Now, I Can Believe :: Luke 24:36-49
I can’t believe my eyes! It’s too good to be true! You know the feeling, don’t you?
I can’t believe my eyes. It’s amazing. It’s shocking. It’s a marvel. It’s unreal. I just don’t believe it. Now imagine how the disciples felt that Easter evening.
He is risen! ...
Jesus showed himself to the disciples and declared peace. He are a piece of fish for them. They touched him. How could they not believe their eyes?
Isn’t this the Jesus who also gave sight to the blind, fulfilling the prophecies of Isaiah 35? Isn’t this the Jesus who also amazed people with the good news promised in Isaiah 61?
How many other times did the disciples fail to believe their eyes? Water becomes Chateau Lafite? The dead arise from their graves as good as new? Bread and wine are body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.
Do you believe your eyes?
You know it’s all true, don’t you? Every last word of it. After the crowds heard Saint Peter say to the cripple: In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk ... the number of believers rose from three to five thousand ... Thank God they believed their eyes.
Today is the third day after Easter, and in the spirit of Mark Twain, who some 120 years ago announced to the world that the reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated, I am delighted today to telegraph the great news that the reports of the death of Jesus have not been, nor have they ever been, greatly exaggerated. Two thousand years later, we still have proof.
NOW I CAN BELIEVE MY EYES
No book has been as scrutinized as thoroughly as the scriptures. As Peter reminded us in our reading from Acts, what God foretold ... has been fulfilled. And we have seen it. We are his witnesses.
Not long ago, Jesus was crucified in a public place, right outside one of the largest cities in the Middle East. The crowd that witnessed his very public execution included both his enemies and his friends and family. There was no doubt Jesus was nailed to the tree. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote about it. There was no doubt Jesus died either. We watched him breath his last. And just to be sure he was indeed dead, a Roman centurion thrust a spear into his heart, and we saw the water mixed with blood flowing from his side. Pilate even had the news double-checked.
Jesus was crucified and died. It’s easy to believe that. Isn’t it?
And furthermore, He was buried. We have testimony from scriptures and outside scriptures. Our Lord was entombed. Joseph of Arimathea donated his new tomb to bury our Lord. They set a heavy stone at the door. Armed Romans were stationed there to keep an eye on it. As if you need more evidence than scripture itself, Roman historians even recorded all of this news.
Jesus ... the innocent one ... was crucified, died, and was buried. So tell me, why do so many people have such a hard time believing their eyes?
He is risen! ...
It’s easy for us to single out apostles for doubting all this great news, for insisting that they must touch and see the risen Lord first before they believe their eyes.
But wouldn’t you insist, too? Jesus ... died that April day! No matter which gospel account you read ... all of the apostles ... all of the women ... all of the people who’d been hanging out with Jesus for the better part of three years have a terribly hard time believing their eyes that HE IS RISEN.
When the women went to the tomb on Easter morning, Luke says they were perplexed, that is, they literally couldn’t believe there eyes. So they ran to tell the other disciples what they found ... Someone in dazzling clothing says you have no reason to be afraid. Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen, just as he said!
The disciples dismissed this GOSPEL as wives tales. ... I need to see to believe, they said. So Peter rushed to look with his own eyes. ... But not even Cleopas and the other disciple who saw their Lord in the flesh walking with them and talking with them on the way to Emmaus believed their eyes ... they had no clue he was for seven miles!
It’s sometimes hard to believe our eyes.
So today ... Jesus himself has come and stood among them and said to them, Peace to you!
You have to believe that, right?
Jesus? Lord? Is it you? How can this be? We know you told us three times this would happen. We saw you raise three people from the dead. But how can we believe our eyes that you are always with us?
So Jesus spoke up: Why are you troubled and why are you doubting ... See my hands? See my feet? Touch me and see. Spirits don’t have flesh and bones like this. Then he showed them his hands and feet. And he ate a piece of fish for them.
And they still joyful said to themselves, I can’t believe my eyes.
Let’s not be too hard on the disciples. Unbelief dies hard.
It’s a fact of life that began at your conception. We’re born in disbelief, steeped in sin ... and we struggle to fear, love and trust in God with all our heart, mind, strength above all things. We fight against God’s Word, is it this manuscript it that over? We wrestle like Jacob with his living Word.
So it makes perfect sense why we struggle to believe our eyes and to believe own ears and why we long for tangible proof of God’s presence in our lives ... as the world around us struggles for a breath of air.
If only I could see him ... says the world.
Maybe that is why so many people are so drawn to what they perceive to be the science of “facts,” and why they are so drawn to the tingle of the spine ... like the holiness folks a half a block down the street.
Do you struggle with this, too ... You pastors who pray day and night for your congregations and seemingly get the cold shoulder?
The world all around you embraces all kinds of things they can’t see ... Evolution ... The Big Bang ... weird creation theories to fit the reason of man ... all without a shred of visible evidence. Yet this Jesus, who we have seen, who we have touched ... the world denies. ... All in favor of empowering themselves and declaring that “good” people get a free pass to heaven and so-called angel wings.
Certainly you’ve all heard the story about King Arthur, yes?
Arthur was a great King of England we’re told, who lived around 500 AD. He established a round table, and carrying mighty Excalibur, he set off with his knights in search of the holy grail. What a noble nobleman, yes?
Monty Python wrote a hysterically funny movie based on this. Sadly, that might be the best there is about Arthur. There are no records he ever existed. Yet the world still believes in King Arthur.
The good news today is that you don’t need to see Jesus to believe. Cephas saw him. So did the twelve and then more than 500 brothers at one time, then James, and Paul.
He is risen! ...
Therefore, in the name of Jesus, repent now and believe their eyes. And listen to their testimony.
On this Easter Tuesday, Jesus has once again come to us and shown himself to us and is inviting his skeptical disciples ... to find relief from your innate doubts, worries, anxieties, and fears, and find forgiveness from your failures to fear, love and trust in God above all things.
These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.
Then he opened their minds ...
Thank God that faith doesn’t come from seeing ... that it comes comes through hearing and hearing comes through the word of Christ. And thank God you have once again heard the good news ...
Jesus lived a life of active righteousness for you. Jesus has paid for your sin on the cross ... Jesus was raised for your justification and Jesus is in your midst. The God who loved you so much that he killed his only son as a sacrifice for your sins has forgiven you forever, and united you with him in baptism.
You were dead but are not alive too. Can you believe that?
Today’s Gospel lesson reminds me of what Peter preaches to me every day. 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 a glorious and inexpressible joy as you await the outcome of your faith.
You don’t believe because you have seen him.
You believe because you have heard him through the scriptures you have seen, the sacraments you administer.
Now ... You are a witness of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.
Brothers in Christ, keep telling the world. People are listening. God is saving them. And he has called you forth so that you too will share the good news about Jesus.
He is risen!