Luke 24:36-48
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 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.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in their presence.
44 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.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 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, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
Sermon “Christ Among Us”
The disciples are so human, aren’t they? I love that about them. They aren’t painted as perfect... The Bible doesn’t present them as heroes to whom, in comparison, we could never hope to measure up. No. The Bible presents them as normal, flawed human beings who are doing their best to follow Christ, people who make mistakes and learn from them, as we are called to do.
So, when the resurrected Christ appears among them and greets them with words of Peace, they don’t react as perfect people might. They don’t immediately embrace him with joy. To put it simply, they freak out. In the words of our Scripture text, Luke 24, verse 37, “They were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost.” When I read those words this week, the image that came to my mind was that they were “besieged by fear.” Fear, like an invading army, surrounded them and was in the process of forcing a surrender.
Do you ever feel like that? Besieged by fear? I know I do sometimes, and I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling. In fact, Jean talked about fear a little bit last week in her sermon. There are many things to be afraid of these days. All we need to do is listen to the news for a few minutes and there’s enough to freak anyone out. Although more and more people are being vaccinated, Covid 19 still wreaks havoc--on our health and on our economy. Gun violence is rampant. Unarmed black men continue to be shot by police at a rate twice as high as unarmed white men (Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, p. 73). AND police are often disrespected and sometimes killed in the line of duty. I could go on and list other things that cause us fear--like Global warming-- but I think you get the picture. Being besieged by fear has become a constant state for most people these days, as it was for the disciples of Jesus’ day.
And, here’s the interesting--though disheartening--thing about fear. When it has us in its grip, it colors everything we see and can lead us to misinterpret facts and act out of ignorance instead of reality. The disciples, having witnessed Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, beating, and horrible death, were, understandably, afraid for their own lives, worried about what the future would hold, worried about what the religious and civil authorities could and would do to them. Their fear had so colored their interpretation of the world, it made them forget much--most??-- of what Jesus had told them, including the fact that he had to suffer and die, including the prophecy that he would be raised from the dead. They simply did not remember these things. So, when the risen Christ appeared, the disciples were filled with fear and misinterpreted the facts and jumped to the wrong conclusion--they assumed they were seeing a ghost.
Do we ever do that? (Not see a ghost--that’s another sermon topic for another time…) But being besieged by fear, do we ever misinterpret facts, unconsciously let fear affect our interpretation of reality? Do we ever jump to conclusions, assuming that we already know exactly what we are looking at without bothering to “fact check” our assumptions? I know I do sometimes. How many times do I listen to only part of a news story--or read only half-way through an article in the paper, and stop with disgust, muttering unkind things about the people whose opinions are diametrically opposed to mine, assuming they are ignorant idiots? How many times do I NOT bother to put myself in their shoes or ask what fear might be coloring their viewpoint--or ask myself what fear might be coloring mine? I won’t ask for a show of hands--well, I could--because in the comfort of your own home, with no one but your own family members or pets watching, you might want to raise your hand. Do any of you ever do this? Misinterpret facts or jump to conclusions based on fear or incomplete information or on assumptions that you haven’t bothered to completely fact check? I do. Not always, but sometimes.
And, if we ever do it, it’s important to admit it so that we can change. Because here’s the thing: if we don’t change, the divisions in our country and in our families and in our churches are going to keep getting worse. Fear and our reaction to it separates us from each other--and perhaps even from God.
The good news is that there is a remedy for divisions that are caused by fear. Jesus addresses it in this passage. His first question to the disciples in our reading-- Luke chapter 24, verse 38-- after they react with fear and misinterpret facts is this, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” That is the question that we each need to ask ourselves when we feel fear or doubt. What is causing it? Because if we don’t ask ourselves that question, we’re never going to be able to change our behavior.
