Too Good to Be True

Luke 24:36-49

Last week, Easter Sunday, I talked about the transformation that took place on Easter morning. In the period between Good Friday, the crucifixion of Jesus, and Easter when he was resurrected from the dead, the disciples of Jesus lived in an environment of despair, discouragement and fear. The sermon last week talked about the transformation that took place with the resurrection of Jesus, transforming despair into hope, discouragement into encouragement and fear into boldness.

This morning, in order to understand the text for today, it is necessary to return to the time between Good Friday and Easter. The text for today sits in the environment of despair, discouragement and fear. Actually, the text sits in the beginning of the transition from despair to hope. It is still dark but there is a hint that the sky will soon be light. It is still winter but there are hints that spring is just around the corner.

The disciples, this first Easter morning, are in hiding, meeting in a room with all the doors locked and they are talking. There is no indication how long they have been hiding in this room but it is obviously a place that was known to all of them and at some point during the weekend, after they had fled the garden of Gethsemane and after Jesus had been buried, they had begun to gather in this room.

What was the discussion that took place? No one knows. Perhaps there was no discussion. Perhaps with the despair, discouragement and fear they were experiencing, they had nothing to say and just sat in silence. Even Peter who could always be counted on to break the silence might have been so broken at his denial of Jesus that he sat there silent.

But the morning of this text, the first Easter Sunday, I am confident there was no silence. First there were the reports of the women who said they saw the empty tomb. Furthermore, angels had spoken to them saying Jesus had risen from the dead. And then there was even a report that Jesus had met and spoken with the women. Could this be true?

Peter, upon hearing the news, ran out with John, to see for himself and came back wondering at what he had seen. What did this mean? The fact that the tomb was empty was unquestionable and I imagine the discussion was intense. Had the guards stolen the body? Were they in some way mistaken about which tomb Jesus had been laid in? No, they were certain about which tomb it was. So what then?

But then comes the report of Cleopas and another disciple who say they have talked with Jesus and broken bread with him. But the details of their story only provoke more discussion. They say they did not recognize Jesus until he broke bread with them. Why is this? How could it be Jesus if it did not look like him? Is this some impersonator trying to take advantage of the followers of Jesus who died? Was this some psychological response to grief? Meeting someone who was impressive and transferring to him the identity of Jesus?

When you read the account of the resurrection of Jesus in Luke, realize that today’s text comes at the end of a long day. The women went to the tomb that morning, at daybreak, only to find Jesus was not there. The disciples received this report early in the morning. Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves and came back wondering what had happened. Cleopas and his companion don’t come to the disciples until after the sun has set. There was a lot of time for thinking, reflecting and discussing that day.

In the telling of the story of Jesus appearing to Cleopas, there is reference made about an appearance Jesus made to Peter himself. It is apparent that Luke is running out of room in his papyrus scroll and is having to condense this last part of the Gospel story. I  wish there had been another few centimeters in the scroll so Luke could have written about Jesus’ first encounter with Peter. Is it possible that John’s account of Jesus asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?” is the appearance Luke references but does not include? I don’t know, but at any point, the setting for the text today includes Peter having seen the resurrected Jesus.

I’m certain the room was not quiet when Jesus first appeared to them. Multiple conversations were taking place. Before reading the text for this morning, let’s summarize what evidence there is thus far that maybe, perhaps, Jesus is alive. First, the women said they saw angels who said Jesus had risen from the dead and that the tomb was empty. Peter and John saw for themselves that the tomb was empty. Peter said he too had seen Jesus alive. And then Cleopas and his companion said Jesus appeared to them, talked with them and broke bread with them. And now we come to the text.

36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.  38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?  39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.  41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”  42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,  43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.

In the sermon this morning, I want to ask two questions and then talk about the difficulty of belief and Jesus’ response to our difficulty in believing.

The first question is this: Why is it that Jesus does not look like he did before he died? The fact that Mary Magdalene, Cleopas and his companion, Peter and the other disciples do not recognize Jesus after he resurrected from the dead has given rise to many conspiracy theories about the start of Christianity. Some have said that it is obvious that Jesus did not raise from the dead and that some person engineered a scam to trick people.

When Lazarus was raised from the dead, there was none of this confusion. Lazarus after he was raised from the grave looked pretty much like he did before he died. The crowds came to see this miracle Jesus had performed and no one disputed that this was Lazarus.

