April 18, 2021
Luke 24.36b-48
"Jesus Said,
'Peace Be With You’” - Pastor Jacqueline Hines
After the crucifixion, Jesus came to the disciples alive and well
just as he said he would. All that talk
about a resurrection went right over their heads. It was inconceivable to them.
They liked Jesus, so when they did not understand everything he said and did,
they stuck with him. That’s what good Christian friends and family members do.
We stick together through thick and thin.
It is not every day that someone we know dies and comes back to
life again. We know of many persons who have had near-death experiences,
out-of-body experiences, and close encounters of the spiritual kind. There are
certainly some here today who have had one or the other. Medical practitioners
describe persons whom they pronounce clinically dead whose hearts have suddenly
started beating again. Some hearts stop beating for a few minutes before being
revived, some for a few hours.
The Lord of Creation, maker of Heaven and Earth is also the giver
and sustainer of life, all life, new life, and life after death. God is
altogether wonderful, unfathomable and mysterious to us.
Three days had passed since Nicodemus and Joseph had placed Jesus’
body in the tomb. In those days, there was a pandemic of violence, so few, if
any, would have come to pay their last respects, especially the guilty. I once
officiated at a funeral of a man who had been murdered. Police officers were
present and they explained to me that they were there in hopes of making an
arrest because perpetrators would often show up secretly at a funeral because
they were psychologically driven for an assurance that their victim was
actually dead and not alive to get revenge.
The disciples were not expecting to see Jesus again. They went on
with their lives. They still managed to get together in Jesus name like good
disciples do. In the meantime, Luke tells us that a couple folks on the road to
Emmaus ran into Jesus, but they did not know that it was Jesus. They were so
intrigued while talking with Rabbi Jesus that they invited him to supper. Over
supper, they saw something familiar in the way he broke the bread. Then they realized it was Jesus
and that he had indeed risen from the dead. They immediately went to Jerusalem
and told the 11 disciples what happened. Verse 36 says while they were talking
and testifying about Jesus, Jesus himself stood among them. The disciples “were
startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.”
What a wonderful thing to be with Jesus, especially when we are
terrified! …when we wonder if we have seen a ghost or perhaps when a painting
unexpectedly falls of the wall - we wonder if it is the sign of assurance from
a deceased loved one. At the same time, being with Jesus can be part of the
reason we feel terror. In either case, God with us is a good thing.
We have all known a moment
in life that was terrible and terrifying. Personally or corporately, someone
somewhere is having a terrible time. Jesus healed a demon possessed man from a
place called Gerasene. He was so out of control and ferocious he had to be
chained up. This man lived on the streets, wandering with no clothes on. People
were afraid of him. He was a desperate and scary man who, no doubt, counted his
demons every night instead of his blessings. Number one blasphemy, number two
chemical addictions, number three acting and speaking violently, and so on and
so on. Jesus talked to his demons and sent the demons into a herd of pigs
(aside making a great supper, pork is a symbol of social slime, immorality and
filth). The pigs drove over a cliff, taking the demons with them. The man was
now free. He got dressed and was able to talk calmly. He was overwhelmed with
gratitude and wanted to stay with Jesus forever.
You would think that
healing of this man’s mind was cause for celebration and thanksgiving, instead,
the bible says the people were terrified. They were terrified looking at the
financial loss of the ruined pork they would not be able to sell. Even today,
on every street corner, in every country and every community, we can find
billions of dollars of some kind of filth for sale. It is frightening for many
to lose the profits of filthy lucre.
When people gathered
around Jesus to hear the truth and be set free and to hear of the love of God
it was in stark opposition to the Chief Priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees who
were more invested in their political positions and profits. They were afraid
because they knew that the power they had claimed for themselves was not
rightfully theirs. Now they would have to accept the fact that power belongs to
God. The kingdom they had built, and were now afraid they would lose, was
self-righteous and self-serving. Perhaps they felt a “Holy Terror.” Good things
are terrifying when they uproot and expose any bad things we’ve built up in our
lives. Unholy things grow wild until they are carefully weeded out by their
roots.
