First Reading Acts 3:11-21
11While {the lame man who had been healed} clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. 12And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16And his name — by faith in his name — has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. 17And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”
Psalm Psalm 4
1Answer me when I call, O God, defender of my cause; you set me free when I am hard-pressed; have mercy on me and hear my prayer. 2“You mortals, how long will you dishonor my glory; how long will you worship dumb idols and run after false gods?” 3Know that the Lord does wonders for the faithful; when I call upon the Lord, he will hear me. 4Tremble, then, and do not sin; speak to your heart in silence upon your bed. 5Offer the appointed sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. 6Many are saying, “Oh, that we might see better times!” Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord. 7You have put gladness in my heart, more than when grain and wine and oil increase. 8I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep; for only you, Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Second Reading 1 John 3:1-7
1See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
Gospel Luke 24:36-49
36As {the disciples} were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” 37But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39See 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.” 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate before them. 44Then 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.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Bringing Life to a Party
Over the years, Fred Karger has crashed hundreds of high-profile parties and celebrity events earning him the unofficial title of the “World’s Greatest Party Crasher.” He even ended up several years ago on the stage at the Academy Awards and at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner for President Obama. Karger claims there is no high-profile party or wedding or funeral or political event he can’t crash. He says the key to being a successful party crasher is to look confident, as if you belong there, and no one will question you.
Our gospel lesson for today made me think of Fred Karger and the “art” of party-crashing. The party crasher in this case was Jesus. What’s worth noting is that it wasn’t a party until Jesus suddenly appears. Before Jesus showed up, the disciples were hiding for fear of the Jews (John 20:19). Jesus was the last person they expected to see that night. After His crucifixion, the disciples were trying to sort out the meaning of the reports they had been receiving about the appearances of the risen Christ.
If you were to look back to the verses just prior to today’s lesson (vs. 19-35) you’ll find the account of Jesus and the two men He met with on the road to Emmaus. In verse 33 Luke records, “[The two men] rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and “has appeared to Simon!” Then they told them what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.” And this wasn’t the only report they had received.
Add to this the fact that they were still processing the story the women who went to the tomb early that day had told them, and the fact that Peter and John had seem the empty tomb as well. Then, as you heard last week, there was the difficulty Thomas was having with all of this. Additionally, the religious leaders had paid the guards at the tomb to spread lies that the disciples had come in the night and stolen Jesus’ body. I’m sure all this was causing considerable confusion among those who were gathered. And then suddenly, Jesus is standing in their midst as He had promised Mary. You can imagine their shock and astonishment. But it’s important for us to see that at first it was difficult for all His followers to deal with Christ’s resurrection.
The disciples were gathered together in one place and the crucified Christ himself stood among them. The disciples were startled and frightened. Then Jesus said to them, “Peace to you! Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself . . .” The response of the disciples is a sermon in itself. Luke tells us that they “disbelieved for joy . . .” It was simply too wonderful to be true. Christ was alive and He was with them—right there . . . in their presence! So the stories they were being told about Him being alive were indeed true. Christ had indeed been raised from the dead.
They saw Him tortured. They witnessed His long walk to Golgotha. They saw the nails driven through His feet and hands into the wooden beams. They heard His last words, and they witnessed the sky go dark. They knew He had been sealed in a tomb. With all that had transpired, it’s no wonder they had difficulty believing. I’m certain you know people who have that same problem today. Many desperately want to believe but something holds them back.
Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest who has spent decades ministering in the toughest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. He is the founder of Home Boy Industries, which provides jobs and counseling to young men who have been released from prison. In an interview, Boyle told the story of José, a young man from the streets. When José was six years old, his mother told him to kill himself because no one wanted him. Think about those tragic words for a moment. When he was nine, she abandoned him at an orphanage. His grandmother assumed custody of José, but she beat him brutally. It’s no wonder that when José grew up, he turned to drugs and gangs, and eventually crime to deal with his painful past.
José ended up in prison, which turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to him, because it was there that he heard the message of Jesus. Through a prison ministry, he learned that Jesus was the sole embodiment of God’s love and that He came to die for us on the cross to take away our sins and give us new life. As José told Greg Boyle about his background, he showed him some of his scars, the scars from his childhood beatings, his drug use and rough living. Since accepting God’s grace, José is no longer ashamed of his scars. As he said, “How could I help other wounded people if I did not make friends of my wounds?” The risen Jesus showed the disciples His scars not only as proof, but also because He was sending them out to do the work the Father had sent Him to do—to save wounded people. They had to be eyewitnesses so they could boldly proclaim the limitless love of God.
