Our gospel lesson is from Chapter 24 of Luke. In the beginning verses, the women visit the tomb on Easter morning, are told Jesus is risen and Peter runs to the tomb. Later Jesus appears to the two men on the road to Emmaus and is made known in the breaking of the bread. These men immediately return to the disciples and tell them of their encounter with the risen Lord. As they are discussing this, Jesus appears for the first time to the disciples.
An elderly woman made her living selling artificial fruit. One day a customer complained the fruit she sold was not realistic enough. She pointed to an apple, saying it was too red, too round and too big to be a real apple. At that point, the artificial fruit lady picked up the apple and proceeded to eat it.
The resurrection of Jesus, throughout the years, has been critically examined, judged by authorities, and editorialized by writers, and the conclusion of most is that it is simply an event which cannot be proven and probably too good to be true. It may look like an apple, but in actuality, it is artificial fruit, they conclude. But if you will pick it up and take a bite, you come to know that he really did rise from the grave. He is alive. He is listening to our prayers. He is ready to serve when that service deals with the human heart in need of a shepherd’s guidance and love.
The question I want to explore this third Sunday of the Season of Easter, is does the bodily resurrection of Jesus matter? We discussed that last week in Adult Education as we explored the resurrection passages. You are invited to join us next week. As Christians, the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of our faith, the moment we know that God’s love and purpose have victory over death and gives us hope in every broken place of our lives. With the rise of science, the skepticism of our culture, I think we sometimes think this is more symbolic than real. Or that Jesus returned only as a spirit, not his real body. So today we will look at the meaning of Jesus being raised from the dead in body and spirit.
Last week we heard the account of doubting Thomas and how he could only believe after putting his finger in the marks in Christ’s hands and in his side. The disciples’ testimony was not enough for Thomas. But the physical proof of touching his Lord is what convinced him. He trusted his senses, the sense of touch and seeing the wounds that made Jesus’ resurrection real. Proclaiming Jesus, “My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28).
Jesus appears to the disciples sharing all of himself and allowing the disciples to experience him with all of their senses. They see his body and hear his voice offering them peace.
Their response? They wonder if they are seeing a ghost. This word ghost gets at a longtime discussion about how Jesus returned. Did he return only in spirit form or was he physically raised. Heresies formed over such questions. The Gnostics believed Jesus to be only raised in spirit, but not in form. Yet Jesus addresses this issue in our text. Jesus invites the disciples to touch and see his hands and his feet to know that he really is alive in full body. Could you touch a ghost? Absolutely not. Jesus even says, “Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (39). Touching Jesus made real God’s power over death. Touching Jesus means their Savior and Lord is alive. Touching Jesus declares the resurrection!
John Smylie notes, “The disciples see him, they hear him speaking, and now they have the opportunity to touch him but they still find themselves disbelieving. What will it take for the disciples to believe the wonder of their Lord’s resurrection? Perhaps we could ask the same question of ourselves. What does it take for us to know and believe and allow the truth of Jesus Christ rising from the dead to impact our lives? In a sense, our Lord is moving from the abstract to the concrete as he directs the disciples’ attention and focus towards touch, and then taste. Vision and hearing are senses that are outside of us. Both of them are somewhat abstract. We take in sights and sounds and interpret them against earlier experiences to try and make sense of what we see and hear.
Touch, on the other hand, gets us more involved. In a way, touch is a more intimate sense. Our Lord invites his disciples into a continuing intimate relationship with him. No doubt he had touched them, and they had touched him as they gathered in prayer, walked together throughout the land of Israel, and embraced when they had been apart and greeted one another again… In resurrected form, our Lord invited his disciples to reconnect with an intimacy that they had known with him in the past. Through touch, the disciples now were beginning to experience a new feeling, the feeling of joy” (Sermons.com, the Five Senses)
Jesus sensing their joy coupled with disbelief takes it a step further; asking the disciples for food. They hand him some broiled fish. To understand this fully, we need to know that in the ancient world it was a truism that ghosts could not eat and digest food. So, Jesus’ ability to do so in the presence of the disciples is a powerful proof that he is real and not a ghost. In fact, Jesus ate food on four occasions after the resurrection (Luke 24:30, 42-43; John 21:12-13; Acts 1:4). This simple act of eating is one that recalls all the meals that Jesus shared with his disciples, with sinners and outcasts, with the people in power. Jesus took them back in a visceral way to the last supper and the last time they shared a meal. In much the same way, earlier that day on the road to Emmaus Jesus ate with followers. First, he shared the meaning of scriptures and their hearts burned. Then scripture declares, “He became known to them in the breaking of the bread” (Lk. 24:35). The risen Lord became known to the disciples through the senses especially touch and taste.
Jesus shared these resurrection moments with the disciples so that they too could say, “My Lord and My God.” He appeared many times to the disciples in different places: the garden, the Emmaus Road, the seashore, the Upper Room. He witnesses to them that he is alive, this guy back from the dead with a body. He isn’t content to send them a postcard from heaven: HAVING A GREAT TIME. WISH YOU WERE HERE. No. He shows up among them as his own witness. He gives them proofs, allowing them to touch him, and eat with them declaring he is fully present in body and spirit.
Jesus comes in a physical body to show the disciples he is real, the resurrection he promised is real. But it does not stop there. Jesus continues to be present with you and me in spirit so that we can see him on the faces of those we serve in his name, in the lives of those who are touched by his love, in the communion we share at his table. Jesus came to the disciples in body allowing them to see, hear, touch and taste the reality of the resurrection. He did so, to motivate them to go and tell, to share the truth of God’s plan for redemption and forgiveness. Because the disciples touched Christ’s hands and feet we get to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. I will leave you with these words from St. Theresa of Availa, a Spanish mystic who lived in the 1500’s
“Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.”
