Invitation to Understanding

Luke 24:36–48 NRSV

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost 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. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. 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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

I had a funny and sweet interaction with my son, Asher, this week. He’s nine, you know. We made plans to have a date night on Friday and Asher went over to a friend’s house for an overnight. That day, while out running my normal Friday errands, I dropped his overnight bag off at his school so he could go right home afterwards with our friend. I decided to walk it into his classroom, say hi to his teacher, and then wandered in to see him at lunch with his buddies. I poked my head into the lunchroom to see where he was, spotted him immediately in his bright green sweatsuit, and caught his eyes.

He sort of straightened up and looked sideways at me across the room, like “wait, you’re here?” his eyes said.

As I approached the table of 3rd graders, he spoke up — “what are you doing here?” Like, huh, this is my school time, you don’t belong here.

I could tell he was glad to see me, but also needed to interrogate why.

I went over, said hi to him and his friends, and told him why I’d stopped in. He still kind of side eyed looked at me, like, ok, weirdo, but what are you actually doing here?

We talked for a quick minute, I said hi to his friends, kids I know from playdates and soccer. And then Asher looked at me again and with a smirk and twinkle in his eyes, said, “ok dad, get out of here, you’re kind of embarrassing me.”

My heart soared. I love that kid. I love his little friends. And I love that he was thrown by my presence there — “what are you doing here, dad?”

Have you ever had one of those strange or unexpected encounters with someone you know intimately, but in a context that surprises or confuses you? Maybe even that time you run into an acquaintance at the store and because the context is different, you blank on their name, but you totally know them?

I can attest, I’ve had this happen many times.

And, to connect this with our reading today, this must be something like what the disciples experienced. What, wait…you’re here? I thought you were gone? I thought you were in Galilee? I thought you died?

When and how might God show up in our daily lives and invite us to see the more, to understand what’s happening? Are we able to see? Will we let our surprise cloud our vision? Could we be startled into seeing the goodness of God, arriving here and now with us?

Let us pray.

[{Prayer}]

This is a funny little part of the closing words of Luke’s gospel.

A few things I think about when I read this text:

First, we have to remember that this gospel was written in the aftermath of all of these events, compiled as we understand it in the decades following Jesus’ life. As with every text in the Scriptures, the author and their intention are important in helping us see why certain stories are included and order as they are. This reality of a posthumous composition of these stories might give us pause, at least in terms of literary criticism, and make us wonder “why this story, why these words?” And to those wonderings, my heart is directed to say, “what does God want me to know about God’s love and commitment to us through this text?” What is the invitation to understanding that Jesus gives me here?

Something else that we have to acknowledge is that Luke is actually Part 1 of a longer narrative, Luke/Acts, which not only tells of the life and ministry of Jesus, but that also includes the Acts of the Apostles, these first followers who, as we remember from last week, have seen the risen Christ, or, as Jesus’ final words from this morning’s reading state, “you are witnesses of these things.” The Gospel of Luke was written to tell of that which this witnesses took in and learned from Jesus, as well as the formation of the earliest churches and missionary communities that spread with the gospel in the following years.

Finally, something somewhat new to my understanding of this passage, is that the Gospel of Luke would have been intended to be read aloud as a part of a gathering of Jesus’ followers, particularly around the table while partaking in the Lord’s Supper. This narrative was meant to be read amidst their gatherings and, as we see throughout much of Luke’s writings, it has a meal attached. Luke’s narrative is filled with meal after meal, all of them defining and redefining moments for the Jesus followers, the apostles, as the story and purpose of Jesus’ ministry becomes more clearly revealed.

I’m going to focus us on the second section of the reading, where Jesus opens up the Scriptures and reveals them for what the disciples are slowly beginning to become aware of and see. But before the apostles can see Jesus’ ministry as he outlines it, they have to first get over their fear and begin to gather understanding of what is physically going on in front of them.

The passage opens, telling us they were afraid of a ghost. Could you imagine this, the haunted feeling, wondering at what this person in front of you really was, because he looks like your friend, but you also just witnessed the brutal death of that friend and so this overloads your brain a little bit.

Jesus is inviting his followers to understand. And the first understanding, it is physical.

