Oh, the Depths...

It wasn't even a main attraction. We had been in Israel for about a week, and the experience was way too jam-packed to even begin to digest. We stopped at this site which had at one time been the high priest's house, and later became a Christian pilgrimage site because it was believed to be the location Caiaphas' courtyard where Peter denied knowing Jesus.
   A church now commemorates the site of Peter's denial, but as always, there is more going on under the surface.
  At the time of Christ's arrest, Caiaphas was the high priest.  Under the high priest's house, a prison cell/dungeon/pit was dug to hold suspected criminals awaiting trial.  The criminal would be lowered, via ropes, into the pit to be held until trial.
  As Scripture tells us, Christ was moved back and forth from the Jewish courts to the Roman governor (Pilate) before He was crucified.  Tradition holds that Jesus was imprisoned here, in this cell, for a few hours after being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.
  Jesus was experiencing quite literally what is described in Psalm 88:

You plunged me into the bottom of the pit, into the darkness of the abyss.

Your wrath lies heavy upon me; all your waves crash over me. 

Because of you my friends shun me; you make me loathsome to them; Caged in, I cannot escape; my eyes grow dim from trouble. All day I call on you, LORD; I stretch out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades arise and praise you? 

Is your love proclaimed in the grave, your fidelity in the tomb?

Are your marvels declared in the darkness, your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?

But I cry out to you, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before you.

Can we even begin to imagine what Jesus must have been thinking/feeling? To suffer betrayal from Judas, abandonment from His disciples, abuse from guards, all while Peter is standing above Jesus' prison cell denying that he even knows Him.  Knowing that Jesus is fully God, we may be tempted to think that this was easy for Him. We have to keep in mind that He is also fully human; He lived, felt, and experienced deeply everything that we experience as humans.  If anything, He felt suffering even more intensely than the rest of us because His heart had never been calloused or desensitized by sin.

It's been a year and a half since I stood in that cell, but I don't think I'll ever fully be able to wrap my head around it.  All I know is that Jesus knows the depths of our suffering.  To all of our fears, our pains, and our broken hearts, He responds, "I know what you're going through."

Literally beneath Peter's denial is the God who chooses imprisonment so we would know we're never alone.  The Light of the World was lowered into the darkness of the pit, and darkness has not overcome Him.

Deeper than my sin, deeper than my hurt, is the love of God.  Even at my worst, Jesus waits silently for me. Even in the darkest and loneliest part of my life, I am never alone.  That's really good news

Take some time in prayer this week to be with Jesus in the prison cell.  Find a quiet room, close the door, turn off the light, and ask Him what it was like as He faced the darkness of our sin.  Let Him remind you that God's love isn't just all smiley faces and rainbows, but it's the kind of love that would endure all human suffering to rescue His beloved.