The text for this morning’s message comes to us from the Gospel of Luke, the 24th chapter:
As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.Thus far the text.
Then he said to them, “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 to understand the Scriptures…
Dear Friends in Christ, He is Risen!
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. He is the firstborn of the risen, the firstfruits of the dead, never to die again, never to pass away, always living, always standing, always interceding on our behalf before the Father. This should give you great comfort! Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is risen!
Our Gospel lesson here picks up in the middle of the story. Let me fill it in for you. Jesus is missing from the grave. The women had been told by the angels that He had been raised from the dead, and that He would be visiting them soon. They ran, ran, ran, as fast as their legs could carry them to tell the Apostles. But they weren’t sure though. They knew Jesus wasn’t in the tomb, but really, anything could have happened, right? Might not they have just imagined the angels out of their grief? They were talking about Jesus, but they did not yet completely believe in Jesus and certainly not yet in the Resurrection.
A little bit later that first Easter Sunday, two disciples are on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a short journey of only about 7 miles. While they were chatting about the rumors that Christ had been risen, a man appears and asks what’s going on. They tell Him that He should certainly know, since it has been the buzz all through Jerusalem the last three days. Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet among prophets, was betrayed and killed by the chief priests of Jerusalem and now, three days later, some foolish women came and told them that Jesus had risen from the grave! And this is the cool thing, while on the road they never even recognized this stranger was Jesus! Even while Jesus explained to them all that had ever been written about Him in the Scriptures, they didn’t recognize Jesus. They were talking about Jesus, but they did not yet fully believe in Jesus and certainly not yet in the Resurrection.
They weren’t looking for Him, they didn’t believe the ramblings of foolish women, they didn’t believe that Jesus Christ was who He said He was until a very special moment. When they arrived at the house in Emmaus, they invited the man to dinner. As they sat around the table, the man, Jesus, took bread, broke it and blessed it and suddenly, they were transported in their memories back to that Thursday, just 4 days ago, when Jesus instituted His Last Supper! They saw Jesus for everything that He was in that moment! Risen, God, Savior, Man, Giver, Redeemer, Awesome God! And just as sudden as Jesus had appeared on the road, He left their presence. But not for long.
Here is where the Gospel lesson picks up. These disciples run back to Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem wasn’t a very safe place at this time to be a follower of Jesus. The chief priests and scribes had killed Jesus. The Romans were covering up a huge scandal of the guards falling asleep on their duties and the body of Jesus disappearing. The disciples of Jesus were afraid for their lives. They were afraid they would be next to be hung on a cross. They were afraid because everything they thought they had believed in, their teacher and friend, was dead. They had been talking about Jesus, but they did not yet believe in the true Jesus and certainly not yet in the Resurrection.
But, these Emmaus disciples, ran back to Jerusalem, back to the place they had left, a place that was crazy scary for them, a place where, just by entering the city, they would be putting themselves in mortal danger. It was worthwhile! They had seen Jesus! Jesus was alive! They had to tell everyone else! They were talking about Jesus; and these disciples believed in Jesus and they believed in the Resurrection.
And telling everyone would be easy. For the most part, they were all locked away together in a room, scared of seeing the outside world. But the disciples went back, found everyone, and told them who they had seen. All of the sudden, Jesus appears! “Peace to you,” he says.
Look at what happens here. Jesus appears, talks to them, and THEY DON’T BELIEVE IT!!! I mean, seriously, they don’t believe it. They don’t believe it’s Jesus. They don’t believe He’s there. They don't believe He's been resurrected! Peace, they think? Peace? There’s no peace! Jesus has died, the Romans are after them, the Jews are after them. Peace? And now we’re being accosted by evil demons and spirits!
But, what does Jesus do? He says to them, “I’m real. Why do you doubt? Look at my feet! Ghosts don’t have feet! I have feet! I’m not a ghost! Touch me! Feel me! Hear me! That’s not enough? Give me something to eat, something you know is real! A spirit doesn’t eat! Give me fish!” And he ate it! He ate the fish and it didn’t go right through Him!
