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Especially the story of Jesus coming among them in
the locked room. He doesn’t scold them for being afraid and locked
away, but he does send them back out into the world to keep on
teaching and forgiving sins.
As I picture that story, I often get an image of Jesus, together
with the disciples in that room, opening up the window and looking
out into the world. A world that for the moment may have looked
peaceful, but also a world that they all knew contained turmoil. Or
as Buechner said, beautiful and terrible things.
As we observe Lent in my congregation, we have six weeks to
intentionally consider what it means that Christ died for us. As we
look to Easter, we enter into a season of the church year where we
have weeks to consider what it means that Christ also lived for us.
In worship we will hear again the experiences of the disciples as
Jesus came among them wherever they happened to be. The interactions
were similar each time, including things like: 1) Jesus sharing his
peace; 2) having a meal together; 3) Jesus blessing them; and 4)
being sent out into the world to continue making disciples.
In all they did, they carried the news of the risen Christ with
them. Along the way they encountered many terrible things, and some
of them became martyrs for their faith.
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But there were also many beautiful things. Whole
families came to believe; people were healed; and God’s word was
shared to the ends of the earth and back again.
Those disciples were human just like the rest of us and had their
moments of struggle, when they probably wondered why in the world
they were doing what they were doing. But then again, they already
knew that answer. They were doing what they were doing because of
the strength they gathered from their faith and trust in Jesus.
When we look out into our world, we see that both beautiful and
terrible things continue to happen. And it is easy to become afraid
or overwhelmed.
But Jesus invites us, even if we have locked ourselves away for a
time, to open at least a window and peer out into the world. It is
then that we just might see many beautiful things. ~ Beautiful
things which point to the presence of a risen Savior who still loves
his people, sinful though we may be. ~ Beautiful things which help
us to navigate the terrible. ~ And beautiful things which give us
the strength and courage to continue serving our risen Christ.
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