March 31, 2024, Easter Sunday Sermon
March 31, 2024: Easter Sunday - Scriptures: Luke 24:1-12, 36-48
Sermon: He Set His Face to Go to Jerusalem and Has Risen! By Pastor Jenn
If on that first Easter day, the risen Jesus was gathered with his friends and was in a playful mood, after all he just overcame death, and at this point in the evening he would have a full stomach, he might invite the disciples to join him in the memory game “I’m going on a journey” (it’s a game where each person says what they will bring and as you go around the group, the players have to try to remember what the others are bringing, building up to see who has the best memory of all the things they brought on the journey).
So, in that upper room it might go something like this: Jesus starts out, I’m going on a journey and I’m bringing disciples. And the women say: I’m going on the journey and bringing disciples and ears to listen.
And the men say they are going on a journey and bringing disciples and ears to listen and faithfulness to follow Jesus.
Then Jesus would add the following: the Samaritan who showed mercy, the birds of the air proving God’s providence; a bent over woman released on the Sabbath; and grace and persistence. (Yes, all the texts we studied during the Lenten season)
If the disciples of Jesus would be able to remember all that he said, they would add in their rabbi’s tears over the city of Jerusalem and in a garden, the cross, and the tomb. Here is where the game probably pauses, because for most of the people in the game, this is where they thought the journey had come to its end.
However, it wasn’t the end, Jesus rose from the grave, and so the journey continues for those who follow and believe in him.
Today I want to suggest that the risen Lord offers us three more items to take on journeys of faith, items he offered his disciples that first Easter, and items extended to us today. The first is peace. When the risen Christ makes his appearance to the original eleven disciples in the upper room, notice his first words are: v 36“Peace be with you.” The Hebrew of course would be “Shalom,” which is a greeting for communal well-being. And yet, in the gospel of Luke, peace is often used for “salvation,” meaning being saved by God, for God’s goodness and mercy. Beginning back in chapter 2 when the angels sing of peace on earth to the third shift shepherds working in the fields, it wasn’t a communal well wish for the Hebrew people, rather it was God’s gift of peace for all people, God’s salvation, given n Jesus.
I’m currently reading The House that Love Built, written by Sarah Jackson, who through a mission trip discovered the difficult plight of immigrants in our country, and felt called by God to open a house near Denver, where there is a federal immigrant detention facility. Her idea is that family members can come stay at the house while they go to visit their relatives in the detention center. She chose to call the house, Casa de Paz which means House of Peace. Since she began the program in 2012 10,000 guests from eighty countries have come and stayed at Casa de Paz. And the volunteers who assist this program number around 2,000, made up of local church members, elected leaders, senators, college professors, local police, and even the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Together they all work to do things like hosting the visiting relatives but also receiving the recently released from the detention center with no place to go; feeding them, clothing them, accompanying them to court dates and helping arrange travel to be reunited with loved ones when the process is complete. The founder writes, “We do anything we can think of to alleviate their pain to make them feel worthy of lovingkindness-because God says they are worthy.” p 6 House of Peace strives to be a place of shalom, peace, salvation for all immigrants and their families too.
The first words of the risen Christ are words of peace, shalom, salvation, and we are invited to take that peace with us and live it out on our faith journeys, proving God’s salvation is offered to all.
The second thing the risen Christ offers for our journey is enlightenment. The text states, 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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.
While a number of Christians are uncomfortable reading the Old Testament of our Bible, it was the only holy word the disciples knew and were raised on. After the exiles, the local temples organized education for the boys. They would be taught the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, and then eventually the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. All the male disciples of Jesus would know these texts. The girls were taught the scriptures when they attended temple for services or at home by their parents. But mainly they were taught domestic duties described in Scriptures and its commentaries. The scriptures were the guidebook for the Jewish family in Jesus’ day. It was their way, their truth, their life. It directed them in how to live, how to interact with others, how to serve each other and God. And on that first Easter morning, the risen Jesus appears and opens their minds to have a greater understanding, that the texts they studied, memorized, obeyed, and followed every day. He opened their minds to see how it all pointed to him, the fulfillment of God’s plan.
Remember how earlier in Luke’s gospel Jesus went to the Temple in his hometown of Nazareth and read from the words of Isaiah “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And after reading it, stated “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” God sent Jesus, and in Jesus, God’s past, present, and future worked together for salvation. By opening their minds to understand the scripture, Jesus helped the disciples become better equipped to share his good news.
Today the risen Christ offers to open all our minds to Scripture too, may we always be open to such enlightenment by his words and the guidance of the Spirit so that we can be better equipped to share his good news.
Which leads to the third item the risen Christ offers for our journey is proclamation. Let me explain. The first Easter morning starts out with disciples, but the day ends with them becoming apostles. What’s the difference? The Greek word for “disciple” simply refers to a learner and is used throughout the New Testament to refer to people who believed in Jesus and followed Him. The Greek word for “apostle” means “one who is sent” and refers to those sent on a mission.
If we go back to our first lesson from Luke this morning, the one where the women go to treat Jesus’ body, as they were walking to the tomb, they were probably reflecting about all the things they learned on their journey with Jesus. But after seeing the empty tomb they witnessed a miracle that took all their worries and fears away. In fact, after the angels announce Jesus has risen, the text states in verse 8 Then they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. Notice Luke writes they went and proclaimed all this to the apostles. In their act of love for their teacher, their friend, and their witness of what occurred, they became the first apostles, and Luke states the others become apostles through their witness.
Now I am not sharing all this to be a feminist, and rise up all the ladies in the house, Luke does that, as well as Mark, Matthew, and John. My point is, today salvation is offered to all of us with peace, as the Word has enlightened us, now we must live out what we trust, what we believe, what we have been sent to share. We must be apostles.
Michal Beth Dinkler, Assistant Professor of New Testament at Yale Divinity School puts it like this: when we love God, neighbor, and ourselves with our words and our actions, we render Christ visible in a world where the divine all too often seems absent. We draw community together, instead of being pulled apart by fear, confusion, grief, and distress. When we do that—draw attention to a deeper reality that is often hard to remember or believe—God is still present and working in the world. Death does not, and will not, have the last word. That good news—that gospel—is what Christians proclaim when we say that Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed.[1]
Friends, life is a journey, and today our journeys are all invited to receive the risen Lord who gives us peace and enlightenment. Furthermore, he invites us to proclaim, God is still at work to save and help all. And the proof of that proclamation is in our words and actions that state Christ is risen. Therefore, may we be the apostles who strive to bring about just mercy for all, laying aside our prejudicial feelings and emotions. (like Casa de Paz), And may we trust in God’s care and presence as we see God’s care and presence in creation.
May we welcome each Sabbath as a time to be set free from whatever holds us and others down. reinvigorated by the Spirit. And may we pray, pray with our tears over what is happening around us, pray for the pain and sorrow so many are experiencing in a painful world. But most of all, may we trust God’s salvation of good will for all, always has the last word. (like the fact that childhood mortality rate has decreased worldwide- through science, healthcare workers and their strategies, as well as through families, thanks be to God our children are living longer![2])
May we as apostles proclaim all of that and more with our words and actions on our journeys of faith because Christ is risen, he is risen indeed! Amen.
[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/resurrection-3/commentary-on-luke-241-12-7
[2] Weekly news 3/18/2024