I have a very specific order when it comes to walking through a doorway. First I open the door, or make sure it is already open, and then I walk through. This method has served me very well, some encounters with glass doors notwithstanding. I’m fairly confident that this is the same method that everyone else uses too. Except it seems, on occasion, Jesus.
I am of course familiar with the appearance of Jesus to the disciples in a locked room1. But this wasn’t the first time the resurrected Jesus eschewed standard practice when it came to doors.
All the Gospels agree that the stone that covered the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away2. So deeply ingrained is the idea that you open the door and then walk through that I, for years, just assumed this is what Jesus did. The idea that the stone was rolled away and then Jesus walked out is so basic that when you see it in films, you don’t even notice what you’re seeing.
On closer inspection though, Matthew at least, says this is not what happened. The stone is rolled away not to let Jesus out but to let his followers in. Jesus, breaking with doorway convention, had already gone.
I love that God speaks in the very ordinary things. I am grateful that in so many ways God reveals himself in the things I see and do everyday – from sunrise to sunset, God does not see the ordinary as beneath Him. But it is also good to remember that He is not bound by it either. The God who raised a body to life didn’t need any angel to open the tomb for Him. He just left.
This detail has been spotted by every commentator that I’ve got on my shelves so this is not a revelation to anyone. Except it seems me. I just hadn’t quite paid close enough attention. Or, more likely, the thing I do every day was stopping me from seeing it. I think that’s it. I live with an everyday truth, ‘open door, walk through’, because no other way is possible for me. Yet God in Christ is not limited to my everyday truths and reality. Worth remembering.
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