Not terribly surprisingly, each of the gospels have differing versions of post-resurrection sightings of Jesus. The excerpt which I just read to you is a part of Luke’s larger story of the happenings on the day we call Easter Sunday. The gathered disciples heard of the women’s experience at the tomb, and Peter no doubt shared that he went into the tomb and that he too found it empty—except for the burial cloths. And our appearance story for today happened after Jesus has presented himself to Cleopas and his friend on the road to Emmaus, one of the stories we heard last week in our Easter Lessons & Songs service. When the two travellers finally realized that the stranger with whom they had been walking and invited in for dinner was Jesus, they immediately returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and told them “The Lord has risen indeed.” As they were sharing their experience of the risen Jesus, he just appears among them all and said “Peace be with you.” The disciples are terrified, like they’ve seen, well, a ghost. Really, a ghost story in the bible! And interestingly, it’s not the only ghost story in the bible. If you’re so inclined, you can read of a ghost story in 2nd Samuel when King Saul goes to a medium and has her conjure up the spirit of the priest and prophet Samuel for a consultation. But today’s story is even better! Jesus just appears, out of nowhere. No wonder the disciples were startled and terrified. No wonder they thought he was a ghost. Now truly, dead men don’t normally come back to life three days after they’ve been dead and buried, Lazarus of course being the exception. However it was Jesus who raised him from the dead, and Lazarus actually walked out of his grave in full public view, still wrapped in his burial cloths. But Jesus’ just appearing out of nowhere, out of the blue, as it were. To be honest, it is beginning to sound like the best campfire story ever, you couldn’t have asked for better timing for Jesus to appear!
The disciples who were there are understandably terrified -- I mean, wouldn’t you be? And they’re still not convinced that this apparition or whatever it was could really be Jesus. So he goes one step further, presenting to them his hands, his feet to see the wounds that only a crucified body would have. He offers his very physicality to them, “Touch me” he says. “I am flesh and bone.” This too sounds a bit strange. But then again, everyone knows you can’t touch a ghost! Luke doesn’t say if anyone actually does touch Jesus. What would you have done if you had the chance—would you have touched him? I think I might have, I’m a very tactile person. And my old nursing brain wonders, would he have felt warm to the touch? Anyway, still the eleven are unconvinced. Luke writes: “While in their joy, they were disbelieving and still wondering...” (vs 41) An awkwardly worded phrase, but very descriptive, gets right to the point! “While in their joy, they were disbelieving and still wondering...” They wanted to believe it was true—how wonderful if Jesus really was alive, could it honestly be true? No, can’t be, makes no sense! Because dead men don’t come back to life after being dead for three days. Yet, here he was, literally in the flesh. They are in a state of a kind of cognitive dissonance. That’s when one part of your brain is registering something that seems real and true, but another part of your rational brain says logically it just can’t be, it doesn’t make sense. It’s a very uncomfortable place and weird place to be -- not really knowing just what to believe, because your brain’s telling you two different things at the same time.
So Jesus asks for food, and eats a piece of broiled fish as they were watching. And the strangeness of this story continues. Why does Luke make a point of saying that the fish was broiled? Why not poached or baked? None of the commentaries I read this week addresses that. Maybe the detail adds more veracity to the story? Anyway, doesn’t matter really; just another detail that struck me as odd in an overall very odd story! The point being, of course, that a ghost would not be able to eat food however it was prepared, everyone knows that. So, this is not a ghost, Jesus was in a new body, a special body to be sure, but a real body that ate food! Yet still, the disciples were unsure: can it really be Jesus and not a ghost? And then he begins to teach them, in ways and words that he had spoken to them before, reminding them of his teachings, how he, the Messiah was written about in their scriptures—what we call the Old Testament, The Hebrew Bible, that he, Jesus, is in fact, the culmination of the scriptures, the Messiah for whom they had been waiting. He opens their minds; he makes them understand deeply at a level that only he could do. He reminds them of their history, how over the centuries, God has forever been trying to reconcile God’s people back to God’s love. God provided the covenant through Abraham, the law through Moses, brought them to a new land that God had long promised them; how God’s word of love, life and forgiveness had come to them through the many, many prophets, yet still the people went their own way. And God’s ultimate gift, the gift of Godself in the person of Jesus, came down to earth, was born and lived among them to show them God’s ways, the way back to God, and still the people rejected God, and crucified him.
And yet, his death is not the end of the story rather it’s a new beginning! Here Jesus was, three days later—long enough after his death that they had to accept that he really had died, Jesus, literally in the flesh, talking and eating, touching and being touched, right here in their very presence. Like the pair from Emmaus had experienced earlier that day, the disciples’ hearts must have been burning within them, hearing the truth of Jesus’ words, realizing that their Messiah really truly was alive. Once past their fear, dissonance beginning to resolve, Jesus’ words would take heart deeply within them, grief and fear turned to understanding and enlightenment, as Jesus’ love filled their very beings.
What a drama, what an absolute roller coaster of emotions those disciples experienced. I think it’s such a familiar story to us, you know we hear it every year. In church we talk about the resurrection quite nonchalantly almost, we say to word so often that I don’t really think we consider the full impact of the implications of what that really is. Consider how it had to have affected the disciples, what their minds and hearts had to go through to truly believe. It changed their lives, once again, this time forever. And spawning a religious movement that actually changed the course of history!
The resurrection means God cannot be killed, God triumphs over evil. The authorities do not have the power. This is about God, about God reconciling God’s people to God self, about bringing God’s kingdom to earth, in the midst of the mess that humanity creates upon itself by over and over again, falling away from the ways of the Lord. God has the power, the authority, forever and ever. This is about God and God’s authority over God’s world, regardless of how full of our own power humanity feels it has! God is in charge of God’s creation, and that includes us too. We are of God’s creation. Regardless of how and what we humans do in and with God’s world, all the evil that seems to be overwhelming at times, the power of God supersedes all. Jesus, Son of God willingly went to his death and being resurrected is the testament to that. The resurrection is the defining moment of Christian belief. It had never been done before nor since. The resurrection of Jesus is the defining moment of Christian belief, and arguably one of the most difficult for many (especially non-Christians)to really believe in. Because resurrection could only be done by someone with the power of God, someone who was God. Jesus lives, God through Christ is alive and well and active in God’s world, in our lives.
Jesus said to those present that first Easter Sunday evening: 46 “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. 47 It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ 48 You are witnesses of all these things. “ (Luke 24: 46-48 NLT)
What does that mean for us, to be witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection, in our lives? It means that the power of the resurrection, the power of the life of Christ, the power that comes to us through the Holy Spirit to overcome evil, to heal, to love, for light and life for everything that Jesus did and taught his disciples was and still is available to us today. Jesus really is alive to us. And whenever we experience the presence of Jesus either as individually or together, corporately as a church, we remember to give thanks for God’s love and life available to us as we work for God’s kingdom. So we worship God, giving thanks for God’s love, Christ’s life and the power of the Holy Spirit. And then of course, we are also called to share that witness, our experience of Christ’s love in our lives with others, letting them know the power of the resurrection is alive and well and with us, today, tomorrow and always. Amen