Jerusalem to Samaria and to the ends of the earth continued. If anything, it was spurred on by the death of James. All things worked together for good. It just wouldn’t have felt that way for his mother.

Sometimes the reason you lose a 4 drachma coin is so that someone else can find it in a fish’s mouth and recognize the Saviour. All things are worked together for good; and glorifying the Saviour in the temple was more good than whatever you or I could have done with 4 days’ wages. All things worked together for good, and James, at least in this life, never got to see how.

Every good chess player sacrifices pawns, and God is masterfully playing chess with the universe. We have a promise that someday we, as pawns, will be resurrected into queens at the end of the board. Until then, some days you’ll lose a coin - or your life - and just have to trust that God knows what He’s doing.