The Message, April 14, 2024: "What Now?" Luke 24:36b-48
Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
April 16, 2024
“Now What?”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
Luke 24:36b-48
Don’t you like coming into a room in
the middle of a conversation and everyone is laughing but you do not know what
is so funny?
Don’t
you just love when you purchase a ticket to a movie, and as the film begins you
realize that this is the third episode of a trilogy, and you did not see the
first two movies?
That is kind of the way it is with
our scripture passage this morning. We enter into it in the middle of the
story. Actually, we enter into it in the middle of a sentence. The first half
of the sentence says, “While they were still talking about this …” (Luke
24:36a)
“While THEY were still talking about
THIS … Jesus himself stood among them.”
While WHO was still talking about
WHAT?
If you just happened to drop in, you
likely have no idea what is going on. To understand the context, we need to set
our mental time machines back two weeks to Easter Sunday. As I said to the
children a few moments ago, it is still the Easter season, and this event took
place on that first Easter Sunday.
So, just to refresh our memories,
let us recap what has happened thus far “today.”
Mary and the other woman … or women
(depending upon which Gospel account you read) … went to the tomb at dawn. They
found the stone had been rolled away. The tomb was open. In Luke’s account, the
women spoke to two angels who informed them that Jesus was not there. “Why
do you look for the living among the dead? Go and tell the others.”
The women ran to tell the others,
but the disciples … in the first recorded episode of man-splaining … believed
that it was just an idle tale.
Later that same day, two disciples …
Cleopas and the other … were returning to Emmaus, a town about seven miles from
Jerusalem, and encountered a “stranger” on the road. The stranger was none
other than Jesus himself, who opened the scripture to them as they walked, then
was revealed to them in the breaking of the bread. Then he disappeared. They
said to one another, “Were our hearts not burning within us when he was
talking to us on the road and opening Scripture?” (Luke 24:32) Those two
then ran all the way back to Jerusalem to tell the others.
They found the Eleven and those with
them. They were saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and he appeared to
Simon!” (Luke 24:34)
That is WHO were still talking and
the WHAT they were talking about. “It is true! The Lord is risen, and he
appeared to Simon … and Cleopas and the other disciple … and perhaps even Mary.”
Jesus had quite a busy day that day!
But that was where we were when the
scripture passage picked up. They were talking about the truth that Jesus had
risen. They were talking about how he had appeared to Simon, Cleopas, the other
disciple and … if you jump to the John’s Gospel … Mary. And then Jesus himself stood
among them.
It could almost seem like a scene
from a comedy. The disciples and those with them talking about the miraculous
news that Jesus had risen, and had appeared to several people already that day.
We can picture Jesus standing in the midst of them nodding and smiling as they
talked amongst themselves … and no one even notices him standing there. Then he
says, “Peace be with you,” and they all jump out of their skins! They are
startled and frightened thinking that they have seen a ghost!
As we have talked about before, it
really is nearly impossible to place ourselves in their hearts and minds on
that day. Really, it is hard to imagine what the previous three years had been
like for them. But again, the events of Holy Week were anything but holy for
those first disciples. They had heard everything that Jesus had said to them
about having to go to Jerusalem. They had heard him say that he had to suffer
and die. They had heard that he would rise again. They had heard it all. They
had seen it all, but it was so difficult to wrap their heads around.
The disciples had spent three years
with Jesus. They walked with him and ate with him. They heard him teach. They
heard him open scripture. They saw him perform miraculous acts of power. They
had seen and heard and experienced it all. But … one thing was missing from
their experience of Jesus Christ …
They had not experienced the RISEN
Christ.
They had heard him cite the words of
the prophets. They heard him foretell what was going to happen. They had seen
him die a horrific death on the cross. They had seen his lifeless body placed
in a tomb. But they had not yet experienced the fulfillment of the promise
until that very moment. The risen Christ was in their midst.
We may ask ourselves: How could they
be afraid? How could they doubt? We can read the Gospel of Luke in about an
hour, but they were with Jesus for three years. No one in all the world were
closer to Jesus than those eleven gathered there. How could they doubt? They
had just been discussing that “It was true! Our Lord is risen!”
The “startled” I understand. I
startle people all the time. Even though I am an extra-large person, I move
about the church quietly. I have joked that I should wear a bell around my
neck. I startle Sue and Jacqui; I may have startled some of you. However, I do
not think that I frighten them. I hope not …
And the frightened I can understand
as well. What does a “risen” body look like? They had seen Lazarus brought
forth from the dead … but this was Jesus! What does a risen JESUS look like?
Maybe it was just a spirit, a ghost, an apparition of Jesus.
So, Jesus reassured them. “It is me
myself. I am really real. This is the same body that was crucified and placed
in the tomb. Look at my hands and feet. Ghosts’ feet do not touch the ground.
Touch me, if you need to. In fact, give me some fish. Ghosts do not eat.”
This was not some “NEW” Jesus. This
was the Jesus that they knew. The same Jesus, the “real” Jesus. And in that
moment, the disciples and those who were with them had seen it ALL. Their
experience was complete. They had seen the Risen Christ.
In that moment, Jesus was affirming
for them, “Yes, it IS true. Everything that I told you is true. Everything that
I showed you is true. You have experienced what it means to be a part of God’s
Kingdom. You have seen the fulfillment of the promise. You are the witnesses to
it ALL. ALL. Now … tell everyone.”
That is the “Now what?” Tell
everyone, beginning in Jerusalem and then throughout the whole world. Tell
everyone. The Good News of the Kingdom of God does no good if it did not leave
that room in Jerusalem. The promise of the resurrection is for all people.
That is what “resurrection” means.
In the Jewish world, resurrection meant a new life embodied in God’s new world.
It actually had nothing at all to do with life after death or going to heaven.
Resurrection meant life in this world, new life in God’s new world.
In biblical literature, resurrection
was not a concept that applied to an individual. Rather, it was corporate … the
whole people will receive new life. Jesus’ ministry and teaching was about the
“resurrection” God’s people … the WHOLE people … God’s beloved community.
The disciples are now witnesses.
They have seen and heard it all personally. It was not hearsay. It was not idle
chatter. Jesus, real flesh and bone Jesus, stood in their midst and reminded
them of what he had called them to be and to do … fish for people. Gather them
together into a beloved community with God at the center. Repent … push aside
those things that lead one away from God and turn toward God.
Nearly twenty centuries later, we
are witnesses too. We are Easter people. We are resurrection people. We have
received the promise of new life in THIS world, and we are called to share that
promise.
So then, what do we do?
We look for the Presence of Jesus
Christ in our midst. And we recognize that there must be times when WE are the
presence of Jesus. There will be times when we must be the ones to embody life
in God’s new world. Jesus promised us that if we abide in him then he will
abide with us. If we make our “homes” in Jesus, then He will be at home in us.
(John 14)
Jesus Christ and the power of God
empower this mission in the world. Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God move us
to go into areas that we would not otherwise go. Jesus moves us to engage in
activities in which we would not otherwise engage. Just like those first
eleven, the promise of new life in God’s Kingdom does nothing if it cannot
break forth from this room.
We are the witnesses to it all. We
carry the promise forward and outward. It may seem overwhelming. There are so many
problems in our world, so much pain. But there is nothing to be afraid of. God
is with us, Jesus is with us, and we have one another.
May we embody God’s Kingdom Way in
everything that we say and do. Amen.
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