“John, in his Gospel, gives us this picture: On the day Jesus rises from the dead, he finds his disciples huddled in fear inside a locked room. Jesus, unlike the imitation versions of William Holman Hunt’s great painting, does not stand outside the door knocking, waiting for the disciples to open it. He goes right through the locked doors, stands inside their huddled circle of fear, and breathes out peace to them. He isn’t helpless to enter when they are too frightened, depressed, and wounded to open the door for him. He can descend into their hell by going through the doors they have locked because of fear….
“What is revealed unequivocally in Jesus’s life and death is that God loves us unconditionally and that there is no private hell that would cause God to love us less for even one second. Rather, we live with the assurance that God will always look for us, find us, pass through any locked door we have erected, and, once inside, lovingly breathe out peace to still all that is aching, wounded, and not whole.”
