Chapter 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when they could not get near Jesus because of the crowd, they broke in through the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the man on the mat. Mark 2.4<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s Monday. You probably weren\u2019t expecting to start the week with a story about a chainsaw and a church\u2014but here we are – not the typical Easter week story \u2026 or maybe it is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On March 19, 2025, as reported by WDR, a man in Hagen, Germany, broke into a Greek Orthodox church\u2014not by picking a lock, but by cutting through a side door with a chainsaw. No metaphor here\u2014this really happened. A woman who entered the church noticed the damage and, alarmed, fled in fear, immediately calling the police. Witnesses described a man in bright forestry gear, chainsaw in hand, casually walking away from the scene. Nothing was stolen\u2014just a jagged hole left in the wall of a sacred space, followed by an eerie silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It reminded me of two stories in the Bible\u2014one of an unexpected entrance into holy ground, and the other of an unexpected exit from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Mark 2, four friends can’t get into a crowded house where Jesus is preaching. So they do something wild: they climb up, tear open the roof, and lower a paralyzed man on the mat into the room\u2014right in front of Jesus. And what does Jesus do? He honors their boldness. He heals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Easter up ahead, and Easter is, at its core, an intrusion into the impossible.
The stone was rolled away. The tomb\u2014broken open. And what did they find?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nothing.
Jesus wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And maybe that\u2019s the real twist of this whole thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man in Hagen broke into a church. Maybe looking for something. Maybe nothing. But like the women at the tomb, he found emptiness. No Jesus, no treasure, just silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The church was empty because maybe\u2014just maybe\u2014we sometimes look for God in places He\u2019s already moved beyond or was he in the silence after all the noise of the chainsaw?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We build structures, routines, expectations. But Jesus? He\u2019s always breaking out of the boxes we try to keep Him in. The resurrection wasn\u2019t just a return to life\u2014it was a declaration that nothing, not even death, can contain Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So maybe this chainsaw story, bizarre as it is, becomes a strange sort of Easter parable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are we still trying to break into the sacred to find Jesus when, like the empty tomb, He\u2019s already gone ahead of us? Or maybe\u2014just maybe\u2014He\u2019s waiting for us to break in again: not with noise and force, but in silence, and to find Him dressed in new clothes, in unexpected places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe faith isn\u2019t about where we find Him, but how far we\u2019re willing to go. Through the roof, out of the tomb or into the sanctuary by any way we must, even through the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wishing the courage to break through barriers and discover the sacred in unexpected places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Philemon
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chapter 15 And when they could not get near Jesus because of the crowd, they broke in through the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the man on the mat. Mark 2.4 It\u2019s Monday. You probably weren\u2019t expecting to start the week with a story about a chainsaw … <\/p>\n