Locked Rooms
It's Easter week, and I am so grateful for John’s account of the week following the dramatic events of Jesus’ death and resurrection because like all of the stories the disciples tell on themselves it’s so relatable.
They know Jesus has risen from the dead – they’ve heard from some of the women, they’ve heard from their two buddies on the road to Emmaus, AND John and Peter have seen the empty tomb for themselves, and what are they doing? You’d think they’d be excited, possibly out looking for Jesus, trying to find their master and friend. After all It was just a few days before that they were devastated to see him arrested and crucified. But no, they are hiding in a locked room. Yes, John tells us it’s because they are afraid of the Jews. They’re worried that they might suffer the same fate as Jesus…being arrested and executed. That all makes sense in one regard. Typically, if one of your friends and associates goes down for something, you start to worry about your own skin…especially if he or she goes down for something you were a part of. In this case it was just being associated with Jesus. It is simple battle tactics on the part of the Jewish leaders and the Romans, cut off the head and the body dies…take down the leader and the followers will naturally scatter. That’s typical, but this is anything but a typical situation.
Jesus is no longer in the tomb! People have seen him! He’s been showing up and talking to their friends. You would think that might make the disciples a little bolder and at the very least curious. But as Mark tells us quite frankly at the end of his gospel, they don’t believe it. They don’t believe the women. They don’t believe their friends from the road to Emmaus. They are scared and hiding.
Their fear is twofold really. 1. They don’t want to be arrested and killed by the local leaders. AND 2. if it’s true that Jesus is up and walking around, risen form the dead, they don’t want to see him either. The last time they were all together ended badly, to put it quite mildly. They all abandoned him. After Peter tried to start the battle to end all battles by cutting off the soldiers ear in the garden, the battle to usher in the promised reign of the Messiah, only to have Jesus tell him to stop and put his sword away and then heal the jerk arresting him…they didn’t know what to do. That confused and scared them the most. They all ran for their lives. If Jesus doesn’t want to fight, then maybe we were wrong about him. Maybe he’s not the guy we thought he was. If he wants to just surrender and quietly go down here, then we’re not going down with him. So, they bolt. But now, they hear he’s alive??? What’s he thinking about them? What’s he gonna do when he catches up to all of us? He’s appearing to the women and others first before us, which probably indicates he’s not too happy with us. And he even named Peter specifically to the women. Yikes! Glad I’m not Peter right now after the whole rooster thing.
The truth is the disciples reacted the way all of us would…and do react. We’d be terrified and wouldn’t know what to do. We’d go hide and lock ourselves in a room too. It’s the same reaction of Adam and Eve after they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they heard the Lord walking in the garden…run and hide. It’s the fuzz! We’re toast! This is what we all do with any of our broken places, any of our failures, any of our weakness…we try to hide it in a locked room so that no one can get to us there, so that no one can drag us out into the light and put us on display for the world to see and judge us. We won’t survive that. And like Adam and Eve our sin and brokenness make us think God and Jesus will lead the charge. If he really has the power to rise from the dead, then he really is God and has the power to judge me and condemn me, and with all I’ve done and with all the things I’ve left undone there’s no way he will come to another conclusion. It’s curtains. Hide.
You can’t see me, right?
And “Jesus came and stood among them…” Nice try with the door. Death itself could not hold this guy, but you locked the door…I’m sure that will work. As they say in the 12 Step recovery rooms, “Our best thinking got us here.” Locking the door is the best we can come up with. It’s like using fig leaves and bushes to try to hide from God. Not happenin’. Jesus doesn’t even use the door, what door? He just comes right in and stood among them. And he always does, just like he did in Genesis 3, he comes to find us. He told his disciples he would. He told them a whole string of parables about it: the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, etc. He comes after us. Trying to hide from God is the utmost exercise in futility. Psalm 139 spells it out, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” There is nowhere we can go where he is not. He’s actually God, and he comes and finds us in our locked rooms, which is a terrifying prospect until you hear what he says. His first words are “Peace be with you.” Peace. Not judgment. Not condemnation. Not criticism. Not, “where the heck did you guys go? How could you run away on me like that?” None of that! Not one word of it. “Peace be with you!” And in case you didn’t hear it the first time he says it again, “Peace be with you.” This is why he came in the first place. He is the Prince of Peace. He knew he was going to that cross alone. He knew only he could do what needed to be done. He knew that our lives depended on it, and he finished it.
And this is why he continues to come find us hiding in our locked rooms because he is about our freedom. He is about bringing and proclaiming peace where our deepest battles are fought, where all the casualties are. He finds us there, right where we’re hiding and walks right through our feeble defenses, our tough exteriors, our projected independence, our self-assuredness, our carefully curated Instagram lives, our anger, our fear, our addictions, our shattered relationships, our best thinking and says, “Peace be with you.”
Amen.
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