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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