Opened Minds and Transformed Lives

Luke 24:36b-48

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."

They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

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."

And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"

They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

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."

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 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, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things.

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We are Easter people – Resurrection people.

The resurrection is the defining point of our faith.

We often place our focus on Christ’s crucifixion and death, on how Christ died for our sins.

 I wonder if the reason that we think and talk about that more than we do the resurrection is because we all understand death – or at least we have all been touched by it personally, directly, in one way or another. So death makes sense to us – it’s real for us all.

But the Good News of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is Risen, that He lives, that the resurrection happened…

 And despite the reality that resurrection is such a hard thing to understand – Christ’s resurrection truly is the transformative power of the Gospel – that God has conquered death, and we no longer need to fear it.

And this is transformative not just for when we die – but it changes every day of our lives, because if we truly believe it, then we live our lives differently because of it.

But it’s a hard thing to truly believe the resurrection.

And so it’s good that the Easter season lasts more than one Sunday – that there is a whole Eastertide season in our church calendar, going all the way up to The Day of Pentecost, at the end of May. This allows us to return week after week to the various scenes and stories in scripture of the resurrected Christ, and we can be right there with Christ’s beloved followers, as Jesus comes to them and they are seized by joy and amazement and disbelief and wonder, all that the same instant.

In this story at the end of the Gospel according to Luke, the writer is getting us ready for the sequel, which is the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Some call this the Book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit. They were both written by the same author.

Here we have Jesus once again suddenly in the midst of a group of his followers. The two who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus are telling the others what happened, when suddenly the risen Christ is right there with them.

As with the other resurrection stories we have read this season, the disciples are startled, terrified, still disbelieving even in their joy and their wondering. And just like the other stories, Jesus greets them with “Peace be with you”, and he offers evidence that he is not a ghost – “look at my hands and feet. Give me something to eat.”

When he begins to speak, he says this:

“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you.”

While I was still with you.

This is implying that even as he is present with them now, that things have somehow changed – that he is somehow changed. The resurrection is more than mere resuscitation. It is new life.

John’s gospel alludes to this as well when Jesus says to Mary “don’t cling to me for I have not yet ascended – but tell the others that I am ascending.” Many interpret this to mean that Jesus is in the process of transforming – and that this is what explains his appearing to the disciples in rooms that are locked tight to keep people out.

But the next words he says to them have caught my attention and have been the focus of my prayer and thought and meditation this week.

He opened their minds to understand the scripture.

You see, we can’t just read the scriptures to fully understand their meaning for our lives.

We need our minds to be opened by Christ.

We need the voice of the Risen Christ to speak the scriptures into our hearts.

We need to understand the scriptures through the lens of the resurrection, through the risen Christ.

What does this mean? How do we do this?

The specifics that Christ focused in on, according to this passage and the other gospels that recall this time, can help us know how we, too, should focus.

In this gospel, Christ shares with them that the Messiah is to suffer, and to rise from the dead – in other words, to conquer death;

and that repentance and forgiveness is to be proclaimed in his name.

That, as witnesses to the forgiveness and saving love of the risen Christ, we are sent by Christ to live as forgiven and forgiving people, to set aside fear in order to obey Christ’s commands. And Christ knows that we cannot do this alone – it is only by surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit that this is possible.

This is how the Risen Christ opens their minds and interprets the scriptures according to Luke’s gospel.

In Matthew’s gospel, this interpretation of the scriptures takes shape in the words of what we call The Great Commission – “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember – I am with you always – to the end of the age.

Jesus calls us to be witnesses of and for him in the world – to show and tell the Good News so that others will want to know him too, to be touched by his love so they will want to follow and obey. We are called, first, to obey what He has commanded us, to put on our oxygen masks first so that we can help others, to forgive so others can understand the healing grace of forgiveness.

And then in John’s gospel, the focus is placed on what Christ has commanded us over and over again – to love one another.

This is the story where Jesus asks Simon Peter three times – Do you love me?

Of course the three times mirrors those three times that Peter denied.

And in reply to Peter’s earnest, pleading answer, Yes, Lord. Yes Lord, I love you. Yes Lord, you know how much I love you…”, Jesus says,

“Feed my sheep. Tend my lambs. Feed my sheep. Follow me – no matter where it takes you.”

So if we look across these stories of the resurrected Jesus and his instructions to his disciples, now that he has their attention and now that they can begin to hear and understand his commands, now through the lens of the resurrection, here is what we have:

·      to proclaim repentance and forgiveness to all nations, all people;

·      to share what you have witnessed about the saving love of Christ in your life, both in word and in deed;

·      to make disciples by helping others to see what life looks like in obedience to Christ’s commandments –

o  (and what were Christ’s commandments again?)

§  to love God with everything you have and everything you are

§  to love your neighbor as yourself

·      to feed his sheep,

o  to tend his lambs,

o  to follow him, no matter where it leads.

When we live lives filled with love an forgiveness for others, no matter what, we are showing the amazing grace of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, the steadfast love of God.

We are showing, revealing, reflecting what a transformed life looks like.

We understand and trust this only by hearing scripture with our minds opened by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I came across a story this week that was shared by the man who founded StoryCorps – which is a nonprofit founded 11 years ago that, so far, has given over 10,000 Americans the chance to record audio interviews about their lives. A copy of each 40 minute conversation is given to those who made it, and another copy goes to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, where it will be preserved for generations to come.

Short excerpts of some of these stories are shared each Friday on NPR’s Morning Edition radio show, and are available by podcast.

The founder of StoryCorps, David Isay, recently shared what he calls “the seven stories he just can’t get out of his head”.

We are going to hear one of these stories, a three minute excerpt from a conversation between a mother, Mary Johnson, and Oshea Israel, the man who murdered her child.

(StoryCorps Clip)

You see, following Christ is about radical forgiveness, unconditional love, setting aside judgment in order to do so.

It’s about seeing the circumstances and opportunities of each new day with eyes of faith, obeying Christ’s commands and revealing Christ’s love to others, through our own Acts, which will be initiated and strengthened by the Holy Spirit, if we open our minds and hearts to let it happen.

It’s that kind of radical trust, love, forgiveness, mercy, and obedience that causes our lives to be transformed into something we could scarcely believe. We are transformed into resurrection people – Easter people.

May it be so for us all, now and always.