Easter III, 04/26/2009

Sermon on Luke 24:36b-48, by John H. Loving

While the disciples from Emmaus were talking about how they had seen Jesus risen from the dead, , Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.'^* ³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.' ⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.^* ⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?' ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence.

44 Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.' ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah^* is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses^* of these things.

"The Appearance to the Eleven"

On these first three Sundays of Eastertide we hear in our Gospel readings first, the report of the Empty Tomb and then of various appearances of the risen Lord. We hear that he appeared to two disciples along the road to Emmaus, to Thomas, and, finally, this morning we hear of an appearance to the Eleven. This is the big one. It is recorded in all four Gospels (if we include the Marcan appendix), and the pattern is pretty much the same. When the disciples are gathered together (still quaking in fear), Jesus appears and is recognized-sometimes after an initial greeting. He then gives a solemn missionary command. This appearance is more than just an assurance that Jesus is victorious over death; it commissions his followers to preach, to baptize, to forgive sins-in short to carry throughout the world the news of Jesus and the salvation wrought by him on behalf of all humanity.

The accounts in Luke and the 20^th chapter of John are particularly similar. The setting is Jerusalem on the evening of the day of resurrection. The appearance occurs apparently in the course of a meal. Jesus greets the Eleven with the words, "Peace be with you" and then shows them his hands and his feet (or his side). In both there is emphasis on the tangible nature of the resurrection-body. This is no ghost or spirit. In Luke's account Jesus eats in front of them to assure them that it is he.

The day of his appearance is hardly coincidental. For it is on the First Day of the Week that his disciples will gather for centuries to come to recall the Master's life, death, and resurrection. He will be known to them "in the breaking of the bread". The roots of this practice are right here in the appearance of the Risen Lord to the Twelve. This is the act that constitutes and empowers Christ's Church. This is his gift to the Church throughout the ages.

It is hard to conceive what Jesus' followers went through between that bleak Friday and the Sunday evening two days later. Not only were they fearful for their own necks, but as far as they were concerned, all of their dreams and hopes had been crushed. Like us, they were conditioned to the irreversible.

Author Christopher Blumhardt in the Plough Reader says,

Too many of us live in the old reality, which completely occupies all our senses. It is the old story of perishing, of wasting away, and behind it lies a mighty darkness: the finality of death. We live and die. Nature lives and then dies. Sin enters into life. There are failures; people go wrong. It all ends in futility.

In Jesus, however, a new reality appears, a reality that is opposed to this old assumption. Something new begins alongside the old. . . .

In Christ a new day has dawned. . . . It is the eternity of God. For Christ is the one who rose from the dead. . . . He alone is victorious. He alone pierces through the powers of sin and death--both in the world and in our hearts. No human being, no human movement can do it. Not even the best can achieve it. But there is a new possibility. God can rule the world again. This possibility must live in our hearts. Then the true Christ will be with us, he who came to make all things new.

It is no surprise that the disciples in today's lesson were startled and terrified. Of course they had not expected "a rose garden" for the one they cherished as friend, prophet and Messiah. But why would God allow their gentle Teacher to be subjected to such humiliation-to be stripped, tortured, and executed in the most shameful way possible?

Easter is the stunning answer to this question-first, for the disciples, and then, through them, for the rest of us. God loves us this much, and God's love has triumphed. God's love in Christ has won out-not in spite of this godless suffering, but through it

Now, it was the disciples' turn to commit. Having had a visceral experience of the Risen One, they were given the task of transmitting this good news. In word and deed they were to proclaim to a doubting yet thirsting world not only the living water of Jesus' teaching, but also the Risen Christ himself as the fulfillment of the deepest yearning of the human heart-the yearnings for forgiveness. for reconciliation, for wholeness and joy.

This is the charge that we receive from those who have gone before us in the fellowship of Christ's Church. As we come together each week for worship, as we reflect on God's word together and in solitude, as we share and support one another in small groups, and enjoy each other's fellowship, love works its way through the fabric of our lives and affirms us at the root of our being.

Harry Emerson Fosdick once said that nobody enters heaven head first-only heart first. It is in the depths of the human heart that the Risen One meets us now and inspires us to faith. We come to faith in Christ by wrestling with the hard questions, by surrendering our lives to God, and by showing forth Christ's compassion to those in need. In some such way we gradually assimilate the mystery of faith: Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ exalted to the Father's side to reign with him for ever.

In the words of one of our communion hymns:

We meet, as in that upper room they met;

thou at the table, blessing, yet dost stand:

"This is my Body": so thou givest yet:

faith still receives the cup as from thy hand.

One with each other, Lord, for one in thee,

who art one Savior and one living Head;

Then open thou our eyes, that we may see;

be known to us in breaking of the Bread. Amen.

The Rev’d, Interim Assistant John H. Loving
The Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal)
Austin, Texas
E-Mail: jloving3@austin.rr.com

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