Barbara Moyer Lehman: Then He Opened Their Minds

April 26, 2009
Easter 3
I John 3:1-7; Psalm 4; Luke 24:36b-48; Acts 3:12-19

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In Luke’s account of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance to his disciples, several significant things happen:
1. Jesus reassures the disciples in several ways that indeed, he is NOT a ghost!
2. Jesus instructs the disciples. He opens up their minds to new understanding of scriptures.
3. Jesus commissions the disciples.

Let’s take a closer look at these three points.

Jesus Assures the disciples he is NOT a ghost!

It had already been a really long day for the disciples, when we jump into the story where the lectionary text begins for today. It is still the ‘day of resurrection’, if you remember. Earlier that morning when the women arrived at the tomb, they found the stone had been rolled away. The tomb was empty. They were terrified when they encountered two men in dazzling clothes who reminded them why the tomb was empty.(Lk. 24:5b-7) Needless to say, they hurried to tell the disciples, who thought what they said was an idle tale. Of course Peter needed to see for himself. So he ran back to the tomb and found what the women said was true!

In Luke’s account we then have the intriguing encounter on the road to Emmaus between this traveler, who joins two of the disciples, Cleopas and another, who remains unnamed.. One can imagine what the conversation is about, but this traveler is clueless as to what has just taken place. Or at least gives that impression. Of course we know this companion is Jesus, but the disciples were kept from recognizing him, whatever that means. They weren’t blind in the physical sense, but obviously they didn’t comprehend who he was or REALLY ‘see’ him. The disciples share the ‘big story’ of the day and their disappointment and sadness, with this fellow traveler. Jesus, the fellow traveler, in turn interprets to them things about himself from the scriptures, but now the disciples are clueless, for they still don’t recognize who this companion, on the 7 mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus, really is.

Hospitality often enters into biblical stories, and this is no exception. When the disciples arrive in the village after the long walk, it is almost night. They urge the stranger to stay with them. Food and lodging would be most welcome at the end of a long day. But when they sit down to eat, the stranger becomes the host, blessing the bread, breaking it and sharing it around the table. How strange, how perplexing, how confusing, but suddenly it all made sense. Their eyes were opened and they truly recognized him. The fellow traveler was Jesus. And just as quickly as his true identity was revealed to them, Jesus vanished...disappeared from the table and their sight.....gone again. And then they remembered....the two disciples compared notes. They began discussing how each of them felt when this traveler was talking to them on the road. Their hearts burned within them or something like that. Strange, but why didn’t they know then? Jesus needed to break bread with them, then their eyes were opened.

So much for a night’s rest after a long day. Luke records, that same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, another 7 mile walk, or did they have a fast donkey. Who could sleep after what had just happened. They needed to be together. They found the eleven and their companions gathered together, all talking about the really strange, even weird events that took place this very day. Jesus made an appearance even to Simon, but that story wasn’t recorded, just a reference to it. Is it any wonder that when we pick up the story in today’s text, that Jesus stands among a group of very frightened, startled, confused, perplexed followers? And into that setting and place greets them with, “Peace be with you.” It seems like most of us would have some doubts and questions and wonder, “Is this for real? Is this not a ghost? Is this another appearance/disappearance scenario?”

Jesus assures them, he is NOT a ghost. He appeals to them through the senses. They hear his words. It is I myself. They see his body. Look at my hands and feet, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones. He invites them to touch and see. He offers his body for examination. And what they see are hands and feet with scars and bruises. These were the hands that broke bread and blessed children. These were the hands that put mud on eyes and restored sight to a blind man. These were the hands that took the hand of a 12 year old girl, Jairus’ daughter, who was at deaths’s door and brought life back into her lifeless body. These were the hands that were placed upon the back of a stooped over, crippled woman, ailing for 18 years, and set her free and made her body straight again.