Jesus was
good, and sometimes good disrupts our lives. It reminds me of some people who
win a lot of money in the lottery or receive a great inheritance. Money is good
and a lot of good can be accomplished with money, but in a year or so, some
soon become broke because the weeds in their life – perhaps lack of knowledge,
discipline or self-control – suck the life out of beautiful possibilities.
I had a neighbor who
suffered greatly in her relationships with her emotionally detached husband,
her incarcerated heroin addicted son, and a teenaged grandson who exhibited
symptoms of pyromania and other distressing and dangerous behaviors. We prayed
together often so she would have the direction and comfort to endure. She had also
suffered from a growth on her neck. When she went to the beauty parlor, they
could not even put a towel around her because the pain from the lump on her
neck was so intense. Soon after we prayed for healing, the lump went away.
However, the pain in her neck was the reason she was eligible for the
disability checks which she was receiving regularly from the government. Her
healing was a good thing, but it was a disruption at the same time. Her healing
could leave her without that income and challenge her to find a job. That was a
bit terrifying.
We don’t have to go far
in this world to see something terrifying.
In these days, God help the person who is living without the peace of
Christ! Family counselors are telling us that the pandemic is threatening our
inner peace. Americans are drinking more, hurting more, scamming more, eating
more, hating more, and suffering more depression and anxiety.
Just like the disciples,
we may find ourselves huddled in a room terrified by what could possibly go
wrong next. Jesus knew that the disciples were anxious about many things. The
first thing he said to them was “Peace be with you.”
Whatever it is that is
bothering you, Jesus is standing beside you, too, saying “Peace be with you.”
Whatever is upsetting you, irritating you, unraveling you, scaring you,
assaulting you, troubling you, or hindering you, Jesus is standing beside you
with the power of the resurrection saying, “Peace be with you.”
During this pandemic,
professionals encourage us to stay positive, to
keep our heads up, above
the troubled waters. We are reminded to take deep breaths to keep calm, keep a
routine, to exercise, eat more vegetables and fruit, to be kind to each other
and to stay connected to one another. All these ideas are infused with the resurrection
power of Jesus. They enable us to keep
the peace of Jesus in our hearts. We need peace desperately. Without it, we
would fall apart.
By the grace of God, we can handle all the trouble that comes our
way because we have the resurrection power of peace inside of us. We sing about
peace, we experience peace in our families and communities, we see the results
of our peace keeping efforts unfolding before us. Peace is the atmosphere we
need to build something great and support the Body of Christ in fulfilling its
present and future missions.
We are witnesses to the great things that can happen when the
peace of God is in our lives. Peace is good, though occasionally peace disturbs
the peace, like the calm before a storm or the strained stillness of complacency,
nonchalance, and indifference.
We have shared Jesus’ peace among our family, friends, strangers, and neighbors far and near. Our whole lifestyle and being resonate with the good news of the kingdom of God which is peace, joy and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. Like the John and Peter running to see Jesus, there is running in our feet to proclaim that He’s alive, the kingdom of God is a real place in time. And when times are at their worst, verse 47 gives us the best news of all. We Christians have this good news to tell, not only that Jesus is alive and stands among us granting us peace, but we are the evidence. We have given and received repentance and forgiveness of sins to prove it. That raises our lives from the grave every time.
As Jesus stood among
them 44 he said to them, … “Thus it is written, that
the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and
that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to
all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You
are witnesses of these things.”
Jesus has a witness in
you and in me. Yes, there is a witness
in the house of God. We are here and we know the peace that repentance and
forgiveness brings because we practice it prayerfully. Yes, by the grace of
God, we are all witnesses, we are the peace makers and the peace keepers of a
powerful resurrection peace and in these days, we are running and passing it on
everywhere we go. Amen.
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