Luke 24:36-49

“Still Not Believing”

March 30, 2008

Associate Pastor Doug Forsberg

Recently I added the following items to my list of things that are too good to be true: Tastes Great: Half the Fat; Zero down, zero interest, no monthly payments until 2017; the end of the 2008 presidential election (only 7 more months); Eli Manning and David Tyree; American Idol’s David Archuleta; and global warming turning Cleveland, OH into a tropical paradise.

You could probably add to my list of things that are too good to be true.  In the back of our minds we can all hear someone saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”  Many furniture stores stake their lives on making consumers believe that what they’re selling is the greatest deal in history, making it seem as though buyers don’t have to pay for a whole house full of furniture.  Having seen and heard this kind of marketing our whole lives, we are jaded and unwilling to listen to those who promise what can’t be delivered.

We are not unlike Jesus’ first disciples in this, for they found it very difficult to believe in the resurrection.  Jesus seemed too good to be true when he appeared at a gathering of all 11 of his disciples.  We can understand the difficulty they faced.  After all, they were just coming to terms with the fact that Jesus had died on the cross.  All of their hopes had been dashed when Jesus died.  They had not understood that this was a part of God’s plan of salvation and had come to think that maybe they had been wrong about Jesus.  On that very day, some of them had even seen him or heard that he was not dead anymore, and then without warning, or even opening a door, he appears to them and they are terrified.

In the midst of their terror, Jesus speaks to his disciples, and he wants to show them that he isn’t too good to be true, that he is to be trusted.  Jesus then goes to great lengths to demonstrate to his disciples that the resurrection is far from being too good to be true.  Instead, his resurrection is the foundation for their continued ministry in his name.  Looking at today’s text, we see Jesus providing his disciples with physical and scriptural proof of his resurrection so that they will be ready to receive the promise of the Father and then enter into faithful mission work. Looking at today’s text, we find that the resurrection is the one and only foundation for our continued ministry in Jesus’ name.

According to verse 37, when Jesus appears among the disciples, they think he is a spirit or a ghost.  They think that he has come back to them from the dead but not as one who is fully alive.  After all, those who inhabit physical bodies cannot walk through walls or simply appear in a room, but that is how Jesus comes to them.  Immediately, Jesus rebukes his disciples for the fear and doubt that come to their minds.  He had told them he would rise; now they are witnesses of it, but they won’t believe.

In verse 39, he also seeks to calm and reassure them, showing them his hands and feet.  He shows them his hands and feet so that they can see the wounds caused by the nails that hung him to the cross.  We are reminded in Isaiah 53:5 that “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”  Further on in verse 39, Jesus invites his disciples to touch his wounds so that they will see and feel that his body is real.  Jesus himself has risen from the grave.

Verse 41 tells us that after touching Jesus’ wounds the disciples still didn’t believe, and their disbelief is associated with their joy and amazement.  Slowly they are coming around, for their disbelief is now related to that feeling of something that is too good to be true.  In our imaginations we can almost see them beginning to smile at one another, laughing with joy and amazement.  It’s him, it’s really Jesus, and the reality of the resurrection is beginning to resonate in the hearts of his closest friends.

Jesus then goes one step further.  In verse 41 he asks the disciples if they have anything to eat.  If touching his wounds wasn’t enough, Jesus is now going to prove that he lives by eating food.  The disciples give him some broiled fish and the text is clear in stating that they watched him eat it.  They didn’t just let him eat privately, for they were curious to see if he would really eat, and verse 43 reveals that he did.  It is interesting that in so many of the resurrection appearances Jesus eats in the presence of those to whom he appears.  There’s a message here both for the ones he ate with and for those of us who follow in faith centuries later.  Jesus’ body rose from the grave.  It really happened.

Later on in their lives, the disciples knew this to be true; and this fact shaped their lives and ministry.  Listen to the way John describes the importance of hearing, seeing and touching Jesus: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete” (1 John 1:1-4).

John reveals his greatest joy: finding faith in those with whom he had shared what he had seen and touched.  We are included in that group, for we have not seen the resurrected Jesus; he ascended into heaven forty days after his resurrection and sits at the right hand of the Father.  Yet, we have faith in him that can be traced back to the witness of the first apostles.  Peter captures the goal of his ministry when he writes, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9).  So it is that as Jesus offered physical proof of his resurrection to his first disciples, he offered it to us as well through their witness.