And his feet.....he showed them his feet! The feet that walked hundreds of miles, across the country side. Feet that stood along the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee when he called his first disciples. These feet received the tears of Mary, as she bent over him, weeping and wiping his feet with her hair.

These feet were wounded now. All of them, hands and feet, scared, bruised, maybe painful to see. But the disciples needed to see them. They hadn’t stayed around long enough to see and hear the nails being pounded into the flesh. Barbara Brown Taylor writes in one of her sermons on this passage, “Some of us wish that he had come back all cleaned up, but he did not. He left us something to recognize him by, his hands and feet.”

Now Jesus says to them, “Look at my hands and my feet, see that it is I myself.” The risen Christ is the Jesus who died. Fred Craddock states in his commentary on Luke, “Easter is forever joined to Good Friday, and to follow the risen Christ is to follow the one who bore the cross.”

Jesus assures them he is not a ghost, by talking to them, inviting them to see and touch his very body, and then gives further proof by asking for something to eat. “Have you anything here to eat?”They give him a piece of broiled fish which he eats in their presence. What else can one do? “See, friends, I can even eat!”

Jesus instructs them. He opens their minds to understanding the scriptures.

What he instructs them about is not necessarily new, but he is reminding them that what he taught when he was with them before must be fulfilled. He makes the connection between himself, the risen Christ, and the Christ that lived and walked the earth with them before his death. He makes the connection between himself and the Old Testament, the law of Moses, the prophets, the psalms. He helps them make the connections and opens their minds to understand and receive this knowledge.

Jesus then goes on to elaborate and explain, “thus it is written”, which really means, “It has been God’s plan all along.” And what is the plan,

vs. 46, “that the Messiah is to suffer and is 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.”

Jesus commissions the disciples.

Jesus ends that proclamation with, “You are witnesses of these things.”

The message of repentance and forgiveness is to be preached to all nations, and this message must come from them, the disciples. They are now to be the hands and feet of Jesus, proclaiming his message for everyone to hear, beginning in Jerusalem, and moving out into the world.

BUT.....and sometimes there is a but, Jesus knows that what he is asking of them will require much. Jesus knows that the message they are to take, might not always be received well. Jesus knows that he is asking them to take this message to the corners of the world...all nations, not just to people they know and with whom they are comfortable...people similar to themselves, but to all nations.

Are they ready? Not quite. Are they prepared? Not totally. Do they have what it takes? Not yet. Verse 49 of chapter 24 is not included in the lectionary reading for today, but it states, “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.”

They must wait to be equipped with the power from on high, the Holy Spirit. God will empower them for the task, but they must wait. And in their waiting, they continue to experience the risen Christ, to worship, to pray, to prepare for the mission ahead.

For Luke, the Holy Spirit empowers the church, the body of Christ, for its mission in the world. It is our mission.

When the disciples saw the hands and feet of Jesus, they knew where those feet had gone, the roads they traveled, for many times they were with him. They knew what his hands had done. They saw the strength, the gentleness, the compassion, the healing touch. They saw and knew from seeing with their own eyes what his hands did. Now they were to be his hands and feet. What an awesome task! Jesus knew they would need to be empowered in a special way.

We, too, wait, and wonder, and prepare ourselves, as we approach and anticipate Pentecost. How will the story unfold for us? Where is the Spirit leading us? Is a new wind blowing somewhere in your life, or in the life of our congregation? Is your mind open to new understandings of God’s plan for you? Is your heart soft and receptive to a new thing? or is your heart a heart of stone?

Barbara Brown Taylor closes her meditation with these words,

“You are witnesses of these things,” he told them before he left them, entrusting the world to their care. When that world looks around for the risen Christ, when they want to know what that means, it is us they look at. Not our pretty faces and not our sincere eyes but our hands and feet—what we have done with them and where we have gone with them. We are witnesses of these things. We still are: the body of Christ.”
(p. 123, “Hands and Feet”, Home by Another Way).


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