Fears, Doubts, Disbelief and Wonder
Fear, Doubts, Disbelief and Wondering
1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36b-48
1 John 3:1-7
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 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. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Luke 24:36b-48
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.”
Prayer – Gracious God, we so want to believe in the resurrection of the body of your Son, Christ Jesus; and yet, sometimes for the disciples, for us, seeing is believing. We have our fears like the disciples did; we have our doubts when life is unsettling, just like the disciples did; we stare at Jesus’ life, ministry, moments and miracles and still in our awe and disbelief, wonder if it can really be true. He comes to us, just as he did his disciples. He invites us to touch his wounds, to share a meal, and to hear him speak words of scripture and just like the disciples, perhaps our minds will be opened and we can then bear witness to the truth of his triumph – amen.
The Emmaus story from Luke’s gospel holds special meaning to me – not necessarily because of the story itself but because of a Jesus experience I had when I attended an Emmaus Retreat 40 years ago. During that retreat, arriving on Thurs evening and going through Sun afternoon I encountered Christ in ways I never had previously. People I had never met before were the hosts, four or five friends from my church were attending together and each of us was pretty skeptical and filled with uncertainty. They split us up in to table groups and there were leaders of each table group, there were people who spent the entire weekend making sure every need we had was met – getting us snacks, beverages, attending to us as if we were special just by showing up for the weekend. We spent time studying scripture, listening to talks about grace and life, discussing what we heard and had experienced – really getting lost in this ‘short course in Christianity.’ There were a few quiet moments for reflection, there were times of worship, of singing, of communion that culminated in a gathering on Sunday when we received letters of love and support that touched my heart in ways I never imagined. Teachers from my past, friends from home, family – my parents and others family members shared words of encouragement and love – it was almost as if Jesus had written countless words on letters and cards that reminded me of my belovedness. Despite my fears of the weekend, my doubts that the retreat could possibly rekindle my faith, my disbelief that anything beyond missing the first round of the NCAA tournament would come from this weekend, and then my wonder at the depth and breadth of God’s love expressed through ordinary people transformed my life beyond belief. It was a resurrection moment for me.
After meeting a few of his followers on the road to Emmaus and talking with them, sharing and interpreting from Moses to the present moment before breaking bread with them, these followers were totally clueless as to who Jesus was. But after sitting with them at the table and breaking bread with them their eyes were opened. Their fears, doubts, disbelief were transformed into wonder in the instant and they rushed back to let the disciples know that they had seen and talked and broken bread with the risen Christ.
After hearing from these followers, those scared, doubting and perhaps still disbelieving disciples were still talking about what they had heard when Jesus appeared to them. And just like last week’s gospel passage, Jesus finds his friends afraid and filled with doubts and disbelief of all that had occurred. His first words to them once again, Peace be with you – and once again the scared and startled disciples thought they were seeing a ghost, perhaps a figment of their imaginations. Jesus had to convince them that he has indeed been raised from that dead and that they are to be his witnesses, continuing his mission into the world. Combining last week and this week’s passages, perhaps we are being given the opportunity to repeat ourselves and gain a deeper understanding of the truth of Easter and its relevance for us as 21st century disciples.
Just like those early disciples, we are in the Sunday’s of Eastertide, which, in a way, is where the church has always been – post Easter. And during these Sundays we must reckon with what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means to us; listen to what Jesus said to his astonished, scared, doubting and disbelieving disciples immediately after his resurrection and ponder what his words to them may mean for us today.
Maybe we should begin by noting our own astonishment that crucified Jesus was not only raised from the dead but that he returned to his disciples and talked to them. Once again as Jesus appears to his scared, doubting and perhaps still disbelieving disciples, his first words to them are “Peace be with you.” I can imagine if Jesus were to show up right here in our midst this morning we would be filled with some serious worries and doubts and disbeliefs. So, I suppose it isn’t so surprising that he keeps saying to them and us today, Peace. Maybe his disciples felt badly about their desertion of Jesus at the cross, thinking that Jesus would deservedly be angry with them. Maybe they simply knew enough about Jesus to know that is he is in fact raised from the dead, then he would be just as demanding as he was before his crucifixion and resurrection.
