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| "Supper at Emmaus." Artist: He Qi |
"Resurrection Doubt, Resurrection Hope"
Luke 24:36-48
“While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering…”
New Testament scholar David Lose says, “If you don’t have
serious doubts about the Easter story, you’re not paying attention.”[1]
Think about it. The different gospel accounts have some
interesting variations, but they’re consistent about one thing: nobody believes
the good news of Jesus’ resurrection when they first hear it. And that includes
Jesus’ own inner circles of disciples, who were closest to him and spent the
most time with him.
Easter Sunday was only two weeks ago, but it feels like longer
to me. But the verses we just heard are a continuation of Luke’s account of the
first Easter day.
In the first story, the women went to the tomb, they
found the tomb was empty. Heavenly messengers opened the scriptures to them,
explaining that Jesus had been raised from the dead. But when the women
returned to the Eleven disciples and the others, they dismissed what the women
said, calling it “an idle tale.”
Actually, the word Luke used-- leros-- is the root of our word “delirious.” So, the disciples may
have been saying the women were extremely excited and joyful, but also
incoherent…irrational…or mentally confused. Delirious.
Well, is it so surprising that the disciples had their doubts?
Jesus had died on the cross and been buried. The testimony they heard from the
women that Jesus who died has been raised upsets the natural order of things
and everything they’ve always believed about how things work in the world.
The story continues. Peter gets up and runs to the tomb
to see for himself and he’s amazed.
In the second story, on the same day, Cleopas and another
disciple were walking toward Emmaus and talking about what had been
happening. Jesus came and started walking with them, but they didn’t recognize him,
even as Jesus interprets the scriptures for them. When they invite Jesus to
dinner and he took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them, their
eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and Jesus vanished from their sight.
That same hour, the two got up and returned to Jerusalem,
and they found the eleven and other disciples, who were talking about how Jesus
was risen and had appeared to Simon Peter. Then Clopas and his companion told
about their encounter on the road and how Jesus had been made known to them in
the breaking of the bread.
The story continues in the verses we heard this morning. While
they were all talking, all of a sudden Jesus was standing among them, saying,
“Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought they were
seeing a ghost.
Imagine having to explain to your closest friends,
over and over again, that you’re not a ghost or a figment of their imagination,
that you are real and alive, approachable, and trustworthy. What would you say or do to calm their fears?
Jesus doesn’t scold them or reprove them or shame them.
He sees that they’re still struggling, even though he’d predicted all these
things three times, and they’ve already heard the testimony of the women, and
Cleopas and his companion, and Peter.
Jesus meets them where they are. He asks them, “Why are you frightened, and why
do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. See that it is I
myself. Touch me and see--for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones as you see
that I have.” Jesus showed them his
hands and feet, which bear unmistakable signs of his crucifixion and
vulnerability.
But that isn’t enough. “In their joy, they were disbelieving
and still wondering…”
So, Jesus says, “Do you have anything to eat?”
They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their
presence.
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.” Jesus’ whole life,
death, and rising were about what God is doing in the world--reconciling the
world to God’s self. It has always been about God and God’s purposes and agenda
for creation-- repentance that leads to forgiveness and the wholeness of
creation.[2]
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”
He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise
from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is
to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”
He opened their minds to begin to see that death is not the final word. He sets
them free from those bonds and commissions them: “You are witnesses of these things.”
I love how Luke’s account of the resurrection story shows
us that joy and disbelief, wonder and understanding, fear and courage are all
part of our experience. Apparently, we don’t have to have it all together to be
a witness to “all of these things.” Our Christian faith takes root in the
tension. Jesus meets us--all of us--
where we are in order to embrace our wonder, disbelief, and joy and gather us
into the amazing, surprising grace and newness of God.
Today’s gospel lesson brings the work and ministry and
teaching of Jesus full circle. At the very beginning of his gospel, Luke tells
us that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plan to redeem all of creation.
The power of the resurrection is the power to plant
the seeds of transformation and new life. The hope of the resurrection is
grounded in the experience of those first disciples, whose closed minds were
opened.
Just when we think the story is over, God has something new
to say. It has always been about God,
and it still is.
As witnesses, we are called to declare in our words and
deeds the presence and power of God in the midst of tragedy, despair, and
death. They are not ultimate, because God’s goodness is stronger than evil and
death.
The good news is that we do not witness alone, as we are
part of a community of fellow believers. We do not witness alone, as the Spirit
is indeed coming. In a broken and fearful
world, the same Spirit who inspired the prophets and apostles gives us courage
to pray without ceasing, to witness
among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior, to unmask idolatries in Church
and culture, to hear the voices of peoples long silenced, and to work with
others for justice, freedom, and peace.[3]
Thanks be to God!
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