You are my witnesses… Luke 24:36b-48
This story comes on the heels of the story of the Road to Emmaus. The news that Jesus lives is good news for everyone. Jesus joins two disciples as they go home after the crucifixion amid subsequent stories of Jesus’ resurrection. He interprets the events of the weekend through the prophecy of the Scriptures, the Old Testament, demonstrating how it all was necessary. As Jesus will tell the eleven, his life, death and resurrection are only understandable through the Old Testament. At the table, Jesus reveals himself in the breaking of bread. Excited and confused, the two, together, returned to Jerusalem to witness to their Jesus experience. This is where our reading today picks up. They are gathered, discussing this appearance, Jesus enters the scene with the simple words, “Peace be with you.” Where anxiety runs high and questions run deep, the peace of Christ enters through the presence of Jesus.
This is a second time when Jesus is seen as a ghost or phantom. Jesus walks on the turbulent waters to the disciples in the boat. As they cried out in fear, Jesus enters the storm tossed boat and says, “Do not be afraid, it is I.” When events throw life into imbalance and rough waters, Jesus declares “don’t be afraid, I am here,” “Pease be with you.” Jesus brings peace of mind and reduces fear, or better said “assurance.”
All that Jesus does gives proof of the reality of the resurrection. He shows them his hands and feet, he expresses hunger and then physically eats the broiled fish in front of them. All Jesus does is to alleviate doubt and create faith by the simple task of witnessing the risen Christ. It is this experience and subsequent exclamation, “We saw him,” that makes these eleven and their companions eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. It is this resurrection appearance that becomes the center of their preaching…”We saw him.” It is the resurrection and the experience of the individual believer and the community of believers that is still the crux and foundation of faith.
So how do we connect that event with those who are still locked up in fear and doubts, being disrupted by havoc of living? How do others come to experience the risen Christ, Jesus’ hands and feet, where his physical hands and feet are not present?
Jesus does not appear in our midst to eat broiled fish or roast beef or even fish sticks. No one has the opportunity to touch and see the marks of the nails and the spear wound. So how is the presence of Christ real to the world?
Jesus is present through his followers. His presence is seen in soup kitchens, around family meal tables, church meal tables, and around altar tables. Yesterday, we experienced the presence of the risen Christ around the baptismal font and the altar table as four members of Mike and Jeanette Taylor’s family received the sacrament of Holy Baptism. About twenty of us joined to experience, to witness Jesus serving up forgiveness of sins and God’s adoption of four daughters.
We can see the wounds of Jesus in the bodies and lives of others when we enter into their pain and suffering, fears and doubts, tortured and abused lives. It is there Christ is present to bring peace and assurance through the physical appearance…the tangible witness of his followers in the proclamation of Christ’s resurrection and our own experience of that in our lives. Through our witness we are Jesus witnesses. Witnesses of the most basic characteristic of God and God’s actions in Jesus…love as shown in the resurrection. A resurrection that every day of our lives. Each day a new morning with new mercies which we experience and share with those around us.
We do not witness alone, we have the witness of other “Mary Magdalenes, Joannas, disciples and others.” Note also that Jesus does not stop talking at verse 48, but witnesses to what makes it possible to be witnesses -- the promise of the Spirit who empowers us to be witnesses. All lives, on every level, need resurrection witnesses. For the good news is… for everyone!
Amen.
