The Touchable Truth of Easter

Jesu Juva

St. Luke 24:36-49                                              

April 14, 2024

Easter 3B                        

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        How do you know whether something is true or not?  How do you know it’s not a “deep fake” generated by artificial intelligence?  How do you know it’s not misinformation or disinformation—or pure propaganda?  Is it reality, or virtual reality?  How do you know it’s not a lie?

        How do you know whether something is true or not—especially when that something is the resurrection of the dead?  We believe in the resurrection of the body.  That’s the whole point of this joyful Eastertide.  The body of Jesus is risen from the dead.  And our bodies will be raised on the last day—guaranteed by Jesus, who is the firstfruits of them that sleep.  But how do we know it’s true?

        All four of the gospels record the resurrection of Jesus.  The final chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all deal with the hard evidence of the resurrection—each with its own unique accents:  The open, empty tomb.  The folded burial clothes.  The Savior’s wounded hands and side.  The appearances to the eyewitnesses.  The gospel writers are careful to lay out all of the evidence for you—and for the whole world—that this Jesus is the crucified and risen Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of God—and He is alive forevermore.

        Today we hear from the pen of Saint Luke.  And in Luke’s gospel, the fact of Jesus’ resurrection is almost always underscored by a meal.  Jesus appeared to two disciples at Emmaus just as the meal got underway.  He had joined them earlier on the road, but they were prevented from recognizing Him.  But when they sat down to eat—at the breaking of the bread—they immediately recognized Him.  And those two Emmaus disciples immediately rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples what had happened.

        Today’s gospel reading picks up as all the disciples are comparing notes on their Easter experiences when, suddenly, Jesus Himself appears in their midst.  “Peace be to you” He says.  Peace.  You heard that same greeting last week in John’s Easter account.  “Peace” is now the perfect, post-Easter greeting.  It’s how you speak now that the resurrection has come to pass.  Death is defeated.  The grave can’t hold us.  Sin is forgiven.  Life is restored.  “Peace be to you,” or, as we always say right before Jesus appears to us in His body and blood, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.”

        The disciples, of course, are startled and frightened. They wonder whether they’re seeing a spirit or an apparition or a deep fake of some kind.  But this is no illusion.  Jesus sets them straight:  See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.  He invites them, Touch me, and see.  For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.  He’s right, of course.  You can’t touch ghosts.  Spirits don’t have flesh and bones.  But Jesus does.  His resurrection was a bodily resurrection.  It’s not just the spirit of Jesus floating around; it’s the glorified, resurrected human body of Jesus.

        Then, just to drive the point home, Jesus asks if they’ve got anything to eat.  And what do you know, just like in Milwaukee, there’s apparently a fish fry going on.  They offer Jesus a piece of that tasty beer-battered cod and He eats it right in front of them.  The point is not that fish fries have any sacred significance.  The point is that ghosts and spirits don’t eat.  But people do—living, breathing people with flesh and bones and bodies—they eat.  Even after His resurrection, Jesus is still true God and true man—still one of us, forever and ever.  The resurrected Christ still has a real body—a touchable body—bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.

        This is how we know that our bodies, too, are destined for resurrection.  We shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.  Your body will be raised from the dead.  You are more than a soul—more than just a spirit.  The bodily resurrection of Jesus means that your body (even with all of its sins, and problems, and flaws) your body is valuable and important.  Like the body of Jesus, your body will be raised to life everlasting—the mortal to immortality.

        So start recognizing your body as a holy and valuable gift from God.  Stop using it for sinful purposes—for immorality and idolatry.  Stop seeing the body the way our culture sees the body—as only an instrument for pleasure and entertainment.  The body has so little value in our culture.  But we know what’s true about our bodies:  God gives us our bodies—male and female He creates them.  But in our culture it’s nothing to despise and reject the body God has given—in favor of a surgically-created fake body—which always means terrible trauma for the body God has given.  God creates us male OR female, and He knows what He’s doing.  Trust Him. 

        Or think of all the little bodies—the unborn bodies—subjected to trauma and death at the hands of abortionists, paid for with the very tax dollars that many of us are sending off this weekend. It is a silent, state-funded holocaust, right in our own backyards.  Lord, have mercy.  A body—a human body knit together by God—a body designed for resurrection—a body is a terrible thing to waste.

        Today’s gospel not only highlights the body, but also the mind.  A mind, too, is a terrible thing to waste.  That’s why St. Luke tells us that Jesus opened the minds of His disciples to understand the Scriptures.  Doesn’t that strike you a strange?  The disciples had witnessed the resurrection.  They had been personally instructed by Jesus for three years.  They knew their Bibles.  And yet, even now, Jesus must open their minds.  This tells us that you can know all the facts, but still not get it.  You can know the Bible by heart and still not trust that it is for you.  We are born closed-minded.  Sin shuts our minds into a default mode in which we think we are the gods, and that our words and our wishes carry the day.  We closed-mindedly think that the world revolves around us and our feelings.

        But a mind opened by Christ is freed from the tyranny of feelings and emotions.  A mind opened by Jesus means that your mind is open to His promises, open to His forgiveness, open to believe the truth about the resurrection, about your own body, and about the life of the world to come. 

        A mind opened by Jesus means that you understand your baptism as not just a splash of water, but a new birth as a child of God.  A mind opened by Jesus understands the Lord’s Supper as so much more than mere bread and wine—but a resurrection appearance of Jesus—in which you can touch and taste and see that the Lord is good.  With a mind opened by Jesus you understand that this life isn’t all there is—that Jesus Christ has destroyed death—that the grave is temporary—that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

        This Third Sunday of Easter reminds us:  Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  The resurrection is real, not fake; it’s true, not false.  His disciples saw Him, touched Him, ate and drank with Him.  In His name, here today, repentance and forgiveness of sins is preached.  Christ is risen; and in Him you too will rise.  That is the touchable truth of Easter. 

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.