Witness to New Life

By the Rev. Dr. Paul S. Nancarrow

This sermon is based on Luke 24:1-12 (and Luke 24:13-53). Click here to listen to an audio version of this sermon.

I just love Luke’s Easter story. I love the way Luke unfolds the narrative of the Resurrection. And one of the things I love best is the way Luke tells one single story spread out over several small scenes, each scene building in intensity and meaning and joy. It takes Luke an entire chapter to tell the story of Easter, as each scene adds one more piece of the overall pattern. The Gospel reading we just heard is only the beginning, only the first scene in the story; and it’s moving and it’s joyful and it’s powerful – but it’s just the start – and if we want to get the whole story, we have to fill in the rest.

So this is how it goes: Early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James go to the tomb where the body of Jesus was put in haste on Friday afternoon. And when they get there they find the tomb open and the body gone; and two angels appear to tell them Jesus is not there, he has been raised, exactly as he had told them he would be. They run to tell the rest of the disciples, the eleven apostles and their companions, and most of them don’t believe it. But Peter runs to the tomb, and looks inside – and he doesn’t see angels, but he does see the shroud from Jesus’ body lying by itself – which means this wasn’t an ordinary grave robbing, someone didn’t just take the body, because they wouldn’t have left the shroud behind – but something has happened that has made the shroud just not necessary anymore.

Later that day, two disciples are walking from Jerusalem to the town of Emmaus, and as they walk a stranger comes up and joins them. And this stranger seems to know more about Jesus than they do, and tells them about all the passages in scripture that prove the Messiah must suffer and then enter into glory. And as the stranger speaks the disciples feel their hearts kindled with fire and energy, so that they ask the stranger to stay with them when they stop for a meal. And at the table the stranger takes the bread and blesses it and breaks it – and with that gesture they recognize it’s Jesus, risen and alive – and as soon as they know him he vanishes from their sight.

And they are so excited that they’ve seen Jesus that they run all the way back to Jerusalem, a journey that took them half the day on the way out, and they burst into the room where the apostles are – and before they can say “We have seen Jesus!” the whole company tells them “The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Peter!” And while they’re all shouting in joy and confusion, Jesus himself suddenly is standing there among them, alive and whole and real; and he says “Peace be with you,” and he shows them his hands and his feet, and he sits down to eat with them, and they give him a piece of broiled fish (I love that little detail!), and as they share the meal he opens their minds to understand the New Life, and to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.

That is the whole story Luke tells about Easter. Years later, when Peter is out being Jesus’ witness, preaching to the household of Cornelius, he sums up the whole Easter experience by remembering how the risen, living Jesus appeared “not to all the people, but to us … who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.”

And in a way I think that is the key to the whole chapter-long story. Jesus appeared to those who ate and drank with him. In this story Luke shows people receiving two kinds of evidence of the Resurrection, two kinds of witness that convince them Jesus is alive.

The first kind of witness is sensory experience, the evident perception of Jesus with them. The women see the angels. Peter sees the shroud left behind. The Emmaus disciples see and hear the stranger walking with them. The group of disciples together in the upper room see Jesus among them, and touch his hands and feet. They all have perceptual experience of Jesus as alive.

But what I find really interesting is that Luke implies that such sensory, perceptual evidence is inconclusive. The women see the angels but aren't quite sure what to make of them. Peter sees the tomb empty, but only goes home "amazed." The Emmaus disciples see Jesus but don't know who he is. The group in the upper room can see Jesus well enough, but they're not sure that what they're seeing is not a ghost. They all have perceptual experience, but by itself the perception is not enough.

What convinces them of the reality of Resurrection is the other sort of evidence Luke narrates, and that is the witness of relationship, that is the experience of an inner change in themselves in the presence of the Risen Jesus. The women who came to the tomb in sorrow, expecting to anoint a dead body, leave the tomb filled with joy, ready to proclaim something extraordinary. The Emmaus disciples feel their hearts on fire with wisdom and spirit. The upper room gathering experience their minds opened up and new understanding and courage and energy filling them to go out and tell the story. The breaking of the bread, the sharing of the meal, reveals truth to them, and nourishes them to live in that truth themselves. The really convincing evidence of resurrection in Luke's story is the transformation, the renewal, the New Life they feel in themselves when the Risen Jesus gives himself to them in relationship by eating and drinking with them.

And that is precisely what is going on here for us in this Easter morning Eucharist. We experience Resurrection as we eat and drink with the Risen Jesus, and feel in ourselves the renewal and transformation that relationship in New Life brings.

You know, sometimes I hear people say that they wish they could have been eyewitnesses of the Resurrection themselves, that they could have been there in Jerusalem on the first Easter morning and seen the evidence of the Risen Jesus with their own eyes and touched him with their own hands – because then they could really know, then they could really be sure. And I understand that feeling. But what Luke tells us in his story is that that kind of sensory evidence, that kind of perceptual experience, is not the most convincing, even for the eyewitnesses. Even for the eyewitnesses, the evidence that made the most difference was the relational experience – and that kind of experience we have, even 2000 years later, as we gather here on this Easter morning, as we gather on every Sunday morning, to eat and drink with each other in the Name of Jesus, and in this relationship to witness the promise and the power and the transformation of the New Life in us.

Someone among us is grieving a death or a loss or a change in their life. And they come to church, and the hymns and the songs and the prayers and the smiles on people’s faces and the joy in the air lifts their spirits and gives them hope that there is something for them beyond their grief – and that is a witness to New Life.

Someone among us is facing a difficult decision, and they’re not sure what to do, they’re not sure they’re even qualified to make such a decision. And they turn to their church friends, and they talk and pray and discern together, the person finds the courage to choose and the will to follow through on that choice – and that is a witness to New Life.

Someone among us is seeking a way for their life, something to commit to, something to value, something that is more than just money and success and status the way most people measure them. And they hear the Gospel – maybe the same Gospel story they’ve heard many times before – but this time, in this situation, with these people, the Gospel speaks to them in a new way, and they see in Jesus the invitation to a love that gives them meaning and value and purpose – and that is a witness to New Life.

We know the Resurrection is real, we are witnesses to New Life, because we see it and know it and feel it in ourselves in these relationships we have in the Name of Jesus, these relationships centered and symbolized in eating and drinking together, sharing the bread and the wine, gathering at the table, loving each other as the Risen, Living Jesus loves us.

That is the New Life Jesus opens up for us. That is what we celebrate together on this Easter Day, and for all eternity. Amen.