Easter 3 2015

3 Easter 2015

Our Gospel reading today from Luke is one more story of Jesus making his post-resurrection tour to meet with his disciples, and other believers, as well. This is just good thematic planning really in the Sundays in the Easter season. But it also sets the stage for what will happen next—namely the Ascension of Jesus back to God the Father, and the sending of the Holy Spirit soon after.

However, in the meantime, we have these appearances of Jesus to his followers, who continue to be flummoxed, confused, even doubtful of Jesus’ resurrection. Obviously this doubt was the theme of last week’s reading from John’s Gospel, and the familiar story of Thomas.

Well, today, our reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, and this particular story happens right after the “Emmaus Road” story. This was the narrative about Jesus turning up on the Emmaus road, where he meets two of his followers who were talking about the rumors that he (Jesus) had been raised from the dead. Of, course, these two men don’t seem to recognize Jesus, but he begins explaining to them how everything that happened to him was foretold in the Scriptures, and it says he even opened their minds to understand. When they finally reach the home of one of these men, they invite Jesus (who they still don’t recognize) to stay and eat with them. Anyway, it’s when Jesus offers the blessing for the meal and breaks the bread for the meal that they sudden recognize Jesus. And, poof, Jesus disappears, and these two disciples run back to Jerusalem to tell the other believers what had happened.

So, our reading today picks up right when these two guys have just told the disciples about Jesus appearing to them. Just then, he appears in the midst of all these gathered believers. He offers them a blessing of peace, but they’re still all afraid. Apparently they can’t quite believe that he’s actually there with them. But Jesus proves that he is who he says, and even invites them to see that he’s flesh and blood like them, right before asking for something to eat.

To be fair, he did disappear from the the Emmaus disciples before he actually got to eat anything—all we’re told is that he said the blessing and broke the bread…

Anyway, here again, he opens the minds of the disciples to understand the Scriptures, and explains how he was the one promised to come, and that even his death and resurrection were part of fulfilling prophecy. Then he tells them that they will go out to be witnesses—eyewitnesses—to his resurrection.

This story kind of marks a shift in the Gospels. Basically, the Gospel narratives before the crucifixion are concerned with telling the story of Jesus going to the Cross. After his resurrection then, the narratives shift to this theme of preparation and sending out of the believers—and today’s reading is certainly one about preparing to send the disciples out into the world.

  

So, what was the hold up? Obviously, these believers did go out and share their experience—otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about it millennia later in Lockport, Illinois. But, I suppose, as Luke Timothy Johnson explains (The Sacra Pagina) in his commentary on Luke’s Gospel, “experience” may not be enough without interpretation of the experience. In other words, experiencing the risen Jesus is one thing, but what does this mean outside of this group of people who have experienced it? What does this mean for their individual lives, and what does it mean for the world?

Jesus’ resurrection needs some unpacking for them—and that also means finding how it connects to the stories their lives.

Of course, the same is true for us… We also need to interpret and understand how the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection has meaning for us and our lives. We may simply consider the times and places where the Risen Christ has met us. Some of us may have been blessed with some spiritual or religious sense—maybe a feeling of closeness to the Presence of Jesus. And still for others of us, it may be more of an intellectual experience.

Whatever the case, we do find places in which we can identify with the Gospel narratives. Perhaps some of us best identify with the pain Jesus endured. Maybe we find something familiar in the ways he was misunderstood. It could even be that we take comfort in the fact that even his closest disciples didn’t always understand him. It may well be that we feel closeness to Jesus’ mother, or even Mary Magdalene who experienced the death of Jesus so intensely—and even now gives some meaning to our own pain at the loss of a loved one…

In these cases, the resurrection of Jesus becomes a kind of counter-point to the pain and loss we endure in our lives. It becomes the promise that there is new life to be had, and hope beyond anything we may face.

And yet, what’s powerful about this is that our faith doesn’t teach us to avoid attachment as a preventative to pain and suffering. Instead, we’re invited to live our lives fully and love fiercely—and our faith in Jesus Christ, as the Resurrected One, is the telos—the end, the meaning and hope for our lives.

All the same, these experiences—whether we somehow knew the Presence of Christ with us—or even if we found some comfort in connecting to the Gospel narratives…what we find here is the imperative call to be eyewitnesses in the world to what we have seen/felt/known of Jesus Christ. Because, the hope of the Resurrected Christ is not something to be hidden away, kept within some clandestine little group. It is to be taken into the world as a message of hope.

…And why does this matter?

The Good News of the resurrection of Jesus isn’t just that it is a comfort and vision for us in our affliction. As Jesus seems to express here, it has always been God’s plan that all things be reconciled—and that all people understand that we are God’s children. The reading from the First Epistle of John reminds us how beautiful a thing it is to be children of God…and what an even greater gift of hope and belonging this is to all of us.

But we often forget this identity, and still some others have never even known or heard that God calls us children…

Our work then, as the Church—the Body of Christ in the world—is to be about calling people to repentance…Literally we’re to call people to turn around (as the word intends) from unhealthy and destructive choices in life. And we’re to invite them into the loving, risen life of Jesus.

Now, along with this message that we’re to take the Good News of Christ’s resurrection into the world—I think we need to also hear that from the very beginning, these disciples, these people who physically experienced the resurrected Jesus didn’t know what to do next. They continued to gather together, share a meal—and for a time, before he ascended back to God the Father, Jesus would come to them. And it wasn’t really until the Holy Spirit was sent, that they finally did go out from their place of safety to share what they had experienced.

So, for us—whether it’s because we’re Episcopalians and are bad at evangelism, or because the thought of sharing our faith makes us shiver in our pews—we can take comfort in the fact that we’re not alone in our reticence to share our faith. However, this is to say that we’re not given an excuse ‘not to share’ either…

We know from this Gospel reading, and in our hearts; we have a responsibility to share the hope we have. Because many of us know intimately those times when our faith was the very thing that held us together at the ragged seams. And besides, the truth is that our own faith was something which was first shared with us by someone. Thank God they did.

Where have you met the Risen Christ in your life, and who do you know who might need to hear about it?