But in this case, every time Jesus appears to someone, he has to break bread, show them his hands, side or feet, in some way make them know who he is? Why is this?

In a letter from Paul to the Corinthians, he writes to them of the resurrection body.

35 But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”  36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.  38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.  39 All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.  40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;  43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;  44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—  52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

When we die our physical death, we will receive a new resurrection body. It is a bit of a mystery to me how Paul received insights about these things, but it is clear that he did. This was not something he learned in Rabbinic school studying at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel. But at any rate, this teaching is backed up by the resurrected Jesus and leads me to make a few observations.

Who am I? Am I a 6’2″ descendent of Europeans with a mustache, glasses and a balding head? That may be how you recognize me but that is not who I am. Someone could come to me and study my appearance and become familiar enough with how I look that he could spot me in a large crowd of people. He could count the hairs on my head and know every mark on my body but he would still not know me.

To know me is to know what is on the inside of me, my personality, the way I think about things, what makes me laugh, what makes my cry. To know me is to know me in spirit.

There are movies where the plot centers on a mother and daughter or some two other people exchanging bodies and then the comedy begins. If I were to exchange bodies with someone in this room, where would you go to find me? You would come looking first for the physical Jack Wald, but then to find me, you would have to look for the body that contains my spirit. My spirit is who I am.

This is how I think of the resurrected Jesus. His heavenly body did not resemble his earthly body, but his spirit was the same and when he revealed his spirit to them, he was recognized.

This though leads to the second question: Why when Jesus resurrected with a new, heavenly body did he keep the scars of his resurrection?

If a friend has an accident with his car and takes it to be repaired and has the auto body shop replace all the broken parts and give the car a new coat of paint so it looks like new but leaves the dents from the accident as they were, wouldn’t you wonder why he went to all the trouble of fixing the car but not smoothing out the dents?

So why go to all the work of defeating death and being resurrected and keep the scars of the old body? Does this mean our spirit will get a new resurrection body but the scars of this life will remain on the new body? I don’t think so. But the scars of Jesus are not ordinary scars.

I have a scar on my right hand that is the result of trying to pull a cork out of a broken bottle I found in a junk pile. There is no redeeming value in that scar.

But what if that scar was from an attempt to defend someone in trouble. That scar has more value then, doesn’t it? And if I die by falling on a hand grenade in a battle so my comrades will not be killed, the wound from that act of courage has a lot of value because it saved the lives of the others around me.

But even in this act, the most noble act we are capable of as human beings, only the physical life of my comrades were saved.

When Jesus was crucified, he did not save us from physical death. We will all die a physical death and if someone saves our life, we will still die, only at a later time. When Jesus died for us, he saved us from eternal, spiritual death so the scars he bears are scars of honor and beauty. To see the resurrected Jesus is to see the physical evidence of his amazing act of love for us. The scars on his hands and feet and sides speak to us of his love. The resurrected body of Jesus carries those scars as medals of honor.

Those are the questions that came to my mind when I read this text, now to the difficulty of belief and Jesus’ response to that difficulty.

Let’s review the day’s events prior to Jesus appearing in the locked room. Early in the morning, some of the women came to the disciples telling them they had gone to the tomb. Jesus was not there but some angels said he had risen from the dead. And Mary Magdalene said she had seen him. She thought he was the gardener but discovered it to be him.

Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves and came back wondering what the empty tomb meant. At some point in the day, Jesus appeared to Peter. I suspect it was toward the end of the day, not many hours before Cleopas and his friend came back to report that they had seen Jesus.

So it is evening, dark by this time. The disciples are buzzing with the reports they have received, telling Cleopas, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”  They seem to believe the good news.  And then Jesus appears to them. That should be the end of the story, shouldn’t it? So why are they so startled when Jesus appears to them?

37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.

The only other time the word ghost is used in the Bible is when the disciples saw Jesus walking to them on the water. They were afraid that time because his walking on water was so unexpected and supernatural. But this time his appearance is not unexpected. There have been multiple accounts of Jesus appearing. His appearance among them should not have been such a shock. Do you think it is because he didn’t knock and wait for them to unlock the door and then come in the room as he did before he died?

The truth is that we have a difficult time believing sometimes. In Acts, when Peter was in prison waiting to be executed, the believers gathered to pray he would be released. Peter was released and knocked on the door of the house where the believers were praying

13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door.  14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

It’s comical isn’t it? But it is a matter of reality that we can hear something and believe what we hear without really believing.

