Luke’s Easter Story

Luke’s Easter Story

May 1, 2022

Luke 24: 13 - 35

I am breaking the rules this morning.  Well, I am not following the suggestions is probably more accurate.  The scripture lessons assigned for last Sunday and today are from the Gospel of John – the account that we are told to read every year.  But all four gospels have Easter stories.  And the several stories do not always agree.  Today and maybe next Sunday we will stay with the Gospel of Luke and hear what he reported, writing about year 85ce. 

          Do you remember the opening verses of the first chapter of Luke’s gospel?  He notes that 1:1“many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3I too decided, after investigating everything carefully for a long time, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.”  (Theo – God, Philus – lover.  Theophilus is apparently Luke’s patron, providing him the money needed to research and write the Gospel – the story of Jesus -- and the Book of Acts – the history of the early Christian movement.)  So that we may know about the Easter story, we will listen to Luke’s researched report.

          Luke’s report of Easter Sunday morning is not exactly what we read most years; more often we read from the Gospel of John.  Luke says that several women who had come from Galilee to Jerusalem with Jesus (including but not just Mary Magdalene) see the rock moved away from the cave or tomb in which Jesus’ body had been placed.  And they went in and found that Jesus’ body was not there.  Then two young men “in dazzling clothes” suddenly stood beside them and told them that Jesus is risen, just as he told them when they were in Galilee.  But they did not see Jesus there by the tomb as Mary Magdalene did in the Gospel of John.

          The women went and told the eleven (remember that Judas has killed himself and is not yet replaced) 9and all the rest of those who had come from Galilee.  But the women’s words 11”seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”

          A verse that is not in all manuscripts and that may be a later addition says that 12Peter (but only Peter) ran to the tomb and found it like the women had said and left “amazed at what had happened.”  (There is no statement that Peter had seen Jesus.)

          That afternoon (Easter Sunday afternoon) Cleopas and another, unnamed follower, perhaps his wife, were apparently going home to Emmaus from Jerusalem, talking about all the things that had happened that weekend.  A man they didn’t know joined them as they walked and asked them about the things they were discussing:  the mighty prophet, Jesus, who was condemned to death and crucified.  21“But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel,” they said.  Since it had been three days already, there was no doubt that Jesus was dead – the science of the day.  22“Moreover, some women of our group astounded us.  They were at the tomb early this morning 22and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.  24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”

          That man then shared with the two how the prophets had predicted all of these things would happen in order for the Messiah to 26“enter into his glory.”  27”Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about Jesus in all the scriptures.”

          You remember the story.  The man acted like he was going on, but the two invited, urged him to stay with them because night was setting in – there were no streetlights, you know.  He stayed and 30“when he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them.  31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him (that he was Jesus, very much alive); and he vanished from their sight.”

          Even though it was almost evening, the two Jesus disciples walked back to Jerusalem where they found the eleven and their companions.  And they found them saying 34”The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon (Peter)!”  [That is interesting because Luke reports that Peter saw the tomb empty but that he did not see Jesus.]

          Cleopas and his partner told 35“what had happened on the road, and how he (Jesus) had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

          Going a little past the end of our reading, Luke reports that while the group of the eleven and other disciples were talking about the events of the day, including the report on the Road to Emmaus, that 36“Jesus himself stood among them.  After all of their excitement and rejoicing that Jesus was raised and alive, 37they “were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost” when Jesus appeared in their midst.  They believed and didn’t believe that he was risen and alive.

          Many people today seem to struggle with this story; they want to believe that Jesus is alive but really cannot.  The pieces of the story simply don’t all fit together or maybe it is that some pieces of the story are missing.  We probably make it harder for them when we want to insist that Jesus was raised a human body, argued in this text and “proven” by Jesus’ eating some broiled fish. 

          St. Paul’s suggestion of a “spiritual” body – undefined by Paul – or his reference to the person of heaven seem to fit most of Jesus’ activities as Luke tells this story.  Maybe that is good news; we won’t have to take these weary bodies to heaven with us; we can just let them rest in the cemetery as decaying flesh or ashes.

          But the nature of the non-physical body is not the crux of the matter.  Luke offers his insights saying, 47“that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.”  And his telling us this story makes us secondhand witnesses of these things.  Our own experiences of the Sacred in whatever forms they have come to you and me make us firsthand witnesses.

          Luke proclaims that Jesus is about repentance and forgiveness.  So that is what we are to be about.

          Repentance is turning our lives around and living new lives following The Way, as Mark names the early Jesus movement.  To piggyback on last Sunday’s sermon, we are to walk that new way of life, following the examples of Jesus’ teachings.

The forgiveness means that wherever we have been or whatever we may have done, this gospel is for us; we are forgiven the past to be open to the transformation of our repentance.  But not only we are forgiven, everyone else is forgiven, too.  Everyone else is forgiven in order to be turned around, joining and following in the Way of Jesus, helping God’s kingdom come on earth just like it is in heaven.

That is what the Easter story is about.  That is what Mt. Salem Church is about.  That is what we need to be about.  Let us be forgiven of all that is past.  And let us turn around our lives to live Jesus’ way:  helping to bring the Kingdom of God into reality here in our fellowship and here in our Highlands community.

Happy Easter on this Third Sunday of Easter.  Happy forgiveness of everything before now.  Happy repentance, happy transformation from who we were to whom we are becoming in our new lives, living The Way – the way Jesus taught.

Oh happy day that we joined God’s Kingdom, loving our neighbors, walking in the faith, and learning to talk about how God is making us new – as if we were born again in Jesus, our Christ.

                                                          Amen.

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