A New Hope

Context

Two weeks ago was Holy Week. Jesus betrayed on Thursday. Put to death by the authorities on Friday. In the tomb on Saturday.

On Easter Sunday he was from the dead. The women went to the tomb and found it empty. Angels told them Jesus had risen from the dead. The apostles were in a state of confusion, disbelief, and amazement.

We were invited to have new faith.

Later that same Easter day: Two disciples are walking on a road, leaving Jerusalem and heading west toward a town called Emmaus. Along the way, the risen Lord appeared to them.

We were invited to appreciate Christ centered worship.

Even later that same Easter day, evening time. The disciples are gathered in a room and are talking about the strange events of the day.

Replacing the dread of death is a new hope.

Text

Luke 24:36–49 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. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Introduction

Critical vocabulary for this sermon. What does it mean for a human being to be “alive” or “dead”?

To be alive - body and spirit are united. The body is animated and given life by the soul. The soul is alive in that it is in a body. As mine is in me right now and yours is in you right now.

To be dead — body and spirit are separated.

When the spirit leaves the body, the body dies. It ceases all its functions and becomes dead matter and degrades. The body becomes a corpse.

The spirit lives on. But without the body, the soul is the soul of someone we would consider dead.

In ghost stories: the ghost is of someone who died. And the ghost is a dead person.

Most famous ghost story: A Christmas Carol

Scrooge sees the ghost of his partner Marley. He asks, Who are you? Ask me who I was….Who were you? …in life I was your partner, Jacob Marly.

Marley is a ghost, he is not alive.

People have always been fascinated by ghost stories…they tap into the dread we have of being separated from our bodies…of being dead.

Gospel lesson a ghost story, kind of.

Ancient Problem

The disciples are gathered together.

The 11 apostles. The women, such as Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and others. And additional disciples.

They are talking about the empty tomb. The news of the angels. And about the appearance of Jesus to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus.

suddenly Jesus stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

The disciples are startled…

Easy to understand this reaction.

Example of when I come home. I try to speak softly and say something non-threatening. Hi, darling. I’m home. Hi. But my wife still jumps. Didn’t know I was there. Suddenly I was there.

But more: Jesus appeared out of nowhere. He did not knock on the door or walk into the room. One moment he was not there and the next moment he was standing among them.

So they are startled, even though Jesus speaks gently.

But more: They are terrified. A persistent state of fear.

they think they are seeing a ghost.

A human body can’t appear out of thin air.

They are seeing a being that USED to be human…body and soul…but that is now only HALF of that. Just spirit.

They think they are seeing Jesus’ ghost. Jesus without his body.

In other words they are seeing Jesus who is “DEAD.”

WHO ARE YOU? …ASK ME WHO I WAS….IN LIFE I WAS JESUS OF NAZARETH…

The disciples are terrified.

Current Problem

May be difficult to feel terror in the light of a Sunday morning.

One of the greatest dreads we have is of death…being separated from our bodies and from the physical world around us.

I remember when I watched some scary ghost movie at home in the dark.

Scariest: 6th sense, don’t even know they are dead, just replaying same scenario over and over again. Trying to interact with real life, but can’t.

I was up at night a few days. Afraid of the dark, grown man.

Biblically speaking this dread makes sense: we are meant to be body and soul.

Genesis: God created man from dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living being.

Body and soul, in the world. God said, this is very good.

So our nature is both spiritual and physical. it is not that we have spirits and we have bodies.

We are embodied spirits, perfectly suited

to living in the physical world around us and

relating to each other.

So any suggestion that our spirits get separated from our bodies and that we become separated from the physical world, fills us with horror. It is contrary to our nature.

To be a spirit without a body is to no longer be a “living being” in the human sense. In the way God designed us to be. It is rather, to be just a ghost. To be dead.

Hinge

Jesus knows they think they are seeing a ghost. But they are not.

So he makes gestures to show that he not a ghost. But flesh and spirit. Not an apparition, but a resurrected man.