Psychologist Alfred Adler said, and I’m paraphrasing here, “It’s not what happens to us that determines our behavior, it’s what we tell ourselves about what happens to us.” [REPEAT.] So, if I tell myself, “People whose opinions are diametrically opposed to mine are all a bunch of ignorant idiots,” then I can more easily justify having nothing to do with them or treating them with disrespect when I do engage. However, if I ask myself the question Jesus raised, “’Why are you frightened and why do doubts arise in your heart’ when you hear those opinions?” Then my behavior could be a whole lot better. I might more often read through a whole newspaper article and seek to understand other people’s opinions. I might stop and ask people whose opinions differ from mine, “Would you tell me why you think that?” and really listen. And I might learn something I didn’t know. And I might see that their behavior is based in fear, as mine sometimes is. And I might begin to feel more compassion than anger.
When Jesus interacted with the disciples, he invited them to stay and talk even though they were afraid. And not just talk. He invited them to reflect on their own feelings and listen to him and pay closer attention to what was actually happening around them. He invited them to “Look” at his hands and feet and “see that it is I myself.” He invited them to touch him. To engage with him. To feed him some fish. (I love that detail about the fish--it points to the power of food to bring people of faith together… but that’s yet another sermon topic for another time.) For this sermon, suffice it to say that Jesus is inviting the disciples to use all of their senses--sight, smell, sound, touch, taste--to stay in the present moment with him. To examine the facts that were right there in front of them that they were missing. And then, once they started to do that, once they had reached a calmer state, then he shared with them some more facts. Luke 24, verse 45. He led them through the Scriptures. Explained the meaning of the prophecies about him. And opened their minds to understand.
And that is, actually, the key to it all. Fear and assumptions close our minds. And once our minds are closed, we become more and more divided from other people. We, all of us, need God to open our minds
There is a lot of talk today about unity in our country, but it is not easy to achieve, is it? It has to begin with a willingness to want it. It has to begin with a willingness to change, even a little bit. It has to begin with a prayerful stance, asking God to open our minds. As verse 47 of today’s scripture tells us, it has to begin with repentance and forgiveness on everyone’s part. Not giving up our heart-felt convictions that are based in facts, but being willing to admit that we are not perfect. We don’t, any of us, have ALL of the facts. Like the disciples, like our enemies, we too are at least somewhat fearful-- and that fear colors, at least a little bit, all of the things that we see. That’s not to say we are all equally wrong or right, but we all have something to learn from those we see as other.
To use a couple of examples I heard this week, can I, as a white person acknowledge that it was a lot easier for me, as a parent of a teenager back in the day, to let my white, teenage step-son go out at night wearing a hoodie because I didn’t have to worry or give him “The Talk” of how to behave if he was pulled over by police? Can I, as a person who believes that our criminal justice system needs extensive reform also acknowledge that it is very scary these days to be a police officer and wonder whether people are going to target me as someone on whom to vent their rage against the system?
We live in very scary times. We are all besieged by fear to one extent or the other. As Christians, can we put ourselves in Jesus hands, pray for minds and hearts to open, examine our own fears, see which fears are based in facts and which are not, and then act in ways that promote Christ’s Peace? May it be so…
Let us pray…
Loving God, You call us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and it is hard. Hard to love when we feel attacked. Hard to be respectful of other people’s humanity when they are not respectful of ours. Hard to speak up for justice and to keep our minds and hearts open when others seem more interested in putting us down than in listening to what we have to say. And it is hard to address fear in others when we are feeling it ourselves.
O God, help us to remember that we are not alone. Help us to remember that the spiritual presence of Christ is among us and will grant us the Peace that passes all understanding if we ask for it. So, O God, boldly we ask for it now. Let Christ’s amazing Peace descend on us like a soft spring rain. Let it water our hearts, minds and souls, so that the hard shell of fear will begin to break open; and the seeds of hope, love and unity will begin to sprout and grow into something beautiful.
We pray all this in the name of the Risen Christ, whose Spirit still lives and works among us, and whose perfect love casts out all fear, Amen.
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA