Third Sunday of Easter

Third Sunday of Easter (B)

April 14, 2024

Text: Luke 24:36-49

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

            They thought they saw a spirit.  A ghost!  And so, they were startled and frightened.  Now, undoubtedly, they thought it was the spirit of the dead Jesus come to wreak vengeance upon them for deserting Him.  Just so, there is a profound theological truth latent in their fear.  If Jesus is still dead… or, perhaps, more to the point, if Jesus lives only as a spirit… then trouble and fear are the only alternatives.  For if Jesus is not risen from the dead, and that bodily, we are still in our sins.  And if we are still in our sins, God shall, indeed, wreak vengeance.

            But we know better… Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  Then again, do we know it?  We know it as an article of doctrine, but do we know it?  Don’t we, all too often, act as though Jesus lives only as a spirit, and that contained, safely, far away in heaven, with no real interaction with the flesh and blood reality of life in this world?  And don’t we sometimes even want that, because, if Jesus is just a spirit, we can ignore our doubts and fears until that day of reckoning is upon us.  We can do what we want, without His interference.  But then, what when we does appear?

            That is why, that first Easter evening, when Jesus is suddenly standing in the midst of His fearful disciples, He immediately speaks His Gospel, “Peace to you” (Luke 24:36; ESV), “Shalom” (and you remember what that means: Peace with God, therefore peace in your heart, sins forgiven, healing and wholeness, all things set right).  And then He shows them that He is not a mere spirit, not a ghost, but a Man, with a body.  See, here, my hands, and my feet.  Behold, the wounds, the holes left by the spikes.  I died.  I was crucified.  And that, for you.  But now I live.  Touch me, and see.  And not just, “it is I myself” (v. 39), but “I AM… Myself” (Krenz translation).  I AM… YHWH… God in human flesh.  Now, a spirit, a ghost, does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.  And that touches precisely the nerve of our doubt and fear.  Jesus does not live as a spirit, contained safely far away.  He is a flesh and blood Man, standing in our midst. 

            That is, at once, more frightening, and more consoling.  It is more frightening because of how real it all is.  Theology, religion, is not a system of theoretical concepts, much less soothing words of alternative reality to make us feel good and safe.  It is a concrete fact.  Our God is a Man, and He is here in the flesh, to deal with us in our flesh, and in real time.  If He does not come, therefore, speaking Peace, Shalom, we are, quite simply, doomed, and righteously so.  For all the times we have deserted Him.  For our every denial when faithfulness came at a cost.  For our every rejection of His will and His Word.  For huddling in fear of men, rather than God.

            But if He comes speaking Peace, Shalom, then a flesh and blood God is precisely the help and consolation we need.  A crucified God.  A Man, who is risen from the dead.  Because, if He is real, the Shalom is real.  It is as substantial as the flesh and bones of the Son of God. 

            And that means He is here, now, bodily, to touch your flesh with His own, thus to impart to you His life and his healing.  Incarnation: That God was born of the Virgin in our flesh…  Crucifixion: That the corpse on the crucifix is the dead body of God…  Resurrection: That the crucified Jesus did not merely arise to live in the hearts and minds of His disciples, or as a gnostic spirit, freed from the confines of the flesh… but in the body, now risen, glorified, eternally living and life-giving… These are of a piece, these creedal facts.  And they necessarily lead to the conclusion that, if our Lord Jesus is with us, as He says He is, He is with us in no less concrete a manner than bodily.  And that is to say, it really is His body and blood that you eat and drink in the Holy Supper.  And it really is His voice you hear in His Word.  Christology, what you believe about Christ, determines what you believe about the Sacrament, and the speaking and hearing of our Lord’s authoritative Word.  If Jesus accomplished your salvation, bodily, then He delivers His salvation to you, bodily.  There must be no Gnosticism about it, nor division of the Person who is at once divine and human, Spirit and body.  Even as He appeared, bodily, to the disciples on Easter evening, so He appears to you, bodily, here, under bread and wine, announcing His Peace, His Shalom.

            And then He eats.  “Have you anything here to eat?” (v. 41; ESV).  What on earth is the point of that?  Well, first of all, ghosts simply don’t eat food.  You need a body to bite and consume, right?  So, it is to prove He is really alive. 

            But it is more than that.  They give Him a piece of broiled fish, and He eats it.  Now, we may have expected Him to take bread and wine, and celebrate the Eucharist once more with His disciples.  That is certainly coming, and that will be the new reality for the congregation of disciples, from here on out, Sunday after Sunday.  He will join them (and us!) for the Feast.  This is assuredly a sign of that, but it is not that.  It is fish.  Why fish?  What is going on with the fish?

            It calls to mind, does it not, the disciples’ miraculous catch, when, at the Word of Jesus, they let down their nets, now so full that they began to break.  Henceforth, Jesus told them, they would be catching men (Luke 5:1-11).  It calls to mind the loaves and fishes with which the Lord fed the hungry crowds.  Five thousand here, four thousand there, not even counting the women and children, basket upon basket of pieces left over (Luke 9:10 ff; Matt. 15:32 ff.).  There is the parable of the net in Matthew 13 (47-50).  And, of course, there will be the repetition of the fishing miracle on the Sea of Tiberius… “Cast the net on the right side of the boat” (John 21:6), He will say, and, though the nets do not break, they will have trouble hauling the catch ashore… 153 large fish, and the charcoal fire, and Jesus, with His invitation, “Come and have breakfast” (v. 12).  Catching men like fish.  Feeding men with fish.  Fed by Jesus with fish.  This is why the fish became one of the earliest Christian symbols.  The Greek word for fish, ἰχθύς, became an acronym of Christian confession: Ἰησοῦς Χρῑστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ; that is, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”  It was an identifying symbol, that the ancient Christians might recognize one another. 

            But there is even more than that.  Don’t forget the sign of Jonah (Matt. 16; Luke 11), the great sign of our Lord’s death and resurrection.  As Jonah was swallowed by the fish, so our Lord was swallowed up by death and the grave.  And just as the fish spat Jonah out after three days, so, from the belly of the earth, our Lord emerged alive after three days.  And now, the risen Jesus swallows the fish.  Do you get it?  It is the great joke of Easter.  Death and the grave have been swallowed up by life.  And now, just as Jonah went and proclaimed the Word of the LORD to Nineveh, and they repented and believed, so Christ is proclaimed throughout the world, and many repent and believe.  And so live! 

            But not if Jesus is just a spirit.  Get that through your head.  It is only true if God’s dead body has been raised. 

            This is what all the Scriptures are about.  All His Words.  The Law of Moses.  The Prophets and the Psalms.  “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead” (Luke 24:46).  And that is what the Church proclaims for repentance and forgiveness to all the nations.  Because that is the preaching of the Holy Spirit, the Promise of the Father, the Power from on High. 

            Jesus died for you.  Jesus is risen for you.  Repent of your sins.  Believe this good news.  Your sins are forgiven.  Your death is undone.  Receive the Holy Spirit.  Be restored to the Father.  And behold the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  It is no mere spirit on the altar, in your midst.  It is a Man with flesh and bones.  Touch Him, and so see Him.  Eat Him and Drink Him.  And live no longer as though He is a God far away.  He is a God so near to you, His body invades yours.  And in that, there is life and Shalom.  Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.