05 Easter 2nd Thursday of Easter (circuit)

            My friends, I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Our lesson today comes to us from the Gospel which was just read. 

            What a scene this must have been!  Can you imagine?  I mean talk about a roller coaster of a weekend.  You know how busy Holy Week can be.  The disciples must have been exhausted after going through the first Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and now Easter Morning.  And here they are.  Though Luke doesn’t say that they are in a locked room, we know this to be the case from John’s account.  And can you blame them?  I mean they had seen the Romans kill God.  These guys were tough.  And so the disciples are taking cover.  I would like to think that I would have been braver, quicker to catch on, but I probably would have been right there with them, scared out of my wits. 

            Everyone startles at the knock on the door.  Relief washes over the room when they discover that it is the duo from Emmaus.  They are out of breath from the haste of their journey.  They are quickly ushered into the room and the door is speedily shut and locked behind them.  Talk fills the room.  “He has risen, indeed! And appeared to Simon.”  The dynamic duo shares their story of how they were walking with the risen Lord back home and they didn’t even realize it was him.  And yet their hearts burned within them as Jesus shared with them the scriptures and how the scriptures testify to him.  And when it came time for dinner Jesus broke bread with them and it was then that they recognized him and suddenly he was gone.  They left that very hour to share the news with them.

            While this talking is going on Jesus is now standing in the midst of them.  Can you hear the deafening silence as one by one the inhabitants of the room realizes that Jesus is standing there?  And he greets them, “Peace be with you.”  The disciples must have been beside themselves.  The text says that they were startled and terrified.  This has to be one of the biggest understatements in all of Scripture.  But Jesus, in his great love and gentleness offers comfort.  He shows them his hands and feet and offers them to touch him to see that he has flesh and bone and is not just a spirit. 

            The disciples experience joy at seeing their Lord and yet there is disbelief floating around among them.  So Jesus offers one more proof that he is indeed risen.  And he asks for something to eat.  And then he eats it in front of them.  Now if you have seen the movie Ghostbusters, one of the things that we learned from that movie is ghosts can’t eat anything.  The food just drops right through them to the floor and makes a big mess of the carpet.  But Jesus is not a ghost.  He is risen.  And so he eats the piece of broiled fish to prove it.

            Then he reminded them of what he had said to them before he was crucified.  That is that what was written about him in the Scriptures had to be fulfilled.  And he opened their minds to the scriptures and he showed them 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.  And that they are witnesses to these things. 

            Wow.  What a powerful story.  What a powerful text.  There is a lot going on here.  There are many topics that are covered.  In fact these twelve verses contain so much that we could spend the rest of the day talking about everything that is here.  Most of the verses cover the appearance of Jesus in that room.  The living and resurrected Lord stands in their midst.  His risen body is not bound by the same laws of nature that ours are bound by, and so a locked door is no obstacle for him.  Yet he has not ceased to be human.  He eats, he shows that he is flesh and blood, and he shows his wounds. 

            These things are proof of the resurrection.  They are proof that Jesus is alive.  Which means that the price he paid for your sins, for my sins, for the sins of the disciples and the sins of all nations was accepted.  The debt has been paid in full.  The price that you and I are unable to pay, the requirements of God that we are unable to meet, have been paid by Jesus, they have been met by him and so in this great gift we rejoice and give thanks and glory to our great God.  He is risen indeed.  And because he lives, we also live. 

            Jesus also tells the disciples that they are to be witnesses of these things.  We talk about this material so much that it can all too easily become common and ordinary.  They are witnesses of these things.  What things?  Well that the Messiah must suffer and on the third day be raised and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  This is the testimony of the Scriptures and it is to be the testimony of the disciples.  And it is to be the testimony of all the disciples that would come after them.

            Is there a greater honor?  Is there a better job?  Is there a higher calling in all the universe than to be a witness to the living and risen Lord.  To tell how he suffered and was raised on the third day.  And to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations.  This is the gospel in its fullest.  This is the picture of God’s great love for the world.  And you and I have the privilege of proclaiming this message every single day. 

            How well do we do this?  I can’t speak for you.  But I’m a poor miserable sinner.  It is easy to lose sight of the importance of this.  It is easy to get caught up in meeting after meeting and to have to move simply from one complaint to another.  The coffee is too hot.  The organ is too loud.  But then you’ve heard them all before.  It is easy to get caught up in deadlines and programs, building projects and life in general.  And in the midst of this we lose our focus.  We forget that the message we are to proclaim is a blessing and it seems to have become a burden.  We lock ourselves away for fear of all that there is to do, and life has become about getting from one day to the next.

            But it is in the midst of this mess that we find ourselves in.  Or at least in the midst of this mess that I have found myself to be in.  I can’t speak for you.  It is in the midst of this mess that our risen Lord comes and stands.  And he speaks his words of peace in our lives.  Instead of asking us for food he gives us food.  His body and blood in, with and under the bread and the wine.  There he gives us forgiveness of sins, everlasting life and salvation.  Through this most holy meal he pours out his grace in all its fullness into our lives.  And we are strengthened and renewed.  We are not the same after the meal, as we were before the meal.  But then again we are not our own.  And the life we now live we live in Christ.

            And, once again the proclamation is a blessing.  In the midst of all the messiness of life, we get to speak God’s words of love and peace into the lives of his people.  The testimony we bear is the testimony of the Scripture.  As we live out our lives in love and service to others, we show them God’s love.  As we proclaim the good news of God’s grace in Christ Jesus, we proclaim to them God’s love.  

            One day we, like the disciples, will see Jesus standing in our midst.  On that day he will restore all things.  There will be no more sickness or suffering, there will be no more death or disease.  There will be no more sin.  That day will be the first day of the eternity that we will get to spend with our risen Lord in the New Jerusalem, in the time that is forever Easter.  That day is one that we look for and look forward to. 

            May our God richly bless you as you bear witness to the testimony of our risen Lord.  As you bear witness to the testimony of the Scripture.  And may you always find Christ in your midst.  Amen.