Read Luke 24.36-49
The second part of Luke 24 begins right where the Emmaus story ended. Cleopas and the other disciple have just rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples everything that has happened and lo and behold while they are still talking Jesus himself stands among them.
“Peace be with you,” he says to the startled, frightened disciples. The disciples of course think they’re looking at a ghost, even though Jesus is in their midst they are troubled and have doubts.
Jesus shows them his feet, his hands, has them touch him to know that he is real. The best part is the disciples still don’t believe it because of their joy and amazement.
I get that, it’s kind of like how I felt when the Cleveland Cavaliers won the championship in basketball in June 2016. I sat in my living room in disbelief, amazed, and filled with wonder I couldn’t believe my team had won. They won! the fact I couldn’t believe it didn’t change that fact. It took a little to come to grips with it. Much like the disciples couldn’t come to terms with their risen Lord and teacher standing in the midst now asking for a piece of fish to eat.
Jesus is cool as a cucumber as he tells them about how this fulfilled everything in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms. Jesus opens their minds to understand the scriptures, we get another Bible study of Bible studies from Jesus as the disciples sit in rapt attention, hanging on every word, finally realizing Jesus is alive. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus has defeated sin and death and now they have to tell the world about it.
The end of Luke’s gospel is a call for those who know the good news of Jesus to preach repentance for forgiveness of sins to all nations. The disciples are now witnesses of these things. You and I are reminded each year at Easter, that we too are witnesses of these things. We too are commanded to proclaim the good news of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, and how Jesus fulfills the story of the Bible to bring us back to God.
Our passage today started with the presence of Jesus, and it ends with Jesus promising a present to the disciples so that he will always be present with them, and with us till the end of the age. How incredible! How unbelievable! May we all sit in disbelief until it finally sinks in that Jesus is alive and we have to tell everyone about it.
For our hymn lyrics today we have “Christ is Alive.”
Christ is alive and goes before us
to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings;
our God is making all things new,
our God is making all things new.
This is a day of new beginnings,
time to remember and move on,
time to believe what love is bringing,
laying to rest the pain that’s gone.
Christ is alive and goes before us
to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings;
our God is making all things new,
our God is making all things new.
For by the life and death of Jesus,
love’s mighty Spirit, now as then,
can make for us a world of diff’rence
as faith and hope are born again.
Christ is alive and goes before us
to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings;
our God is making all things new,
our God is making all things new.
Then let us, with the Spirit’s daring,
step from the past, and leave behind
our disappointment, guilt, and grieving,
seeking new path, and sure to find.
Christ is alive and goes before us
to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings;
our God is making all things new,
our God is making all things new.
Grace and Peace to you, Amen.