So what does Jesus do? Does he say, “Look, what do I have to do to make you believe? I’ve been appearing to people left and right all day long and I expected to get a better response from you. You deserted me when I needed you and now you stubbornly refuse to believe it is me. Forget it, I’ll go out and get some new disciples.”

Notice how patiently and persistently Jesus continues to help them believe.

38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?  39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

Now certainly that should have been enough for the disciples to believe. But this next verse is really quite incredible. If you doubt the historicity of the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus, this detail alone could be convincing.

41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”  42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,  43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.

It was just too good to be true. The picture that comes to my mind is that of a little boy on Christmas morning. He has been praying and praying for a red fire truck for Christmas. It’s all he has been able to talk about day after day and night after night. Then he wakes up Christmas morning, goes to the Christmas tree and underneath sits a beautiful, shiny, red fire truck and he sits there with a look of wonder on his face rubbing his eyes to make sure he is not seeing things. It is too good to be true.

The disciples have come from despair, discouragement and fear and have not yet been transformed into men and women of hope, encouragement and boldness. But all day long they have been in the process of being transformed. They have heard reports they can scarcely believe are true and then they actually see him themselves. He speaks to them. He shows them his scars. And he eats a fish to prove to them he is not a ghost or a figment of their imagination. What is too good to be true turns out to be true.

He walks with them all the way through their struggle to believe to belief.

Jesus may have a new resurrection body, but he has the same spirit. The parables he taught talked about his shameless pursuit of those who are lost. The father of the prodigal son who allowed himself to be disgraced by giving his son his share of the inheritance before he died and then picked up his robes and ran to meet his son before the villagers could humiliate him. This is the same Jesus. There is nothing he will not do to help those who have difficulty in believing.

Thomas is absent when Jesus appears to the disciples and when he returns, he refuses to believe, even though fellow disciple after fellow disciple tell him what they saw and heard and touched. So Jesus returns again to the disciples when Thomas is there and invites him to
“Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

This is good news for us this morning. There are probably some here this morning who have not believed, who along with Thomas and the other disciples, doubted. The good news for you is that Jesus will walk with you all the way to belief. Jesus will do everything in his power, other than forcing you against your will, to help you believe and receive his gift of salvation. He is not angry that you do not believe. He is patient, helping you along the way to belief.

This is good news for those of us who are Christians who have family members and friends who are not willing to receive Jesus’ gift of salvation. Jesus will walk with them all the way to belief.

Sadly, there are some who harden their hearts and refuse to accept that free gift of Jesus. But we rejoice in the grace that allowed us to open our lives to Jesus who pursued us.

That is certainly my story. I had a number of encounters with God in my life before I submitted to him and received his free gift. As a fourteen year old, I remember going to a chapel that was open at night and praying for help. I was on a church trip to Florida and having a difficult time with some of my peers. I prayed for help and the rest of the trip was much better.

But then I forgot all about that. I went my own way. I ridiculed my oldest sister who came home from college having become a Christian, even though I thought about what she said.

In college, God brought people to me who talked about having a relationship with God through Jesus. A number of people spoke to me and encouraged me. I began to know that God was watching me but I had not yet submitted to him.

I went in March 1971 to Chicago to visit my oldest sister and her husband. I spent the week asking Bruce questions about the Bible. How could this be true? What about all the contradictions in the Bible?

Then on Sunday we went to a church where David Mains was pastor and people stood up to tell their stories of how God appeared to them. A young, blond, construction worker spoke about how he had found Jesus. He was very embarrassed at speaking in front of a large group. He didn’t speak very eloquently. But as he spoke I said to God, “OK, I’ll give my life to you, but not here in front of all these people.” And on the plane back to Boston I began my life journey with Jesus.

Jesus is not done appearing. Through the Holy Spirit, he continues to appear to us and has done so to people all over the world for the last two thousand years. He is doing so now in North Africa, in Morocco.

What is your appearance story? How did Jesus appear to you? I’d like you to form groups of eight or ten people. One pew turn to face another. And then I’d like, in the next four minutes, for one person in your group to tell your story of how Jesus appeared to you. How did you come to believe and follow Jesus. Don’t be shy. I believe that in each group there is a person God wants to use to bless the lives of the others in the group. If you are feeling an urge to share, than it may be you. If you are feeling nervous, your hands are sweating and your pulse is racing, it is probably you who needs to share.

What is your appearance story?