The Diver Who Entered the Dark

In June 2018, twelve boys from the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach became trapped deep inside the Tham Luang cave system in northern Thailand. Floodwaters sealed the passages behind them. For nine days, the world waited while the boys huddled in darkness, running out of air, terrified they would die underground.

The rescue plan was almost unthinkable. Elite cave divers would have to navigate miles of submerged, zero-visibility tunnels — the same tunnels trapping the boys. There was no way to save them from the outside. Someone had to enter the danger itself. Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan volunteered for the mission and lost his life placing oxygen tanks along the route. He shared in the very peril that held those children captive, and his sacrifice kept the oxygen flowing that brought all thirteen out alive.

This is the staggering claim of Hebrews 2. The Son of God did not orchestrate our rescue from the safety of heaven. He took on flesh and blood — our flesh, our blood — and entered the dark passage of human mortality. He shared in our vulnerability so that "through death He might destroy the one who holds the power of death." Because He walked through our suffering, our temptation, our grief, He doesn't sympathize from a distance. He is a merciful High Priest who knows the cold water and the darkness firsthand — and He is able to help us, because He has been where we are.