There are many people who desperately want to believe, but they’re held back from believing for several reasons. For one, some people have difficulty believing that God really cares about hurting people so much that He would give His life for them. Some are more comfortable with an impersonal God. The idea of God with nail prints in His hands, feet and side, because of His great love for us, is an idea they’re not ready for.
Professor Maria Teresa Dávila put it this way: she writes that Jesus’ resurrected body shows His disciples that the triumph of life over death is “not a victory without cost.” God’s love for us required that He humble Himself, give up His power and authority, took on human form, and suffered humiliation, injustice, persecution, torture and death to save us. As Dávila writes, “Victory didn’t erase the scars. He continued to carry on His very skin the evidence of a life lived in complete commitment to God’s love and justice.” The claims of the gospels can, for some, seem outrageous.
The divine Creator of all that lives and moves and has its being came down to earth and suffered and died to say to us that no one on this earth is beyond God’s love and concern. This is hard for many to conceive. In trying to deal with the meaning of the cross on which Christ died, the early church came to understand that those nail prints in the hands and feet of the Master should have been ours. But instead, God so loved the world that He sent His own Son to bear the burden brought about by the iniquities of us all. A good many people simply can’t believe that God really cares about them that much. They must see the evidence. You and I are called to show the evidence in our witness and our lives.
A few years ago, Christian Century magazine carried the story of a young student at Yale Divinity School named Lou Marshall. Marshall moved into a poor and violent neighborhood in New York City to work with gang members. At one point, Marshall was able to negotiate a temporary truce between two rival gangs, the Playboys and the Young Untouchables. But on his way home from the mediation talks, four gang members who resisted the truce attacked Lou Marshall and beat him unconscious on the street. Two days later, Marshall died.
At his memorial service, Reverend Howard Moody summed up the tragedy of this event like this: “Some people will say that the crumbling pavement on which he died wasn’t worth his life—he was so full of promise and hope. Others might say that he was foolish to become involved in a way that was so dangerous. Still, I believe that street has been made more holy because a man’s blood was shed—a man who had the courage to stand for what he believed was right.” Jesus’ love, obedience and courage was rooted in His love for humanity.
Jesus knew we could never work hard enough or be good enough by our own efforts to stand in the presence of the most high and holy God. So Christ atoned for our sins with His holy blood and covered us with His righteous that we might be reconciled to God the Father. He paid the price for our sins thereby freeing us from bondage to sin and the power of death. It’s like a judge a few years ago in Fairfax County, Virginia who heard a landlord-tenant dispute for a landlord who wanted to evict a deaf couple who couldn’t afford to pay their back rent.
Judge Donald McDonough was accustomed to dealing with more than 100 landlord-tenant disputes on an average Friday, so this wasn’t the first time he was called upon to adjudicate a situation like this. But there was something about this deaf couple and their grim situation that touched Judge McDonough’s heart. Before he rendered his judgment, he excused himself from the bench and went back to his chambers. A few minutes later, he returned with $250 cash, the exact amount of money the deaf couple owed in back rent. He handed it to the landlord’s attorney as he pronounced his judgment: “Consider it paid.”
These are words Jesus speaks to us each and every time we confess our sins to God. Our sins, our debt, our failures are forgiven and of the debt we owe, Jesus says, “Consider it paid.” The cross, the empty grave, the wounds in Jesus’ hands, feet and side—these are all physical reminders of God’s ultimate announcement to humanity: your sins are forgiven, “Consider the debt paid.” Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are proof of just how much God loves us. Yes, for many it’s hard to believe, that God loves us that much, and His scars are a reminder of His endless love and mercy shown to us. Second, there are those who simply cannot conceive of life beyond the grave.
It seems too wonderful to believe that there is life beyond this one—another existence in which that which dies here will be resurrected to new life when Jesus returns. Yet this is what we proclaim, and such a conviction is at the heart of our faith. It’s very difficult for many to face the thought of dying. In the cartoon, “Family Circus” the family is evidently returning from a funeral. The mother says to the children in the back seat: “Well, yes—we’ll see Granddad someday when we go to heaven.” With that, the smallest child in the family says, “Could I just wait in the car?”
