Sermon - Easter 3 - Luke 24:36-49

 

The Risen Christ’s Agenda

Christ is risen!  (He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!)

In this Easter season, we of course celebrate Christ’s victory over sin, devil and death.  That Jesus died and Jesus rose is of paramount importance for us, for our faith, and for our future.

But simply being alive isn’t all.  Our risen Lord has quite an agenda, and our reading from Luke’s Gospel today shows us a risen Christ who is still very busy doing things for his people, making promises and giving gifts.  Let’s take a closer look.

For starters, if today’s reading reminds you of last week’s Gospel reading from John 20, that’s because it seems to be telling us about the same event.  John, of course, emphasized certain aspects of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on that Easter evening.  But here Luke shares other details.  Just prior, Luke tells the account of the 2 disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus.  After he appeared to them in the breaking of the bread, they turned around and ran back to Jerusalem to report all this to the 12.  Now, Jesus appears to the whole lot of them, even though the doors are locked. 

Luke isn’t concerned with Thomas being absent.  He doesn’t mention the breathing on them or the charge to forgive sins.

But he does also mention Jesus showing them his hands and feet.  These wounds, these scars, they both prove he is the crucified one and testify to that most precious work he had just completed.  By his wounds, we are healed.

And Luke tells us that they are conflicted, confused and afraid.

They thought he was a ghost!  Their superstitions got the better of them with the risen Jesus himself standing before them.  But they couldn’t believe their eyes, and fell back on their homespun spiritual misconceptions.  And if he’s a ghost, maybe he’s an angry ghost, a vengeance spirit here to punish us for deserting him in his hour of need! 

But Jesus dispels their superstition and shows them what is real – and it’s him!  He is no ghost.  He’s a resurrected man, with very tangible hands and feet.  He even eats some fish in their presence to further prove it.  “See and touch!” he says.  And they do.

Superstition isn’t there only problem.  They find themselves in disbelief.  Thomas wasn’t the only doubter, it seems.  But Jesus chases away doubt by his peaceful presence, and his wonderful words.

Their emotions, too, got the better of them.  Fear and joy all mixed up and leading them in so many directions.  But Jesus’ calm presence cuts through it all.  He is there for them.  It’s all going to be ok.

Those dear disciples are just like us.  We, too, have spent our time with Jesus, learned from Jesus, trusted in Jesus.  And yet our fears and doubts can get the better of us, too.  Our emotions can lead us astray, our hearts chase after assurance in all the wrong places.  Sometimes, free and full forgiveness seems “too good to be true” and we doubt Jesus.  But he always sets us straight, too.

My friends, the risen Christ is here, for you, too.  Not visibly, but just as present.  Not to see and touch, but certainly to hear.  He comes to you today, not in vengeance but forgiveness.  He comes with peace.  And he shares a meal with you, too.  Giving you his own body and blood in the Sacrament.  Just another proof of his grace, a pledge of his sure and certain forgiveness for you.

But the risen Jesus still has more business with the disciples, and with us.  First he sets them straight about his resurrection, and proves he is alive.  Next he opens the disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures.

They surely knew the Scriptures.  They probably knew them, in many ways, better than we do.  They would have sung the Psalms, and perhaps known those words as well as we know so many pop-song lyrics.  They would have known the stories and genealogies of the Old Testament, and likely so much of its prophecies.  They would have also known it in the Hebrew, which most of us have never learned. 

But Jesus must still open their closed minds to understand.  And here we are in the same boat.  Natural man, apart from Christ and his Spirit, cannot understand the Scriptures.  Our mind closed, and our heart darkened, sure we can read the words on the page.  Sure we can make sense of the vocabulary and grammar.  But we do not receive the Scriptures properly, understand them as they are meant to be, until our minds are opened.  Christ did it for the disciples directly, and he does it for us through his Spirit.

Apart from Christ, the Scriptures are a closed book of contradictions and moralisms and esoteric ancient history.  For most of the world, it remains this way.  But only in Christ can we see the Scriptures rightly, and that the Scriptures testify to him!  And in him is life!

From the beginning to the end, Jesus Christ is the heart of Holy Scripture.  First, the promise of his coming, then the unfolding of his birth, life, death and resurrection.  Then the promise of his return in glory and the life of his body, the church, until that day.  The Bible is all about Jesus Christ, Son of Man and Son of God, and all that he is and does for you!  Jesus himself says so, both here in Luke, and even more tersely in John 5:39  “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me”

His appearance proves he is alive.  Check.

He dispels their doubts and fears, confusion and superstition.  Check.

He opens their minds to understand the Scriptures.  Check.

And yet there remains some unfinished business on the risen Christ’s agenda.

He commissions his witnesses to go and proclaim this good news!

“…repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

Repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus – that’s the message of the Christian faith, that’s the Gospel in the wide sense.  That’s the very thing that Peter preached in our reading from Acts, and that the disciples preached as they went forth into the world.  It’s the same message of law and gospel that sounds forth from faithful Christian pulpits around the world today.  Repent, sinner, turn away from your sins, and turn to Jesus Christ in faith for the forgiveness of your sins.  And just as surely as Christ has come, has died, has risen, and will come again, so also as surely are your sins forgiven in him and your life, even to eternity, is just as secure.

The disciples are witnesses of everything Christ had done.  And it was given, first, to them, to proclaim that witness.  But the witness carried on, as churches were founded all around the Roman empire, and then all around the world, and down through history’s twists and turns, and even up to this day, the witness of the disciples echoes on and on.  We have it written in Holy Scripture, the full testimony to Christ.  And we preach it and teach it faithfully, and take it to heart fervently.

This is the ongoing agenda of the risen Christ – that repentance and forgiveness continue to be proclaimed in his name.  Thanks be to God.

The risen Christ is a busy Christ.  He has much to say to his church, much to promise, and much to give.  He spoke to appeared to those disciples, set them straight, opened their minds, and gave them a mission. So also he shows us himself today, in the Scriptures and in the breaking of the bread.  He calls us to repent of our sins, and receive the forgiveness that he won by his death.  For Christ is risen, and still doing amazing, wonderful, blessed things for you.