Luke 24:36-49 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
The Third Sunday of Easter Sunday, April 18, 2021 “Connected to the Scriptures”
How do you know that you are really alive? That probably sounds like a weird question, and I guess it is. We might think of it as a philosophical question. Philosophers have tried to answer questions like that. A famous phrase in philosophy comes from a man named Descartes, who said, “I think, therefore I am.” And his point was that since he could think, he knew that he really exists, or in other words, was really alive. We could also ask a question like that in a still philosophical but slightly more practical way when we ask: “I know that you are alive, but are you really living?” In other words, are you doing something that you are passionate about? Does your life have meaning and direction? How do you know that you are really alive? We could also consider the question in at least one other way, though I think it is easier to consider this way if we rephrase it slightly. How do you know when someone else is alive? Maybe you see them walking around, or you hear them talking to you. But if those more obvious signs are not apparent, maybe you look for other indications. You listen for a heartbeat. You feel for a pulse. You check whether they are breathing, maybe see if they fog up a mirror. Today once again, we are going back to the evening of the very first Easter Sunday and observing what happened then and there with Jesus and his disciples. And one of the first questions that was addressed when Jesus appeared was, “How did the disciples know that Jesus was really alive?” And you might think that the answer would be as simple and straightforward as this: the disciples knew that Jesus was alive because they saw him. But it wasn’t quite as simple as that, was it? The account that we are focusing on today comes from Luke’s Gospel, but it is talking about the same event that we considered last week as well (at least in the first half of last week’s Gospel). Yet some things sound a little different. That shouldn’t worry us, but it does remind us of how God had his Word recorded for our benefit. He used a variety of writers with their own unique perspectives and skills and talents, but all of whom he gifted with his Holy Spirit that they would write what he wanted written. John was there that Easter night. He was with Jesus throughout his ministry. God used him to write his Gospel as an eyewitness. Luke was not there. Luke had learned about Jesus and wanted to learn more. When he was going to write about Jesus, he did research. He talked to people and learned about what had happened. And that’s what he wrote down. It shouldn’t really surprise us that at times Luke might emphasize or write about something specific that John or another Gospel writer didn’t. Luke almost certainly wrote his Gospel before John did, and so John may have been familiar with the words in front of us today and may have intended to fill in some other details that Luke didn’t include. But Luke did include some interesting details. Jesus appeared to his disciples, who had locked themselves in together, and he greeted them with a word of peace. And they were afraid. They were terrified and frightened. They thought that they were seeing a ghost. They knew that Jesus had been dead. They knew that dead people don’t normally become alive again. How would they now know that Jesus was really alive? Here’s how they would know. Jesus says, “Look. Touch.” He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” It was Jesus, his hands and feet pierced by nails, the real thing. That should have been enough to take away their fear and terror, but they still needed something more. They were so overjoyed that they couldn’t believe it. Their fear was going away, but they still were not certain. So how did they know that Jesus was really alive? He asked them to allow him to prove it in another way. “Do you have anything here to eat?” Jesus sat down with some fish and some honey, and he ate it. His real, physical body was doing what real, physical bodies do. He walked around. He sat down. He talked. He ate. He gave convincing proof after convincing proof to remove the disciples’ fear and doubt and to give them joy and peace.
But you and I were not there. We live nearly 2,000 years after all this took place. How do we know that Jesus is alive? We connect with the Scriptures. We connect to the Scriptures. We did not get to be eyewitnesses. We did not get to interview those who were. And so God saw to it that all of this was written down and preserved for us. We can be sure that Jesus was dead and now is alive. He is really alive. And we can also know why that is so important. The Scriptures have not been written only for our benefit now decades and centuries and millennia later. Those original disciples had the Scriptures, too. They had God’s own Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit and shared through chosen writers. They had something to teach them not just that Jesus was alive, but also why he was alive. And that is why they needed to connect to the Scriptures, too. And so that is what Jesus taught them to do and helped them to do. As he dined on his fish and honey in front of them, Jesus directed his disciples. He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” It’s stating the obvious to say that John’s Gospel and Luke’s Gospel had not been written yet. We benefit from an even more expansive body of Holy Scripture than those disciples had, but they had what they needed. Jesus calls it the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. We call that the Old Testament. And in it is contained God’s plan and his promise. In it are the prophecies about the Messiah, who Jesus would be and what he would accomplish. And Jesus explained that every word of it was about his coming and his life and his death and his resurrection. He opened their minds. He helped them to see how all of these things fit together, how every promise was kept in him. He said to them, “This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. And he promised to bless them with power to be his witnesses to the world. The “why” of Jesus living and dying and rising again is found in the words repentance and forgiveness. Jesus came because of the sin of which we, those disciples, and everyone need to repent. We have gone against what God has commanded. We have failed him and opposed him and disappointed him as people have done since the beginning. So he came to take our place. He came to die in our place, and he came to rise for us. And so the forgiveness of sins is preached in his name. We are assured that every sin that we have done, the big ones that torment our consciences, the little ones that hardly even register in our minds, the public ones that everyone knows about, and the private ones that we keep so carefully hidden—Jesus took them all, and Jesus forgives them all. And so we connect to the Scriptures to know that Jesus is alive and to know why Jesus is alive: that he is alive for us. He is alive for our forgiveness. He is alive to take away our doubts and fears. He is alive so that we may live with him forever. And we are connected to the Scriptures because there are days when we don’t feel that joy or certainty. There are days when the devil whispers in our ears that we can’t possibly belong to Jesus, that he can’t possibly have our best interests in mind, or that there is just too much around for us to handle. Jesus was teaching his disciples that his holy Scriptures have the answers. They were the place to turn when he was no longer with them eating fish and showing his hands and feet. The Holy Scriptures were there to show the reality for a Peter in prison or an Apostle Paul on trial. When things don’t seem that they are going the way they should or the way that we want them to (and just maybe you have experienced this, too), the Holy Scriptures tell us that Jesus is really alive, that he is in control, that we have the forgiveness of our every sin. How do you know that you are really alive? That’s the question we began with. We know that we are really alive and will live forever because Jesus is alive. Our lives have meaning and purpose, our lives have joy and love. And we will continue to connect to the Scriptures that teach us this, that strengthen us in it, that tell us Jesus is alive and why that means so much to us.
The Text: Luke 24:36–49 (EHV) 36As
they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37But
they were terrified and frightened and thought they were looking at a ghost.
38He
said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41While they still did not believe it (because of their joy), and while they were still wondering, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42They
gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb. 43He took it and ate in front of them. 44He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.” 45Then
he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46He said to them, “This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49Look, I am sending you what my Father promised. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”