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THEY LIT A CANDLE
By Erwin Bourne—August 19, 2002
Candles are for dark rooms. For darker tombs. Also
for a cavern of religious rules and regulations.
It’s a bit ironic that the burial of Jesus should be
conducted, not by those who boasted they would never
leave, but by two members of the
Sanhedrin—representatives of the religious group that
killed the Messiah.
They came as friends—secret friends. “You can take
him down now, soldier. I’ll take care of him.”
Joseph of Arimathea kneels behind the head of Jesus
and carefully wipes the wounded face. Nicodemus
unrolls some linen sheeting. The two Jewish leaders
lift the lifeless body of Jesus. The middle-aged Jew
looks longingly at the young Galilean. Together they
lit a candle in a dark cavern. But no tunnel was ever
darker than the tunnel from which these two had been
rescued. The tunnel of religion.
You wouldn’t want to carry a young faith into this
tunnel. Young minds probing with questions quickly
stale in the numbing darkness. Fresh insights are
squelched in order to protect fragile traditions.
Originality is discouraged. Curiosity is stifled.
Priorities are reshuffled. Christ had nothing but
stinging words of rebuke for those who dwell in the
caverns. “Hypocrites,” he called them. “Blind
guides.” “White-washed tombs.”
Joseph and Nicodemus were had seen it for themselves.
They had seen the list of rules and regulations. They
had watched the people tremble under unbearable
burdens. They had heard the hours of senseless
wrangling over legalistic details. They had worn the
robes and sat in the places of honor and seen the Word
of God be made void. And they wanted out! The
stories this young preacher from Nazareth told rang
with the truth that they had never heard in the
cavern. They’d rather save their souls than their
skin.
So they lifted the body slowly and carried it to the
unused tomb. In so doing, they lit a candle in the
cavern. There is still a sizeable amount of evil that
wears the robe of religion and uses the Bible as a
sledgehammer. It is still fashionable to have sacred
titles and wear holy chains. And it is still often
the case that one has to find faith in spite of the
church instead of in the church. But just when the
religious get too much religion and the righteous get
too right, God finds someone in the cavern who will
light a candle.
Thanks to Max Lucado for the inspiration
Edited by Erwin Bourne
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