Physical understanding

Let’s talk about the physical understanding. In many ways, this morning’s story is a continuation of the narrative we heard last week, where Thomas needs to see the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side. Thomas wants this physical understanding, this clarity of what has happened. Here, in this passage from Luke, we get another take on a similar story. The apostles are looking for physical confirmation of what they perceive.

Is this a ghost? Should they be frightened?

Jesus addresses their fears directlY: “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that it have.”

Immediately preceding this reading in Luke’s gospel is the story of Jesus walking to Emmaus with two of the disciples. He is a bit more discreet with them, only revealing who he is to them at the end of their conversation. No disclosure of hands and scars there. But here, clearly, Jesus wants his friends to see and understand.

When we are seeking to understand, we look for physical understanding. What is the shape, texture, feel of the thing? Can we touch it, hold it, draw near? If we are going to believe, isn’t physical proof something we go looking for first? Fingerprints, the sound of a familiar voice, truly looking in their eyes. Physical understanding.

And of course, if you’d walked with Jesus for three years of ministry, you would have known what he “felt” like to be around. You would have seen physical manifestations of his miracles — food for the hungry, sight for the blind, healing for the crippled. And now, even resurrection!

And this is what I love — Jesus makes his presence so plain, his physicality so real, with this simple request: Have you anything here to eat?

And he eats the fish. Like you and me, physical and hungry and welcomed to the table with his friends. We get this. Please pass the fish.

Don’t we also long for physical understanding? That somehow God would “show up” in a real way in our lives?

What would that be like? Would we find ourselves concerned that it was a ghost?

Here is where we have to link physical understanding with spiritual understanding.

Spiritual understanding

Gaining spiritual understanding may seem more difficult. Let’s remember, these are words written by Luke in the years following these events. They are ripe for embellishment, re-telling, editing, and grandiosity. Right? How do we know these things aren’t just a bit of confirmation bias, where Luke tells us the story how he wants it to be told so that the story points to Jesus as messiah?

These Greek speaking Christians, gathered in house churches, wondering at what their part in the grand story of God would look like — these are the ones who hear this story and find understanding.

We can hear this for ourselves, in much the same way. How does this story reveal the spiritual work of God? Where do we all fit in.

Again, Jesus invites us to understand.

He lays out the spiritual understanding for them this way:

Vs. 44, he reminds 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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”

He’s saying, look, all the ancient scriptures and prophecies and spiritual teachings you have heard — they all have pointed to the Christ’s work in Jesus, coming to be. And now, let’s recap, he says in a sense. He’s saying, I told you about these things and now, let it be known, that it has come to be.

Vs. 45 is so crucial — “then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”

They are being invited to understand, to see, to comprehend, to “get it.” What once may have been foggy or uncertain, he is now making spiritually plain to them.

He goes on, describing how the Messiah would suffer, die, and rise from the grave. He provides spiritual confirmation for what they have longed to understand. And he goes further, now revealing how this good news message is to be spread throughout the world. Repentence and forgiveness go out from the epicenter of Jesus’ life, out to the ends of the world.

Finally, he looks right at his listeners and says, “You are witnesses of these things.”

He is saying, you’ve seen physical confirmation. You’ve sought spiritual understanding and witnessed how the Christ’s work, the Messiah’s life, fit in with the grand narrative of God’s redemption. You have been invited to understand and now, it is revealed.

So, what about us? What are we to do with this? Do we long for physical and spiritual understanding?

You and I, we haven’t seen these scars or sat at this table. But what we do have are these words of witness, passed down, again and again reaffirmed as the message of life for all the world. We, like so many before us, are invited to seek understanding, to wrestle with our doubts, to long for our eyes to be opened. And as we begin to see, we are also, just like all who have come before us, we are also called to become witnesses, disciples, torch-bearers who keep passing on the flame of witness to this good news of great joy for all people.

Friends, will you be a witness? Will you tell the stories of how God has moved in your life? Will you proclaim physical and spiritual understanding, inasmuch as we see a bit more clearly from this vantage point? Will you tell the story of God’s liberating love as it echoes through creation?

These stories are where we start. Look to them, let them witness to us, and then, let us respond by telling the story, inviting understanding, to all who God places before us in our lives.

Amen.