Easter Wednesday

John 20:19-23

The doors were locked. Yet if the Jews sent a cohort to arrest Jesus (Jn 18:3), I don't think a few locks on the door would stop them from arresting His disciples. A cohort could mean as few as 480 Roman soldiers. I can't think of many buildings smaller than a fully-fortified castle which would not succumb easily to 500 or so men, let alone 500 or more Roman soldiers. Maybe the locks made the disciples feel a little bit safer but they weren't a huge protection against their enemies. But when fear is the dominant feeling, few people hesitate to take whatever measures they can to protect themselves even if those measures are objectively insufficient.
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Jesus addresses their fear by giving them His peace. The opposite of fear in the Christian worldview is not safety, it's peace. When the barriers that block our relationship with God are removed, nothing else that may harm us has the same power to induce fear. We know that God can protect us and we discover that He gives us all the tools we need to face whatever trials confront us. Suddenly the potential danger which we still face isn't as important as the reassurance of God's presence. We may still be arrested, tortured, killed, but if we are then it will be okay, we will survive (even if our bodies do not), and the reward on the other side of the trial is well worth every struggle we face in the meantime. The same disciples who abandoned Jesus when He was arrested in the garden were later able to stand firm in their faith when they faced their own martyrdom. Nearly all of them were eventually martyred but with the peace of Christ guarding them they were able to face their death calmly instead of fleeing and hiding in a locked room.