Let's Get Physical
 |
| "Supper at Emmaus" by Caravaggio |
Click here to listen to this sermon.
As they were talking about these things, Jesus Himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Touch Me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them.
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 and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He
opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is
written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to
all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And
behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city
until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:36-49).
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
The two men had just told them an incredible story
about their trip to Emmaus earlier that day. As they walked on the road, the two
had been talking about all these things that had happened in Jerusalem over the
last couple of days. A man had come up to them asking what they were talking
about. Surprised that anyone could have been in Jerusalem the last few days and
not know what had been going on, Cleopas told the man about what had happened
with Jesus of Nazareth, how the chief priests and rulers had delivered Him to
be condemned and crucified. Jesus’ followers had hoped He would be the one to
redeem Israel. Now it was the third day since and some of the women had come
back with the news that Jesus’ tomb was empty. They had seen a vision of angels
who said He was alive. It sounded like crazy talk, so some of them had gone
back to the tomb and found everything as the women had said, but they still hadn’t
seen Jesus.
At that point, the man had interrupted their
story. He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer
these things and enter into His glory?” And then He went through the Scriptures
and showed them how all of them spoke of this Messiah.
When they got to Emmaus, the stranger acted as
though He was still going farther. But it was getting late, so they invited the
man to stay with them. When they sat down to eat, the man took the bread and
blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and
they recognized it was Jesus!
And just as suddenly as the man had appeared
them, the Lord vanished from their sight!
So, the two men got up and hurried back to
Jerusalem as fast as they could so they could tell the Eleven and the others
with them that they had seen the risen Lord! They told them everything that had
happened on the road, and how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the
bread. The Eleven told them how Jesus had also appeared to Simon!
As they were all talking about these things, and
trying to figure them out, Jesus Himself stood among them, and said to them,
“Peace to you!”
You might think the Emmaus disciples would be
thinking, “See! We told you!” But if they thought it, Luke does not tell us
they said it. Instead, they (together with the Eleven and the others) were
incredulous. “They were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit”
(Luke 24:37).
Their disbelief was understandable. Jesus had
been dead. There was no mistaking it. But now He stood among them. Apparently,
modern skeptics in our scientific age were not the first to have trouble
believing a body could literally rise from the dead. So, also did the
disciples—and they were there in person! They had seen Jesus raise others from
the dead. They had heard Him foretell His own resurrection on the third day,
but still they had trouble with a bodily resurrection. People in those days
generally believed that the souls of the dead were able to walk the earth.
There was a great fear of ghosts. Ghosts they could accept, but it was unthinkable
that a dead person could make bodily appearances.
Yet that is exactly what Jesus did: with His
glorified body He appeared to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, to the Emmaus
disciples, and to the group that had assembled in the locked room.
Jesus first wanted to convince His disciples
that they are not seeing a ghost but rather a real, live person. He showed them
His hands and feet still marked with the wounds He suffered. He invited them to
touch Him to demonstrate that He has flesh and blood and is not a ghost. But even
that was not enough for them. Luke tells us that after seeing Jesus’ hands and
feet they “disbelieved for joy and were marveling” (Luke 24:41). There was a
great struggle going on in their hearts between the joy of believing and the
dread of being deceived. Faith often wrestles with doubt in the Christian’s
heart. In our world, if something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t.
So Jesus asked them for
something to eat. They gave Him a piece of broiled fish. Jesus ate it before
their doubting eyes to show that He is alive and that the body that appeared
before them was just like their body, with flesh and bones. It was the same
body that was nailed to the cross. This was the same crucified and risen Lord! This
is the same Lord who taught in their homes and ate at their tables. He suffered,
died, and now was risen to abide among them.
Luke’s message is clear.
This was no spiritual or metaphorical resurrection. The physical body which had
been dead was now alive and well—even a little hungry.
But what does it matter
to you? Jesus’ physical resurrection was good for Him, but unless you have some
advantageous connection to Him, the fact of His resurrection does not matter
much. This is where some apologetic attempts to demonstrate proof of a physical
resurrection fall short. Even if we had evidence of the empty tomb, the benefit
of Jesus’ resurrection for anyone beside Himself would still be a matter of
faith.
Luke emphasizes the physical reality of Jesus’
bodily resurrection. But without the promise of the Gospel this is simply news.
Wonderful, unique news, to be sure, but nevertheless, merely news. It becomes
good news for us when we connect Jesus’ resurrection to our own.
Throughout the
Scriptures we read Jesus is the first to be raised. St. Paul writes, “Christ
has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”
(1 Corinthians 15:20). “And He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be
preeminent” (Colossians 1:18). Before Agrippa, Paul attested, “I stand here
testifying both to small and great what the prophets and Moses said would come
to pass: The Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the
dead, He would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles” (Acts
26:23). We believe that after Him will rise all who die in Him. “Christ the
firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Corinthians
15:23). Our epistle reading points in this direction, too. At Jesus’ return,
“We shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2).
In other words, the
physical resurrection of Jesus signals our own. After more than a year of
facing our collective mortality as a species, the promise of a physical
resurrection is welcome news. Christian hope is not based on inoculation or
herd immunity. It is not subject to the vagaries of variants or vaccines.
Instead, we find hope and strength in the promise of our own physical
resurrection.
When Jesus appeared to
His disciples, He did not simply show Himself to be a living person; He opened
their minds to an understanding of the Scriptures. He showed them how
Scriptures had foretold His suffering, death, and resurrection. Today we do not
have the privilege of seeing the body of our risen Lord face-to-face, but we
have the Scriptures which bear witness to Him. We have His very body and blood,
in, with, and under the bread and the wine, given and shed for you for the
forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. Through these means
of grace, He promises to be with us always to the end of the age.
Furthermore, this
promise invites us to live courageously. We know, at least cognitively, that we
will not live in this world forever. If the pandemic does not get us, something
else will. Unless the Lord returns for us first, we will all move on from this
mortal coil. This does not lead us to be cavalier, but rather confident and
caring toward others. This promise frees us to serve others in word and deed,
to sacrifice for others and put their physical needs ahead of our own.
As we continue to
celebrate Easter this week, let the physical nature of Jesus’ resurrection
shape your understanding of your own resurrection. Let it provide the
motivation for you to give yourself in service to others, so all might come to
believe the resurrection at His return. Amen
The peace of God that
passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life
everlasting. Amen
Comments