Which unsurprisingly is what Jesus immediately does. He explains the scriptures to them, patiently showing them how the scriptures foretell all that has just occurred, even though they didn’t know it at the time. Jesus leads them in a bible study, explaining things to them they couldn’t get on their own.
Before Luke tells us of the meeting with Jesus and the disciples the evening of that first day, Luke tells his unique story of an encounter between Jesus and two disheartened disciples on the way to Emmaus. While this walk to and the meal at Emmaus is not read during Year B, it is useful to look at the two stories alongside one another comparing the differences and similarities.
Both of Luke’s stories narrate not only an encounter with Jesus but also a failure to recognize. Both stories feature an explanation in which the resurrection is interpreted in light of the scriptures. And both stories have a meal of bread in one case and fish in the other. The risen Jesus suddenly appears in the midst of his disciples, bidding them yet again peace to alleviate their fears, doubts and disbelief, while also demonstrating for them that he was not some kind of ghost, but had a physical resurrected reality.
Significantly, in our passage this morning Jesus directly and unambiguously tells his disciples that all of these events, ‘must be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.’ Jesus moves quickly in this appearance to his disciples to offering them peace – perhaps to quiet the fears, doubts and disbelief – and then commissions them as ‘witnesses of these things.’ As in other accounts of the resurrection, there is an integral connection between the recognition, ‘Christ has risen’ to the commission to ‘Go and tell.’
The risen Christ tells his wonder filled and astonished followers that it’s not enough for them to have seen and experienced his presence among them; they now must preach to all the world what they’ve seen. They must be witnesses. The resurrection is a public truth, a wonder that demands to be shared. A witness is somebody who tells what has been seen and heard. That’s the job, the main job, the risen Christ gives to his followers and disciples.
Have you ever wondered that even though you may have been around church all your life, sometimes you come to church and hear things that you didn’t expect to hear, especially if I am preaching. Maybe this morning’s gospel explains that phenomenon of auditory surprise – with the risen Christ free, present, roaming among us, revealing himself to us, well, expect to be unexpectedly surprised. Jesus is coming to us and teaching us.
And yet as wonderful as that is – to be here and receive God’s word, to have that word reach out and surprise you, to experience thereby the risen Christ at work in your soul – as wonderful as that it is, the risen Christ won’t leave things there with us passively receiving a word. He moves us from being a listener to being a witness. He tells us that what we have received from him here must be shared out in the world.
Martin Luther once said, ‘Preachers witnesses to the gospel on Sunday so that the congregation can witness to the gospel Monday through Saturday. If I thought you only were witnesses Mon thru Sat, then I wouldn’t be living out my calling anymore than you if you choose to passively be a listener only. My audience on Sunday is made up you who openly want to hear about Jesus. Our audience Mon thru Sat may not want to hear, may have all sorts of ways of refusing to hear. And still, Jesus makes us, commands us, to be sharers of his resurrection news, to show and tell what we’ve heard and seen. We are the good news of the love of Christ in our words and actions, just look at our hands and feet, just as Jesus asked his friends when he appeared to them.
We are the witnesses to these things today, not those first disciples, we are. Jesus told his disciples that they were the witnesses before he left them and entrusting the world to their care. When that world looks around for the risen Christ today, when they want to know what it means to be a follower of Jesus, it is us they look at. Not our pretty and wisdom filled faces, not our sincere eyes, but they look at how we use our hands and feet – what we have done with them and where we have gone with them. With wonder, we go out into the world, to share the great and amazing news to all of those who are scared, doubting and disbelieving – Christ is risen. We are the wondrous sharers of the good news – for we are indeed the Body of Christ – thanks be to God – amen.