Wrapping my coat around my shivering shoulders, I began the long descent into the darkness and the damp. I was entering a cavern, taking a step below ground into the earth. It was cool wet air; there was very little light; the spaces were tight and the ceilings were low; but more importantly there were bats!
Every Easter I recall the memories I have as a child going to caverns, which are many. Is it the darkness of them, perhaps. Probably, however, it is the tomb like feeling I give to these caverns. When I hear the Passion story and the horror of Jesus being put into a tomb and a large rock rolled over it. I can't help but think of the tombs carved into mountains and the cold damp shiver of caverns. Stone is not a giving substance - lay on it for too long and the back will confirm that! Stone is often cold and without light to reflect on the stone service, stone is dark.
Although we celebrate with light dress and Easter egg hunts; although we celebrate the joy of salvation on Easter, Easter is in many ways a holiday surround by darkness. Unlike Jesus' birth on Christmas, on Easter we are celebrating his death. All-be-it a death that brought salvation to us, the passages of celebration soon turn to passage of fear darkness.
The Sunday after Easter we are reminded of this as we recall the disciples sitting in a dark and locked upper room, most probably in mourning of the loss of Jesus (although not complete loss). And yet another miracle happened! Jesus appeared. Jesus their friend and teacher, Jesus the miracle maker, stood in front of them. And into that darkness brought the true joy and light of Easter.
It is easy to come to church once a year, or perhaps twice, and celebrate the joy of Easter - the joy of Jesus. It is another thing to in the midst of your darkest times to find and see the God who dwells within even the darkness. Jesus entered the locked room of the disciples and found them. We too can find Jesus standing in our darkness and our own locked rooms, we just need open our eyes.
Jesus did not come to redeemer those who find themselves righteous but instead came to offer grace, forgiveness and thus salvation to those in the darkness seeking the light. Peter denied Christ, Thomas questioned and all proved to have doubts either in themselves or in the resurrection of Christ. Yet God did not give up on them or turn from them. Jesus did not go out and find another group of 12 to send out and spread his message now that he rose from the dead - finding their behavior to be unacceptable. Instead Jesus entered the locked room of his disciples and gifted them with the Holy Spirit - gifted them with the Divine!
Let us realize the power and redemption that is found in Christ for all of us who believe! Let that power sink in, even into the darkest of our thoughts and unbelief.
