Introduction
It is now two weeks since Easter Day. Jesus has appeared to the disciples on several occasions and will continue to do so – the lectionary this year does not cover the beach barbecue and Peter’s reconciliation. But it is evident to all the core disciples that Jesus is alive.
- Luke 24:13–35 The Road to Emmaus
- Acts 2:14a, 36–41 Repent and be Baptised
- 1 Peter 1:17–23 Conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile
He is Alive
The fact of his resurrection is clear. He has been raised to life in a human bodily form. He is not a merely a spirit, or a vision. And there is certainly no sense that the Disciples gradually came to a metaphorical understanding of resurrection – as if life goes on and so must everything that Jesus taught and stood for.
This much is foundational and given; Jesus had truly died and yet now he is alive and real, in a body that could be touched; recognisable, but different. Those who try to make the resurrection something purely spiritual or even metaphorical, misread the witness of these first disciples. These were real encounters with a real embodied person.
Nothing else can explain the effect that Jesus had on his disciples in his resurrection appearances. The witness statements are as chaotic as you would expect, there were doubts and doubts overcome, but the reality of the disciples before and after makes it clear – Jesus had risen from death to life.
But, Why just these Appearances?
But why does Jesus just appear in this way, just to the disciples? Why does he not just walk back into Jerusalem and show himself to everyone?
I am sure that that is what most of us would have done … Tada! You thought you had killed me, but you can’t, I have conquered death, and I am back!
But that is not Jesus’ plan. He is not seeking people who are convinced by their eyes and are forced to recognise that he is alive. He is looking for people for whom something happens at a deeper, more fundamental, level. That is why he told Thomas that those would be more blessed who believe without seeing him.
One day “every eye will see”. One day Jesus will appear, not just alive, but in the full display of his Glory and power. Then, every knee will bow. But not every heart will bow. Some, who have longed for his appearing, will bow in worship and joy. But others, who have hated and rejected Jesus and his teaching, will bow in fear and condemnation.
Now, though, is the year of his good favour. Now is the day of God’s patience, which is meant to give us space for repentance. Now is a precious time when the gift of faith and new life is offered. Now, it has come to pass “that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ (Acts 2:21)
So, oddly, it seems that Jesus’ appearances are not so much about proving that he is alive, but about doing something in the lives of those to whom he appears. So, his appearances are about
- Grace, and
- Purpose
Jesus’ Appearances are about Grace
First, there is Grace. Jesus is Lord, but he appears more as shepherd and healer: whether it is to Mary outside the tomb, to Thomas, the Emmaus disciples, or Peter. Jesus appears not so much to the disciples as a whole, but to each disciple, as they need.
He comes to them to deal with reconciliation and renewal, but also to something more, which I can only describe as living-relationship.
Reconciliation and Renewal
Some of the disciples have had visible failures (e.g. Peter and Thomas). For others (perhaps Mary and the Emmaus disciples), it is more subtle; a failure of hope or faith. To each one Jesus comes with reconciliation and renewal.
When you have let someone down it causes a separation, a distance, which needs reconciliation. But, so can disappointment and not trusting or believing someone. If these things are true in our ordinary lives, they are certainly true in our relationship with Jesus.
The crisis of the crucifixion brought much of this out, but it exists in all of us in the normality of our lives. When we love things that Jesus does not love – think of James & John seeking power and prestige – or when we do not love those whom Jesus loves; all these things, we know, damage our relationship with Jesus.
In such damaged relationships, someone must make the first move. It is always Jesus. As he came to the disciples then, so he comes to us now, in the peculiar circumstances of this lockdown. And, because it is grace, he does not force things. He comes and looks for our response
May each of us recognise him as he comes and respond with repentance and faith. Let us not be afraid to admit our sinful failures and allow him to reshape our understanding in faith and hope.
Living-Relationship
However, there is something more than reconciliation and renewal. As if Jesus merely sought to renew the relationship that he had had with his disciples. This is the risen Lord. He may still hide his glory from the masses, but he reveals himself to his disciples; to us. And he is seeking a relationship that goes beyond what those disciples had known … and possible what we have known.
Jesus had walked with them. Now he is looking to live in them. They had lived with Jesus. Now he is looking for them – and us – to find a life that is in and from him. As he had said:
“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (Jn 6:53-58)
We may often talk about having a personal relationship with Jesus. But is this what it is like for you? Unless he lives in you, unless your life is only through his living in you, he says you have no life. This is the ‘personal relationship’ Jesus is seeking with us. It is not about believing in him, or even knowing him, and it is not about letting him into your life. It is about putting your life (poor as it is) into his hands, letting go of it to die with him, and receiving a new life that only lives in him as he lives in you.
This takes a lifetime to fathom, and our physical death to complete. But Jesus will keep coming to us until he accomplishes his desire to have us completely – or, to put it better, for us to have him completely.
Jesus’ Appearances are about Purpose
If Jesus appears – comes to them, and us – with Grace, he also comes to share a new purpose. Mary was told to share what she had seen with the disciples and tell them to go to galilee, Peter was told to feed and tend Jesus’ sheep. All of them, and us were given a purpose and goal:
- To become a New People of God
- To call others to join them as God’s New People
Becoming a New People
We do not find one single description of this call and purpose in the Gospels, but we see it in action in the book of Acts – and in our reading today. John writes that we may believe and have life in Jesus. In Matthew, the command is to make disciples and build a community of disciples. In Luke it is expressed as being Spirit filled witnesses (surely not just in words, but in our whole lives). In Mark it to go and proclaim the Gospel (again, not just in words).
So, Peter proclaims the name by which all must be saved and calls people to repentance and to be baptised into Jesus. It is not just a call to be saved, but to be joined into Jesus and his people. That day “there were added … about three thousand souls”. What were they added to? They were added to a community of faith and new life together in Jesus.
We need to recognise this in our day, to rediscover again the Body of Christ and our part in it. We may think of mission merely in adding new members to our number, but God is calling us to a mission that is, first, about being and becoming a New People – Christ being formed in us.
So, Peter tells us, our obedience to the Gospel (in repentance, faith and new way of life), is for “a sincere love of the brethren”. It is for building a new community of Love in the Truth of Christ. A Community who will bear witness to Christ in them, in the way they love one another.
Reproducing and Multiplying
And such love cannot but overflow, if it is true love. No true community of Christ can truly love and encourage each other to grow up into the fullness of life that is in Jesus, without overflowing. We are called to be witnesses. We are called to have open doors and hearts to welcome those that God will add to our number.
We are called also to be ‘going’ people. People who will go out to those who are not seeking, or whose hearts are seeking, but feel that they are disqualified from God’s love. Just as in our broken relationship, Jesus always make the first move, so we are called to make the first move with our neighbours.
His Grace and a new Goal (or purpose) in life are what he brings when he comes to us.
He is Alive
Hallelujah, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!
Jesus is alive. And he is coming to us, calling to us to be alive in him. It is not enough to believe that Jesus is alive, unless we respond to his coming and call:
- Be Reconciled and Renewed – let him touch hose things in you that keep you at a distance from him, and from his loved ones.
- Feed on His Living – let him become more than a companion and helper. Let him become how and why you live.
- Pursue being his Body – in our isolation it may be a challenge, but let us pursue what makes for building up his body (Rom 14:19, Eph 4:16)
- Put yourself Out for Others – again, in our isolation it may be a challenge, but let us find ways of talking to our neighbours, showing his love and sharing his truth. People are more open to talking now than ever.