As Jesus sought to build a foundation for his disciples’ ministry he went beyond offering physical proof of his resurrection and added scriptural proof to that foundation.  Notice in verse 45 that Jesus “opens [the disciples’] minds so that they can understand the scriptures.”  It is not too much to say that apart from the Holy Spirit working in our lives we are blind and deaf in regards to the scriptures.  No doubt many have come to the scriptures and read them and made of them what they will, but if even the disciples, Jesus’ inner circle, had to have their minds opened to the meaning of the scriptures, we ought to seek such insight as well.  Whenever we sit down to read the scriptures, whether publicly in worship or privately in our homes, we should ask the Holy Spirit to be present with us, bringing light to the Word and opening our hearts and minds so we will understand it.

Importantly, Jesus opened the whole of the Old Testament to his disciples: the Law, Prophets, and Psalms.  We aren’t told in very much detail what Jesus taught his disciples.  We know from verses 46-47 that he focused on his suffering and resurrection and the repentance and forgiveness of sins that would be preached in his name.  Wouldn’t it be great if Luke had included some end notes to his gospel that spelled out each of the texts that Jesus explained to his disciples?  Unfortunately, he didn’t but we can use the New Testament and Jesus’ teaching to identify some of the texts that Jesus must have highlighted.  When speaking of his suffering, Jesus must have spent time in Psalms 22 and 69 and Isaiah 53.  As he spoke of his resurrection Psalms 16 and 118 and Isaiah 53 must have played a part.  Hosea 6:2 and the typology of Jonah that Jesus takes up for himself (Matthew 12:39-41) also speak of his resurrection.

Jesus’ motive in providing physical and scriptural proofs for his resurrection is to lay a foundation so that his disciples can faithfully preach the Good News they have received.  Before they go and speak to the world of repentance and the forgiveness of sins though, Jesus tells them in verse 49 to wait, for he is going to send to the disciples what the Father had promised.  We know from reading the book of Acts that Jesus was instructing the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit who would clothe them with power from on high at Pentecost.

One of the things that should strike us about Jesus’ instruction to his disciples is that they need to wait.  Waiting is never easy.  Waiting on the Lord involves giving up our dreams of glory and our carefully laid out plans for success.  Waiting on the Lord means giving up control and power over our lives.  To move forward without the Lord’s blessing is to invite disaster. 

Think of the Israelites who rebel against the Lord after the spies return from the Promised Land with stories of giants.  The Lord decides that this generation of Israelites will not enter the Promised Land.  Instead, they will wander in the desert for forty years until a new generation has been raised up.  The Israelites don’t like the sound of this so they decide to try and move into the Promised Land on their own.  They set out and are soundly defeated, discovering that they can do nothing without the Lord’s blessing.

The disciples waited 50 days for Pentecost.  They must have felt immense pressure to prove themselves; after all, they had all deserted Jesus; but instead of going out into the world to spread the Good News, Jesus tells them to wait, and they do.  They follow Jesus’ instruction and the result is that their ministry is marked by the power of God. Their ministry takes them in directions they never would have thought to go, including out to the nations, as they are led by the Spirit.

The point of building this firm foundation that is grounded in the reality of Jesus’ resurrection is that the disciples will go out into the world as its first witnesses.  They are the ones who will preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins to the nations.  This idea of the Messiah and his resurrection being for the nations was a radical one, but Jesus opens the minds of his disciples so that they will see that this too is in the scriptures.  From Abraham’s blessing in Genesis 22:18 to Solomon’s prayer for the temple in 1 Kings 8:41-43 to Psalm 72:8-11 to Isaiah 2:3 and to Malachi 1:11 the whole of Old Testament points to the fact that the whole world, every tribe and nation, would be included in God’s work of redemption and salvation.  Revelation 5:9 puts it this way, "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”  Revelation 7:9-10 adds to this picture stating, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.  And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

So, is all this too good to be true?  Is it too good to be true that Jesus rose from the dead?  Is it too good to be true that he appeared to his disciples, showing them his hands and feet and inviting them to touch his body and even eating in front of them?  Is it too good to be true that he sat with them and opened their eyes to the scriptures so that they would see that he had to suffer and then rise on the third day?  Is it too good to be true that he sent the gift his Father had promised and that the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of every believer?  Is it too good to be true that we are witnesses to all of these things?

The way we answer those questions will say everything about our faith, for the resurrection changes everything and because it does, there is work to be done. 

Brothers and sisters as we move forward, may our resurrection faith shape who we are and how we serve a world that continues to be in great need of Jesus,

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