Sunday Sermon 4/22/12

In today's gospel, Luke 24: 36-48, Christ appears to the disciples after the brilliant episode on the road to Emmaus. With the Acts reading, it is stunning.

Christ appears and the disciples are not happy or justified, they are terrified. Only after being guided through the process of belief are they relieved, then believing. Initially they believed him a ghost. (The biblical humor never stops, regardless of the circumstances: They thought Him more likely a ghost than risen.) Christ accepts this goofiness. He allows them to examine Him--solidifying the idea of resurrection of the body--and then He asks for food. This wonderful gesture, as He certainly was not hungry, is an effort to humanize this moment, to allow them assimilate the event. He returns what is left of the fish to them!

Now that the disciples have been reconciled to the truth, He explains His life on earth through the filter of the Old Testament. This is a bit sticky as modern Christianity views the old testament as a period of temporary insanity where a hostile and belligerent people are led by an angry god. But Christ is not talking about them, He is talking about Himself. Rejection, suffering, death and resurrection were prophesied and these prophesies came true through Him.

Then, as in Emmaus, He translates the Old Testament for them. This is a very telling moment; somehow God must translate the things of God for us. Even the disciples, who have seen the life of Christ with their own eyes, cannot quite get it without divine help. These great mysteries inspire great skepticism and skepticism's obverse, belief, but not without help.

Then Christ completely turns the discussion on its head and rejects the isolation and xenophobia of the Old Testament and says the gospel is to be taught to all nations. This must have been a bombshell to the disciples but, after what they have seen, they probably were numb.

Peter, in the Act of the Apostles, scolds the Jews for their rejection of Christ. "You...desired a murderer to be granted unto you. But the author of life you killed,.." Then , two paragraphs later, Peter says, ""And now, brethren, I know you did it through ignorance.."

So the terrible rejection and death of Christ is immediately forgiven and the disciples turn to the future.