Resurrection! Luke

Easter Monday, April 9 -- Read Luke 24:1-53

Luke’s story of Easter Day is very full and loaded with interesting details. Many women go to the tomb. Two angels greet them and send them to the disciples. The women do go and tell the disciples, who roundly discount their story, except for Peter, who runs to the tomb and apparently has his own personal encounter with the risen Christ. Meanwhile two followers on the road to Emmaus meet a stranger who spends a good part of the day with them. Although he interprets many passages from Moses and the prophets that tell about the Messiah suffering and dying before he is raised from death, they don’t realize that it is Jesus until he breaks bread with them. As soon as they do recognize him, however, he vanishes from their sight. They race back to tell the disciples and, while they are telling the good news, Jesus mysteriously appears in their midst. Since he is disappearing and appearing at will, it is no wonder that they think he is a ghost. But he shows them his hands and feet – quite substantial – and then he even eats a piece of fish. The author of Luke also wrote the Book of the Acts of the Apostles – and never intended them to be separated by the Gospel of John! They are two chapters of a single story about the mighty acts of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel is the story of the acts of God through one man, Jesus of Nazareth. And the Acts of the Apostles is the story of the acts of God through the members of Christ’s Body, the Church. So the very end of the Gospel of Luke leads naturally into the beginning of the Book of Acts. The risen Christ promises his followers that they will soon receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the meantime, they are to stay and wait for it in Jerusalem (not go on to Galilee as in Mark and Matthew). Jesus ascends into heaven and his followers remain in Jerusalem, going to the Temple each day and rejoicing in his resurrection.

Reflection Questions: In the story of the road to Emmaus Jesus accompanies his followers for a long time, unrecognized. As soon as they do recognize him, he vanishes from their sight. What do you make of that? How does it fit with your experience of the risen Christ?

Prayer: Dear God, you come to me in Jesus to walk with me on my journey. Give me eyes to see Jesus in the faces of strangers and loved ones. Help me tell the good news of your presence and love. Amen.  

Resurrection! Mark and Matthew

Easter Sunday, April 8 -- Read Mark 16:1-8 and Matthew 28:1-20

At last we arrive at the Day of Resurrection towards which we have been moving all throughout Lent! On this day of days we should feel nothing but joy and triumph, right? But the story we encounter in Mark is not a nice ending to the Gospel, all wrapped up in a bow so we won’t have to wonder further. Instead the shock of the resurrection hits us square in the face! Far from remembering Jesus’ words about dying and then being raised on the third day, the women who go to the tomb are undone by what they discover. Mark puts us front and center and gives us a good view of their reaction. Many of the Greek verbs he uses are in the present tense, so that the women “go” to the tomb, and they “see” the stone rolled away. The effect of this is to bring the readers into the scene, almost as if we are accompanying the women. In Mark’s telling, the women discover the empty tomb, and are told by a young man (an angel?) to go and tell the disciples that Jesus is risen and awaiting them in Galilee. The women, however, are so overcome with awestruck fear and ecstasy that they bolt from the tomb and say nothing to anyone. This leaves the story unfinished, perhaps so the reader will be moved to complete the story herself. Matthew, writing later, knows a story of Jesus appearing to the women as they leave the tomb and then adds an account of Jesus’ appearance to his eleven remaining disciples on a mountain in Galilee. Here Jesus sends them out into the world to make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They see Jesus and worship him, although some still doubt. If it’s any comfort, the earliest affirmation of the resurrection (formed within 2 or 3 years after it happened) is reported by Paul in I Corinthians 15:3-8: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James (Jesus’ brother), then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” Paul basically says, “Look Jesus appeared to this whole bunch of people, most of whom are still alive. If you have any doubts, go ask them!” Paul writes his letter long before Mark or Matthew are written. But, each in their own way, Mark and Matthew preserve the sheer amazement of Jesus’ resurrection.  

Reflection Question: Clearly Christ’s resurrection is unexpected even to those who know him best. It is revolutionary, frightening and mind-boggling. Far from absorbing it easily, Jesus’ followers struggle to come to terms with what it means for them. How does Jesus’ resurrection affect you?

