Luke 24:36-49[1]
Last week we talked
about why faith isn’t easy. I think there’s another reason why faith isn’t easy
for most of us. We like to be in control of our lives. We believe that if we
just work hard enough, we will be able to “wrangle” life to turn out the way we
want it. Life tries to teach us time and again that it really doesn’t work that
way. But we’re persistent folks. At least I am. Or perhaps I should say I can
be pretty stubborn at times. And I can “wrangle” with the best of them! I’ve
spent long years stuck in a rut of trying to push my way through the doors of
life only to realize that the sign says “pull”! Surrendering my notions of
control, accepting life as it is, not what I would have it be, and learning to
“pull” instead of “push” have been challenging lessons for me.
If we pay close enough
attention, we find that the Bible calls us to do just that: to let go our
illusions of control and surrender our lives into the hands of the one who
truly knows what’s best for us and has the power to accomplish that! In
Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus began his preaching ministry with the Beatitudes. In
our Wednesday night study this week, we saw how Jesus invites us to view “the
part of us that is weak, broken, or poor” as “the place where something new can
begin.”[2] That may make us a bit uncomfortable, but the only way to open ourselves to
faith is to recognize that we don’t have it all down!
When we compare our
Gospel lesson from Luke with the other Gospels, we find an interesting
development in the Easter story. In Mark’s Gospel, all that’s necessary to
proclaim that Christ is risen is the empty tomb. Matthew and John add to the
empty tomb the appearances of the risen Christ, and the disciples respond with
joy, though we’re reminded that “some doubted” (Matt 28:17). But in Luke’s
Gospel, when the risen Lord appears to them and says “peace be with you,” every
one of Jesus’ own hand-picked disciples respond with fear, doubt, disbelief,
and amazement. They even thought they were seeing a ghost (Lk 24:37)! It sounds
like they responded to the risen Jesus no differently than they responded to
Jesus in his ministry!
There’s a bit of irony
here, though. In comparison with the other Gospel accounts of Jesus’
appearances after his resurrection, the story in Luke’s Gospel seems to go
“above and beyond” to demonstrate that Jesus was really alive, and that he
truly was present with them in some kind of bodily form. In an interesting
parallel to the story of Thomas, he invites them to touch him and see that “a
ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Lk 24:39). Then,
not only does Jesus show them his “hands and his feet” (Lk 24:39), but he also
eats a piece of broiled fish in their presence (Lk 24:42-43)![3] It would seem that all of this was meant to dispel any lingering doubts or
disbelief they had. But the irony is that it doesn’t! I think one of the points
of our lesson for today is that it takes something more than the message of the
good news, it even takes something more that an experience with the risen
Christ, to find faith.
That “something more”
is that Jesus had to “open their minds to understand the scriptures” (Lk
24:45). That might seem like a strange “sticking point” for those who had
followed Jesus and heard him teach. But if you look at how the rest of the NT
describes faith, it’s a combination of factors. Faith results from a personal
encounter with Christ. But faith also arises as the words of Scripture are
brought to life—not only in our minds but also in our hearts. And while the
disciples gathered in that room had Jesus to “open” their hearts and minds, for
most of us, that’s the work of the Spirit. Faith awakens as we encounter the
living Christ through the word of the Lord as the Spirit brings it to life for
us and opens our hearts to believe.
In a way, Luke’s story
of Easter is all about “openings.”[4] It begins with women discovering that the tomb was opened (24:2). The disciples
who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus had their eyes “opened” so they could
recognize him (Lk 24:31). As they were returning to tell the others, they were
awed by the fact that their hearts were “burning” while Jesus was “opening the
scriptures” for them (Lk. 24:32). And here, Jesus “opened their minds to
understand the scriptures.” Their eyes were “opened” for them, their hearts
were “opened” for them, and their “minds” were opened for them. All of that had
to happen for them to be able finally to have the faith to rejoice on that
first Easter Sunday (Lk 24:52).
Opening
our eyes, opening our hearts, and opening our minds isn’t something that comes
easily. We have certain ways of seeing things and we have certain ways of
thinking that we insist “should” be true. I know in my life it took being
broken for me to be able to open myself up to truly have faith. Not faith
that’s easy and convenient, but the faith that enabled me to let go of my fears,
my efforts to “wrangle” life my way, and my stubborn persistence that was only
keeping me trapped in a prison of my own making. When God brought me to the end
of myself, the Spirit opened my eyes, my heart, and my life to a level of faith
I had never known. And I hope that—even if it means facing more challenges to
grow—I will continue to remain open to faith.
[1] ©
2021 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, Ph. D. on 4/18/2021 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2]
Henri Nouwen, Following Jesus: Finding
Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety, p. 35.
[3] Only
here in the entire Gospel tradition do we hear of the risen Jesus eating food.
John 21:5 mentions food, but doesn’t say Jesus ate it.
[4]
Cf. F. Bovon, Luke 3, 395: “The
process, however, is not merely intellectual. … The transformation involves
entire persons, especially their inner being.”
No comments:
Post a Comment