And what does Jesus do next? He talks about Himself! Jesus talks about Jesus in order to make the disciples believe in Jesus! Now, I could go on and on and on about how it’s awesome and amazing and world-upending that Jesus came and appeared to these disciples and how He proved to them He was real and resurrected. And it is truly all of that. But if it’s not real to YOU, and if I were to do only that, that’s just talking about Jesus. I’m here, I’m in the pulpit, I’m talking to you today about Jesus to help YOU believe in Jesus and certainly in the Resurrection!
Men and women all over the world talk about Jesus. And at the same time, they do not believe in Jesus Christ. I’ve met them. Some of the premier Biblical scholars in the world, the ones who jump the major hurdle for us of translating into English from the Hebrew and Greek, they actively tell you that they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Resurrected Lord. They are fascinated by His life, they are fascinated by His teaching, they are even fascinated by His followers, but they actively reject and deny Jesus Christ as the Lord of all Creation. They talk about Jesus, but they do not believe in Jesus.
And let’s be honest, can you blame them? It is HARD to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ today. It’s HARD. People don’t get up from the graves here in America. I’ve never seen it. Have you? We don’t have video proof of the Resurrection. We don’t even have before and after photographs of Jesus. We just don’t seem to have the proof. Or do we?
First off, let’s get this straight. The Resurrection of Christ from the dead: it happened. There is so much overwhelming historical evidence of it, that it is more sure than even Christopher Columbus discovering America (especially since we know that the Vikings did it nearly 500 years before Columbus). For instance: we have eyewitness testimony of the Resurrection. Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 15:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.Think about it, Paul talks about the 500 people who Jesus appeared to after His Resurrection, and if you don’t believe Paul, he says, go and ask them! Now, we can’t go ask them. They’ve all died. But when Paul is living, when he is writing, so too are most, if not all, of the people who saw Jesus!
More than this, to the truth of the Resurrection, we know that none of the Jews or the Romans could ever hold up a body and say, “Here is Jesus! See, He’s still dead! His disciples are lying to you! Jesus is right here!” In fact, what do they do? They pay off the guards to tell everyone that they were overcome by the disciples who then stole Jesus’ body. Romans don’t pay off guards who fall asleep on the job. They kill them. They execute them. But, for some odd reason, the Romans shift their tactics to let the guards live. The only possible reason is to aid in the cover-up of the Resurrection.
And one last thing for you to consider, all of the Apostles but John, all of them, were killed, murdered, for preaching a Resurrected Christ! All of them! If Jesus wasn’t real, if He wasn’t who He said He was, if He never rose from the grave, why would people die for Him? Why not, even secretly, reject Him in order to save your own life? No sane man died for something he doesn’t believe. No sane man would endure what the Apostles endured if Jesus and His Resurrection were not true. For Jesus, Peter was crucified upside down. For Jesus, Andrew was crucified. For Jesus, Bartholomew was flayed alive and then crucified upside down. For Jesus, James was thrown down from a cliff and then stoned to death. For Jesus, James, the brother of John, was beheaded. For Jesus, Jude was clubbed to death. For Jesus, Matthew was burned and stoned. For Jesus, Philip was stoned by an angry mob. For Jesus, Simon the Zealot was sawn in half. For Jesus, Thomas was speared. For Jesus, Paul was beheaded in Rome.
We have the evidence! The Resurrection is real and true! But, regardless of the evidence, we also know that the Resurrection is true by faith! We believe this.
I said this last week, and I’ll say it again, if you do not believe in the Resurrection, then you will likely be better served in this life by enjoying your Sunday sleeping in, or watching TV, or doing anything other than coming to Church. If you don’t believe that Christ has been raised from the dead, then there is absolutely no point in being here. For, Paul reminds us in 1st Corinthians:
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.We are to be pitied if Christ is not raised from the dead! All the suffering we bear for being Christians, it doesn’t matter! The hope that we have in eternal life, gone, done, and stupid! And if Christ isn’t risen from the dead, and we preach it, or we believe it, then God will judge us ever more harshly because we are LYING ABOUT JESUS!!