Prayer: Dear God, your ways and powers are far beyond mine. A world where Jesus is raised from death is not safe and ordinary, but it opens me to mystery. Help me get my bearings. Amen.

Seven Last Words

Holy Saturday, April 7 -- Jesus on the Cross – Seven Last Words

For Holy Saturday, let us read and reflect on the Seven Last Words of Christ. According to Wikipedia, here is the traditional order of these words of Jesus, spoken from the cross:

1. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).
2. Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).
3. Woman, behold your son: behold your mother (John 19:26-27).
4. My God, My God, why have you forsaken me (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34).
5. I thirst (John 19:28).
6. It is finished (John 19:30).
7. Father, into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46).

According to the International Standard Bible, these seven sayings are traditionally called words of        1. Forgiveness, 2. Salvation, 3. Relationship, 4. Abandonment, 5. Distress, 6. Triumph and 

      7. Reunion.

Reflection Questions: As you read these words, which one of them speaks most to you today? Why?

Prayer: Dear God, may my thoughts be with Jesus this day. As he rests secure in your love, let me rest secure in his. Amen.

Jesus’ Trial and Crucifixion

Good Friday, April 6 – Read Matthew 27:1-66

Here we find the story of Judas’ too late change of heart, then of Jesus’ trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and Jesus’ torture by flogging and execution on a cross. Finally, Matthew tells us of his burial and the guard placed on Jesus’ tomb. In Matthew Jesus says only one thing from the cross: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Jesus has always had faith in God’s presence and desire to help him, but now on the cross, Jesus feels deserted. His experience of the pain and terror that life can bring is the same as ours. Why is this necessary? Why does Jesus have to die such a brutal death? 

One answer sometimes proposed is that Jesus takes upon himself the punishment that we deserve. The argument is that a just God cannot simply overlook our sins and that only God’s Son has a worth more than equivalent to all the wrongdoing of human beings. So God, exacting justice, crucifies Jesus in our place, and by paying the price Jesus wins our forgiveness. This answer, however, leaves God without the ability to forgive that even a human parent routinely offers. Indeed, it leaves God brittle and bloodthirsty. 

A better understanding, I believe, is that it is God who takes up residence on the earth in the life of Jesus. Far from staying up in heaven, exacting justice on an innocent son, God is present to us in Jesus, suffering at our hands to reveal the full depth of God’s love and the folly of human violence. In the prophet Jeremiah, God promises to make a new covenant with us. God says that God will take the law and write it upon our hearts. Then we will no longer need to teach one another about God, for all of us will know God intuitively. This new covenant is what God creates in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The picture of Jesus beaten, bleeding and crucified is a living love letter to the human race. If and when we really allow ourselves to look at that picture and see that it is a picture of God’s love, our hearts do change. We are born again.

Reflection Question: Take some time to picture the scene of Jesus’ death in your mind. The God to whom you pray, the God who gave you life and who accompanies you day by day is there on the cross, suffering and dying to show you the extent of God’s love. What does that mean to you?

Prayer: Dear God, thank you. Thank you for my life. Thank you for your great love. Amen.

Last Supper; Matthew's Account

Maundy Thursday, April 5 – Read Matthew 26:17-75

This is the more familiar account of the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas’ betrayal, Jesus’ arrest and questioning before the Council, and Peter’s denial. It begins with Jesus sharing a meal he has longed to eat and in the process giving his future followers the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Although the sacrament will eventually become a source of great strength and inspiration in the life of his Church, on this night the meal dissolves into a night of betrayal and denial, when evil strikes the shepherd and the sheep scatter. Judas slinks away to betray Jesus. In the Garden, Jesus wishes that there was another way for him instead of the way of the cross. While he is praying for God’s guidance and strength, his human followers fall asleep. Peter promises to die with him if necessary, but denies him three times. All his followers desert him to save their lives. And Jesus is finally left in the hands of those who long to kill him.

Reflection Question: Betrayal, denial, desertion… on Maundy Thursday we must all ask ourselves, “How am I like Jesus’ followers?”

Prayer: Dear God, you know me inside out. You know all the ways that I desert Jesus when the chips are down. Forgive me. Strengthen me. Call Jesus to come to life inside me. Amen.