Easter Sunday | Breathe
The Word
“This is the resurrection! It is the announcement that life cannot ultimately be conquered by death, that life is bottomed by the glad surprise. Take courage, therefore!” - Howard Thurman
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. — John 20:18-19
“If Christ is to come in order to dwell in me, [it must happen this way]: ‘Christ enters through closed doors.’” — Søren Kierkegaard, age 24
The Wondering
A massive stone. Locked doors. The first dark hours of Easter find the disciples traumatized by Jesus’ crucifixion, devastated by his entombment, terrified that they are next.
Much like those first fearful grieving disciples who locked themselves into an upper room, young Søren Kierkegaard felt separated from God, unable to open the doors of his own resistance. How many of us huddle in fear, anxious about ourselves, distrustful, our doors locked, even as our hearts desire peace and trust? Even in our determined faith, we fail to find our way to freedom.
The Gospels tell us that the disciples were hiding in paranoia, wanting only to protect themselves, when Christ came through their locked doors, the doors of their fear and self-protection, and breathed peace into them.
This Easter day, may we breathe anew. Breathe grace. Breathe peace. Breathe hope. When we cannot help ourselves, we can still be helped; when we are powerless to reach out, the resurrected Christ can come through locked doors and roll back any stone that entombs us.
For the Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Where do you sense a locked door in your life? Close your eyes and image the risen Christ coming through that door. What does he say to you?
What would it feel like today to “breathe again, sent forth, forgiven”?
The Wisdom
“This Breathless Earth”
by Malcolm Guite
We bolted every door but even so
We couldn’t catch our breath for very fear:
Fear of their knocking at the gate below,
Fear that they’d find and kill us even here.
Though Mary’s tale had quickened all our hearts
Each fleeting hope just deepens your despair:
The panic grips again, the gasping starts,
The drowning, and the coming up for air.
Then suddenly, a different atmosphere,
A clarity of light, a strange release,
And, all unlooked for, Christ himself was there
Love in his eyes and on his lips, our peace.
So now we breathe again, sent forth, forgiven,
To bring this breathless earth a breath of heaven.