Luke 24: 1-35
Christ is risen … a confession which is being uttered in hundreds of languages around the world today. It’s the Lord’s Day, and from the beginning those who had embraced this startling news gathered in worship and fellowship.
From the earliest days they shared a common meal, a love feast, in memory of Jesus who had died and mysteriously, miraculously was alive.
“For I received from the Lord what I also handed onto you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me…”
They remembered his life and teaching, and incredibly claimed that his savage death was the beginning of a new world.
Christians ever since have met in circumstances favourable and unfavourable. Bread is broken, wine shared and the scriptures retold. The heart of Christ’s body is common worship; celebrating the sacraments of baptism and eucharist; listening to, and interpreting the scriptures and being formed as a resurrection community.
On this Easter Day we recall this amazing story through Luke’s gospel. Throughout the life of Jesus twelve men have been his closest followers, each has been named. But, in the last hours they betray, deny, hide in fear and become like wraiths. They are dead!
From a distance women watching and mourning , women “who had followed him from Galilee” (Lk 23:49) They heard his final words and helplessly watched as Jesus’ body was removed from the cross and taken to for its final entombment.
On what became Good Friday they prepared spices and ointments to anoint a bruised and battered body. Then everything was on hold during the Sabbath…. and it was not until dawn on the Sunday that they went to the tomb to anoint the body. The tragedy of death is anointed with love, and the women’s names are revealed
Everything reported by the gospel writers remembers the disbelief, incredulity at the tomb. It wasn’t that many Jews didn’t believe in the afterlife. Those ancient songs, the psalms, affirmed the great love of God who removes sins “ as far as the east is from the west” centuries before the death of Jesus.
Back then people didn’t expect resurrection. According to Luke Jesus doesn’t appear to Pilate, or Judas, or the religious leaders who were out to destroy him. He wasn’t anticipated by Peter, or James or John. They all lived in our world and knew death meant death. A life was over, destroyed, trampled upon. It was time for the last rites. In this awareness Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary, Jesus’ mother and others made their solemn trek to the tomb.
So, when they came rushing back to the male disciples they didn’t believe a word. Alive? You’ve got to be kidding! “..these words seemed to them an idle tale…”
But Peter got up and went to check for himself. In doing so his life was changed, then others began exploring and talking with one another and suddenly there were a cluster of experiences which led to the growing conviction he has risen!
It was the existential encounter which turned the world upside-down, exploded all beliefs about what is possible and gave birth to the Jesus-movement. Our life and being, our beliefs and practices are all predicated on this impossible confession: Christ has died, Christ is risen!
But … many people doubt the Resurrection. Could it have happened? Isn’t it just a story? We live in a material world ( or so goes the common belief of our times). Dead men don’t rise. Death is death.
Right from the beginning the Resurrection was controversial. It was never self-evident. It wasn’t proof of life after death. It didn’t trump other religions. It wasn’t God’s proclamation that the world should become Christian. However it was an encounter which transformed the lives of those who ‘got up’ and began to explore this startling, sobering, transforming story of Jesus the Christ.
If Peter had been able to rush to the tomb with his newly acquired video camera what would he have captured on film? Would he have had proof? I suggest the answer is no, for the Resurrection is an existential experience. In the gospel stories we don’t have proofs, certainties or evidence. We have experiences, journeys and invitations. Luke tells of Emmaus Road as two grieving disciples trudge wearily from Jerusalem.
A stranger comes alongside them, and through many questions draws out their painful story. He weaves through it the witness of the Prophets. Eventually Emmaus is in sight and the sun is going down.
They invite the stranger to stay with them , although he seems anxious to keep on travelling. He accepts and they prepare to share a meal.
“When he was at table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him – and he vanished from their sight! They said to each other, Were our hearts not burning within us, while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
Here is Resurrection life – first hints of what becomes the fundamental formation of fellowship, eucharist, baptism, scriptures. Is the Resurrection proved beyond doubt? No. It never was and never will be – but practicing resurrection chooses to join in a journey, getting up and seeking the rumour he is not dead, but risen. It is putting on the clothes of Christ, responding to the call in every time and place.
We have no certainties, but we walk by faith in Christ. Through our worship, through baptism and holy communion, by exploring the meanings of the scriptures, through living this faith we participate in this resurrection body of Christ.
“He comes to us as one unknown, without a name,
as of old by the lakeside, he came to those men who knew him not.
He speaks to us the same words, “Follow thou me!”,
and sets us to the tasks which he has to fulfill for our time.
He commands. And to those who obey him, whether they be wise or simple,
he will reveal himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings
which they shall pass through in his fellowship,
and, as an ineffable mystery,
they shall learn in their own experience who he is.”
( Albert Schweitzer)