Luke 24:36b-48
Opening Scripture with the Risen Lord: the key to transformation
3 Easter

Every one loves a good story, especially those that have themes of good versus evil, where the struggle is fierce; making us sit on the edge when evil seems to have the upper hand. On the surface of it all, all the events leading up from Palm Sunday, through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday sometimes seem like the proverbial struggle of good versus evil. And then there is Easter Sunday, which dawns on us like the ultimate triumph of good over the evil that loomed so large in the preceding events. Like my kids would say “sweet” what better revenge than the Resurrection! Now all we have to do is tell Jesus to appear before Pilate, the high priest, and of course the people who where shouting to have him crucified. Jesus doesn’t even have to lift a finger, they would be so terrified and maybe they would even fall flat on the ground to worship him.

In fact, terrified is exactly the word used for the disciples’ reaction when he appeared before them after he rose from the dead. Who wouldn’t be terrified? Jesus was walking through walls, he had a radiance about him that was not very earthly, he could appear and vanish in an instant, and at the same time he could be touched, seen, and have conversations like any human being. Even more astonishing he asked for food to eat and he ate it! If I was there as one of his disciples to see and talk with the risen Jesus, I would certainly be ecstatic at the thought of proving all the highly educated Pharisees and Sadducees wrong! I would be planning to walk down the main street in Jerusalem on the busiest day of the week with Jesus by my side. It would be my superhero story come true!

Come to think of it, more often than not we lay claim to the Resurrection story just like one of our superhero stories. Our resurrection story is filled with “us” versus “them.” We like the idea of walking down the street with Jesus by our side because it makes us feel good and of course smug in the knowledge that he is on our side. We think He is on our side because we come to church most Sundays, and remember to put some money in the offering plate. We think he is on our side because our lives appear to be more blessed than many others. And, if that is the extent of our resurrection story, we are in fact nothing more than just passersby in the glorious story of the new and transformed creation of God.

Far from the spectacular comeback that we expect from our stories of superheroes, Jesus appears and talks to the most unexpected and even obscure disciples. Last week we saw how he appeared to the women, we also read of him appearing on the road to Emmaus to two disciples whom we have never heard of before, Cleopas and another who was not even important enough to be named.  Then he appears to the twelve at different times. After all the miracles Jesus had performed before he was crucified, one expects the resurrected Christ to perform an even more spectacular thing, like rally up an invincible army to sweep over the earth and have everyone bowing to him. This again is very much what comes out of our limited imagination of good and evil.

The fact is, God has never been in competition with evil. God is above all evil, and Jesus was not sent to engage in a battle, he was sent to save and transform our broken world. So after the resurrection he appears to his disciples not with trumpets blowing, but very gently with the most ordinary, day to day greeting of “Shalom!” or peace. He reassures the confused and distraught disciples by letting them touch him, by eating and talking with them. And the process of transformation starts slowly but very distinctly when he opens the scriptures to them. It happens on the road to Emmaus and it happens in our passage today. Bible study! Indeed, just about the most mundane and unglamorous thing to do. Who would have thought that the first serious thing Jesus engages in after his resurrection would be a bible study? But that is exactly what he does. He does that because it is only in the light of Scripture that we begin to understand the most glorious and unexpected story of God’s plan to bring repentance and forgiveness to every one on earth. It is in the light of Scripture that we begin to understand our wretchedness and our inability to save ourselves in the countless stories of people who have gone before us. It is in the light of Scripture alone that we begin to realize that the Resurrection is about the hope of forgiveness and the miracle of transformation for all who come to Christ. And it is only through Scripture that we begin to understand that the Resurrection is not about “us” versus “them,” but that it is about hope and witness. And when I talk about being witnesses, I am not talking about confessing that we believe in the Risen Christ, I am talking about living transformed lives as witness of the Risen Christ.

The Resurrection of Jesus will never make sense to anyone unless we see signs of transformation in our own lives and in the lives of others. In God’s eternal wisdom He does allow out-of-the-ordinary conversion stories like Apostle Pauls,’ but for most of us God has shown us the simplest step to take toward a changed life, which is to read, study and meditate on the words of Scripture. Luke says, “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.” Let us take time to open our bibles with the Risen Christ every day allowing our lives to become witnesses of his Resurrection. Amen.