Ancient Solution

He shows them his hands and feet. The wounds of the nails. He invites them to touch him. He invites physical contact, which with a spirit would be impossible. He has flesh and bones.

A second gesture. He asked for something to eat. They gave it to him and he consumed it in front of them.

He did this because a ghost cannot eat.

And to show that he still able to engage with the physical world, still part of it.

Implications of these simple gestures are profound.

He is alive in the fully human sense of what “alive” means.

his body and soul are united. He is alive physically and spiritually.

He is still able to engage with this world.

Showing with his actions that he is alive. Alive, alive. Alive like the disciples are…and more! No longer subject to death, he has left that behind.

Replaces their dread with hope!

Adds teaching: Everything that happened, suffering, death, and resurrection was necessary. It was foretold in the Scriptures. Moses, prophets, the psalms.

FOR THEIR SAKE!

Jesus the Son of God, was without sin and did not need to die.

He took the sin of all people upon himself in his body on the cross

His divine blood, being perfect and of infinite value, paid the penalty once and for all.

Rose again to give all people forgiveness of sin and resurrection life.

This message is to be proclaimed: That by placing trust in Jesus Christ, all sinners doomed to die can be united to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

By resurrecting Jesus — body and soul united — God has restored humanity to its rightful, intended state: body and soul fit for eternal life…with God and with each other.

Personal note: Christ was raised from the dead. Reunited with his disciples. They are reunited with him. Touch. Eat.

Reunited body and soul, reunited in relationship with his disciples.

Gospel of reunion! After death there is resurrection and full reunion!

that message has come to us…

Current Solution

Apostle’s Creed: I believe in the resurrection of the body AND the life everlasting. Notice we specify both of those two things. Resurrection of the body AND life everlasting.

Not the resurrection of the body, to die again.

Not the life everlasting without a body.

Resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

We believe in the resurrection of the body because of Jesus’ resurrection in the body.

Jesus said, I am the living one, because I live you also shall live. By live he means be alive in the human sense of the word: body and spirit.

What is the glorified body like?

Like Jesus’s : flesh and bone. Yet not limited. Appear and disappear, recognize not recognize, ascend into heaven, retain marks of our godly deeds…and who knows what else.

Paul discusses this in 1 Corinthians 15:42–44 “So it is with the resurrection of the dead.

What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.

It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

1 Corinthians 15:49 “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.”

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”

Hear this TONE OF HOPE: Dread of death has been replaced by happy expectation.

In Christ we know…after death:

We do not cease to exist.

We do not become ghosts.

We do not become angels…or anything other than humans.

No, IN CHRIST WE SEE: We become glorified human beings

fit for eternal life with God as God created us to be…beautiful creatures of spirit and matter.

Ready to be part of the new heavens and earth he will create when he resurrects the whole heavens and earth.

Ready to be reunited forever with each other.

Resurrection means reunited: Humanity and God, Humanity and creation, and Humanity with one another.

So in Christ, we our dread is transformed into hope.

We die and our spirits are only temporarily separated from our bodies, but then reunited on the Last Day.

Separated from each other but only temporarily. Then reunited.

Let us grieve, temporarily , but not as those who have no hope.

For weeping lasts only for the night but joy comes in the Easter morning!

WHY: Because we end up alive and with God and each other!

Good News: In this world our relationship with God seems sometimes close sometimes distant. In this world, our loved ones are sometimes close, sometimes distant. Sometimes we have to say goodbye. People move away, the get sick and die. We have each other for a time only.

But the resurrection shows and promises a greater joy: reunion with never a goodbye again.

Hope of heaven: I will see my childhood friends. My parents. The people I become estranged from or forgotten about. My wife, my children, you all…Jesus, the saints, everyone.

We will be alive, alive, alive…together, together, together!

Conclusion

Humanity has always feared death, not knowing what happens next.

That is why disciples thought they were in a ghost story.

They were in a hope story.

That is what we are part of.

Christ was resurrected from the dead. United in body and soul. Reunited with his loved ones.

We have a new hope!