Thin Places

Whenever I have read the story of the resurrected Jesus appearing to the disciples on the evening of Resurrection Sunday, the reference to the locked doors has always directed my view of what was happening  (John 20:11ff.) .  It is interesting how our minds can get locked on one detail to the point that any other possibilities are impossible to see.  Such has been the case all these years.  E. Stanley Jones wrote that the disciples met behind locked doors because they were afraid.  Those called to go into all the world were meeting in secret behind locked doors to keep the world out. 

 

My mind always went to one thing.  Jesus passed through the locked door to get into the room.  Nothing else seemed plausible.  However, in recent days I have been reading a good number of books on Celtic spirituality.  The Celtic tradition has a strong sense that there are thin places in the world. There are places where the veil between earth and heaven is very thin.  While I never knew to call it a part of the Celtic tradition, it has seemed to me for a long time that there was indeed a thin veil between here and there.  During All Saints Day communion it always seemed that we had unseen company at the end of the table that extended just beyond our sight. 

 

Maybe there is another possibility other than the one which points to Jesus passing through a physical door.  Maybe the door was only there because the disciples needed an entrance and an exit.  Could it not be that during that resurrection period Jesus was stepping in and out of that thin veil which separates earth and heaven?  Could it not be that the thin place was in the room and Jesus simply moved from it into the room and then back again?  For the skeptic there is the Transfiguration story and the appearance of Moses and Elijah.  Maybe there was something thin on the mountain besides the air.  Maybe there was a thin place in that room where the disciples gathered and just maybe there are thin places all around us.