I understand that sentiment. None of us wants to die. But that’s part of this life. No one gets to wait in the car. The writer of Hebrews made it clear, “Just as man is appointed once to die, and after that to face judgement, so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him (9:27-28). Thankfully, death is not our final destiny. We were created for life, not death.
God didn’t bring us into being for this world only. Christ showed us that death is no longer our enemy. Death has been conquered. Because Christ lives, we too, shall live. We no longer need to fear death. Without the Easter faith, not only death, but life itself is ultimately meaningless. What value is there in love that ends beside a grave? As St. Paul so aptly put it, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19).
Some of you may recall the name Alfred Krupp. Krupp was a wealthy manufacturer who supplied weapons to the Nazi regime and used slave labor in his factories. After World War II, Krupp was put on trial for crimes against humanity for forcing prisoners of war to work in his factory producing the weapons that allowed the Nazis to wage war against the Allies.
Those who knew Krupp well said that he was so afraid of death that he wouldn’t allow his family, friends, colleagues, or his employees from ever speaking about death in his presence. As he lay dying, he offered his doctor a million dollars if the doctor could prolong his life just a little longer. But no amount of money could buy Alfred Krupp more time. His power and money weren’t enough to protect him from his greatest fear, his own death. You have to wonder in Krupp’s situation if it was fear of death or fear of judgment that filled his heart with terror.
But that’s all the non-believing world can do with death—fear it, ridicule it, deny it, and/or avoid talking about it. But the same cannot be said of those who witness to the scars of the risen Savior. As the hymnist so aptly proclaims: Jesus is risen and we shall arise. Give God the glory Hallelujah! (Alleluia Jesus is Risen) Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father and because He lives the hope of the resurrection is ours!
Sadly, there are still people who resist believing the Good News that Christ is alive. Some cannot believe God really loves us that much. Others cannot believe that life really does go on beyond the grave. But even more significantly, a good many people refuse to believe because they don’t want to deal with the implications of those two truths. For these, if Jesus really did rise from the grave, what does that mean for their lives today?
Jules Verne, the author who is known as “the father of science fiction,” had a marker sculpted for his grave that shows Verne breaking open his tombstone and coming out of the grave. The epitaph on the tombstone is in French. It’s translated, “Towards Immortality and Eternal Youth.” Maybe Jules Verne thought that he could achieve immortality on his own. Maybe he believed his writings would live on after him. But the Bible makes it clear that we cannot save ourselves from death. And no amount of avoiding the subject or worrying about it or fearing it will change that fact.
But what if there really is a God who is that intimately concerned with our lives? What does it mean if this life really is but a prelude to everlasting life? And what difference would it make in a person’s life to see the hands, feet and side of the risen Christ? Would this knowledge cause people to take their life as a disciple more seriously? Would it have an effect on the goals we set for our life? I hope so! After all, since life is indeed eternal, doesn’t that mean that some of our goals are awfully short-sighted and self-serving?
Former presidential advisor and prison ministry founder Chuck Colson tells of visiting one his mentors, Ken Wessner, a few days before Wessner’s death. Wessner had been a successful businessman, the CEO of the ServiceMaster Corporation. After his retirement, Wessner dedicated his time and energy to a variety of ministries. Now he was dying of kidney cancer. But he wasn’t scared or self-pitying or sad. He had a peace and joy that comforted all those around him.
A few days later, Wessner called his close friend Ken Hansen, who was also dying. Wessner’s wife reports that the two men spoke with joy about meeting Jesus soon, about having new bodies without any pain or weakness. Because of their faith in the promises of God and the sacrifice of Jesus, both men faced their suffering and death with joy and confidence. Makes since; when Christ appeared to the disciples, He crashed their pity party. They had seen the hands and feet of the risen Christ and they knew that there is more to life than death. Those who live their lives in the light of eternity never run out of a purpose for life.
“See my hands and my feet . . .” Christ said to his fearful disciples. God really does love us that much. Life really does go on beyond the tomb. The question before us today is, how will we live in response to these two great truths? Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. It’s the hope we proclaim as children of God and it’s the hope we’re care called to share.
Amen
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