But we are not lying about Jesus Christ. We are not lying about the Resurrection. We are not lying about what it means. If Christ is raised from the dead, then we who were baptized into a death like His will also be raised up into a new life like His. We will be raised from the dead. If you don’t believe in the Resurrection of Christ, then there is no point to Christianity because there is no resurrection of the dead! If you don’t believe in Jesus’ Resurrection, you are saying that when you die, there’s nothing! You’re gone!
But the Resurrection of Christ is true and supreme and awesome and glorious! We see that He is truly there. This is historical fact! This is true! Believe this! My friends, I know that in our own sinful bodies and minds, this is difficult. I know that to believe in the Resurrection, well, it seems silly sometimes. Do you find the Resurrection difficult to believe? Then pray with the man who brought his son to Jesus to be healed from a demon. Jesus says, “All things are possible for one who believes.” “Oh, Lord,” the man says, “I believe! Help my unbelief!” The Resurrection will happen. Do you believe this? Do you struggle? Oh, Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!
And the Resurrection, oh the Resurrection, this is what makes Jesus real! If Jesus is not resurrected, your baptism was worthless. If Jesus is not resurrected, the Lord’s Supper does not do anything to you. If Jesus is not resurrected, the forgiveness granted to you from your confession does nothing to forgive you. If Jesus is not resurrected, then NOTHING He said is real, nothing is true. If Jesus is not resurrected, He is a liar and a lunatic who deserved to go to the cross for claiming to be God!
But Jesus IS resurrected. He is real. He is alive! He is Risen! He is even now in His resurrected body, He is seated in the heavenly places, He is with His Father, awaiting His return to this earth to resurrect YOU! He will raise up John Metzger, and Betty Buenger, and Ben Buhr, and Melva Bosecker and every single person you know, believer or not. And Christ tells us, those who do not believe in Him, those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, those who may have only merely talked about Him and not believed in Him, will be sent into the pit of eternal despair prepared for Satan and his minions. But those who have died in the Lord Jesus Christ, those who not only talked about Jesus, but believed in His words, believed in His Resurrection, John, Betty, Ben, and Melva, and so many others, they will be welcomed into the eternal rest of their Resurrected Lord and Savior.
Just as Christ has a physical, resurrected body, so too shall we be raised from the dead, out of our sinful, rotten, decayed flesh, and be given glorious bodies that look like Christ’s body! We will be whole! We will be saved! We will be perfectly made! By Christ’s power, by Christ’s calling, by Christ’s Resurrection, WE will be raised into life forever with Him! We will no longer be talking about Jesus, but we will talk about Jesus and believe.
Dear friends, even now, the Resurrection of the Dead is coming. And we can talk about it, we can talk, talk, talk about how it is coming. Many people do. But if we don’t believe it, if we don’t even believe in Christ’s Resurrection, then your hope is in vain. Your faith is in vain. We are to be pitied and judged and condemned if it is not true. But here, in this church, this morning, we don’t just talk about the Resurrection; we believe it. Oh Lord, I believe in You! I believe in Your promises! I believe in Your Resurrection! Help me, Oh Lord! Help my unbelief!
Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. He is the firstborn of the risen, the firstfruits of the dead, never to die again, never to pass away, always living, always standing, always interceding on our behalf before the Father. This should give you great comfort! Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is risen! He is Risen!
Your cries are heard, my friends. The Lord grants to you faith to believe; do not reject Him. He shall raise you up on the Last Day, and you shall see that your faith was not in vain, for you will see with your own eyes the Lord Jesus Christ, and all unbelief shall pass away. We will see Jesus, and talk about Jesus, and believe in Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Now may the peace that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
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