Third Easter - April 30, 2006     

A rather large group of college young people were celebrating the end of finals with a keg party way out in the woods.  All of a sudden a thunder storm with heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightening interrupted them.  Two young men ran about 10 minutes in the pouring rain and finally reached their car.  They jumped in, started it up, and headed down the road, laughing and, of course, finishing one beer after the other.

All of a sudden an old man’s face appeared outside the passenger window, and he tapped lightly on the window.   The young man on the passenger side screamed out, “Ahhhhh!  Look at my window!  There’s an old guy’s face there!  Looks like a ghost!”

The old man knocked again, so the driver said, “Well, open the window a little and ask him what he wants!”  So, the passenger rolled his window down part way and, scared out of his wits, said, “What do you want?”

The old man softly said, “Do you have any cigarettes?”

The passenger looked at the driver and said, “He wants a cigarette.”

“Well, give him a cigarette!  HURRY!” the driver replied.

So he fumbled around with the pack and hands the old man a cigarette and yells to the driver, “Step on it!”  He quickly rolled up the window.

Now going about 80 miles an hour, they calm down, and they start to laugh again, and the passenger said, “What do you think of that?”

The driver said, “I don’t know.  How could that be?  I am going pretty fast.”

Then all of a sudden, again there is a knock, and there is the old man again.

“Ahhhhh!  There he is again!” the passenger yelled.

“Well, see what he wants now?” the driver yelled.

He rolled down the window a little ways and shakily said, “Yes?  What now?”

“Do you have a light?” the old man asked quietly.

The driver throws a lighter over to the passenger who tossed it out the window at him and rolled up the window and yelled, “Step on it harder!”

They are now going about 100 miles an hour and finish off another beer, trying to forget what they had just seen and heard.  Suddenly, there is another knock on the passenger window.

“OH, MY GOD!  HE'S BACK!”

The passenger rolled down the window and screams in stark fear, “What do you want?”

The old man replied, “Y’all want some help getting out of the mud?”

No doubt, we all need some help getting out of the mud from time to time or we will if we live long enough.  It is the price we pay for being loved enough by God to be given free will. 

The disciples were startled and terrified to see the face of Jesus the Christ standing among them again.  He has to assure them that he really is the same person.  “See that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bone as you see that I have.”

In Luke’s telling of the Good News and the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus eating is crucial.  In John touching is the preferred method for establishing who he is.  He had eaten with them many times.  Eating together was an important time for Jesus and such times often gave him an opportunity to teach, but fellowship was the primary thing.

In Luke’s Gospel Jesus comes and stands before his followers, tells them not to be afraid, shows them his wrists, feet, and side, and extends the peace of God to them.  But, it is not until he asks for something to eat that they really see who it is standing with them.  Something about the manner of eating, the way he handled food, the way he chewed, and the way he shared with those around gave them the clear clue to his identity.

The resurrection appearance was intended to do three things for those who were his followers.  That truth applies with equal force in our own day.   The first thing is that this shows the reality of the resurrection.  The risen Lord is not a phantom or hallucination.  He was and is real.  The Jesus who died on the cross is in truth the Christ of the resurrection.  This continuing reality we call the church is not founded on dreams of the disordered minds of men and women.  It is not based on the visions of fevered eyes and longing hearts.  It is based squarely on the one who in actual historical fact faced, fought, and conquered death and rose again.  The real message if the cross is that there are no bones on it.  We do not have a shrine that can be venerated and worshipped.  We do not have a grave we can visit and place flowers on it.  We have a victorious Lord who is alive and wants more than anything to be in a personal relationship with every person in the world.

The resurrection remains the distinctive characteristic of the Christian faith in comparison to the other great religions of the world.  And it remains a stumbling block to many.  The Lord Jesus becomes the Christ for the disciples as he shows them the reality of the resurrection.

Secondly, the resurrection appearance is to show the necessity of the cross.  It was the cross to which all scriptures looked forward.  The cross was not forced on God, it was not an emergency measure when all else had failed or when the scheme had all gone wrong.  Part of the risk that pure love takes is always freedom.  Adam used his freedom to attempt to become like God.  The misuse of that freedom raised an invisible cross in the heart of God and his plan of redemption was that the invisible cross had to be made visible in history.  In this visible cross that God erected in history is the one place on earth that time and eternity intersect.  Heaven and earth merge for that time on Calvary.  God’s love is made manifest.

Finally, the resurrection reminds the disciples, then and now, of the urgency of the task.  It is out to others that the call to repentance and the offer of forgiveness must go.  The church was not left to live forever in the upper room.  Yes, that is the safest place to stay, but it is not where God wants the church.  We are sent into the world to demonstrate in word and deed the truth of this message.  The church must always be missionary or it is not the church.  After the upper room came the worldwide mission of the church.  That task has not been canceled in the 20 plus centuries since the first appearance of the risen Lord.

A word of caution needs to be given at this point.  The secret of power for the first disciples was to wait upon God and the power that comes from on high.  Waiting in Jerusalem or in Bedford is not easy, but action without prayerful preparation is doomed to failure.  Going off without the power from on high, without community involvement in discerning God’s will, has led many to tragedy.  That applies to the body politic as to the body ecclesiastical.  Waiting and praying is not a waste of time but a power-filled time, remembering always that God keeps all promises.

The Lord Jesus Christ makes another resurrection appearance today as he presides at the Holy Eucharist that we may know the reality of the resurrection, the necessity of the cross, and the urgency of the task before us.   That leads to a life that is far more rewarding than just spinning our wheels.  Amen.