Now, Tomorrow, Always

We are sustained through this very community, through being the body present to somebody - through word and sacrament, in the physical presence of Jesus Christ.

Luke 24:36b-48

The disciples were still on the shadow-side of the cross. The Good News of Easter was yet to take hold of their lives. The good news we celebrate today, and every day, had yet to send them out in all directions to the world. Luke tells us the loyal, abandoning, and bewildered disciples of Jesus were gathered after two of them had encountered their resurrected rabbi while on the road to Emmaus. Emmaus was a suburb of Jerusalem, seven miles away. Jesus appeared as the disciples walked, revealing his identity during a meal, in the blessing and breaking of bread before vanishing from the two disciples’ sight. Our reading picks up where the Emmaus story ends, with the disciples “startled and terrified” when Jesus, in the glory of his resurrection, appeared to them again.

This is the second encounter recorded by Luke the disciples had with the resurrected Messiah. We are three weeks removed from Easter but for the disciples, they were hours removed from news of the empty tomb that they, well, they didn’t believe. They were still making sense of what had transpired over the past week. Luke’s accounting of Easter began with the disciples being perplexed - not believing what Mary told them - and ended with amazement and in this second encounter, we have the disciples questioning themselves and then filled with fear.

The disciples, not a single one, expected the resurrection of their crucified teacher. Even when Jesus was standing before them they didn’t believe what they saw. What they saw was contrary to the way the world as they knew it was ordered. Jesus stood before them and they didn’t believe. We read that Thomas doubted. Mary returned from the tomb with news that Jesus was gone and the disciples did not believe. The resurrected Messiah stood before Mary and she mistook him to be the gardener. 

This was the disciples’ moment of vindication. A moment for them to shout “we knew it all along!” as God in Christ shouted “No!” to the forces of sin and death. This was the disciples’ opportunity to thumb their noses at the empire and instead, they were overcome by fear because they did not believe the physical resurrection of the body of Jesus was possible. The resurrection of the body - full life returning from the dead - was/is counter to everything about the way things work.

Yet, in the midst of the trembling and fear of the disciples, in the midst of the counter-narrative, Jesus did not offer admonishment or condemnation. He didn’t look to Peter and say, “I told you so.” He did not chastise the disciples for not believing what he had told them would happen 15 chapters earlier. He showed them, the disciples, his hands and feet. Jesus invited his friends to touch and see, similar to the Gospel of John’s account of what is often described as doubting Thomas’ interaction with Jesus.

But Luke tells us that having seen his hands and feet, even having him standing before them, even being filled with “joy” the disciples were still in disbelief. They were “wondering” what was happening. What else would it take? 

In response to the bewildered disciples, Jesus requested some broiled fish, and with each bite, each chew, and ultimately a swallow Jesus confirmed for the disciples and Luke confirms for us the Good News of Easter - that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not limited to his spirit. What happened to Jesus on Good Friday was very much a physical encounter - he was beaten, tortured, and left to die nailed on a cross. This is what the disciples remembered, and now three days later Jesus revealed, no confirmed that the resurrection too was very much a physical encounter. The resurrection of the body, God’s great Easter victory, was just that, a full restoring of the body, of the life that had left him three days earlier. Revealed in this holy meal of fish is the promise of the physical nature of the resurrection - promised to us - along with the assurance of the Good News of Jesus’ promise to be physically present with us always. Present with us today as we are physically apart from one another.

We are physical beings. “To be a somebody” as Will Willimon says “is to have a body.” And Jesus is no different. This has been part of the Church’s Easter proclamation since the beginning of the church - Jesus’ fully resurrected and fully restore humanity (his body) alongside his divinity.

Our shared human experience - inside and outside the church - points to this. Our bodies make us somebody and because we are somebody we gather in the physical presence of one another and share our lives together. Over the past few years, being in the physical presence of someone outside your bubble has required protective gear and great care to be taken. Because of this many have struggled. To be physically present with one another has been difficult and dangerous, and without this basic act fulfilled in our lives like the disciples many have felt as though they are wondering because they are not able to wander.

One of the things I loved to do before the pandemic was to go to brunch in Ballston with my family. Being the church nerd that I am I always notice the same liturgical act being played out week after week over the sounds of clanging plates and glasses. In the breaking and sharing of bread, at table after table, the fullness of the Kingdom of God was being revealed in a manner similar to what the disciples themselves witnessed, even by those who might have had little or no desire for those acts to hold theological significance. In the church this happens every time we gather around Christ’s table to grace, breaking bread, and sharing a cup. 

Like the disciples sharing broiled fish with Jesus on the third day, today we expect, we believe by faith that the physical presence of Jesus is with us. “For where two or three are gathered,” Jesus said, “I am among them.” Physical presence is a hallmark of Jesus’ ministry. He did not take us residence in a tower and then send the Holy Spirit to do his work. Jesus is a hands-on Messiah - hands-on then and hands-on now. This is perhaps why the disciples were still wondering when Jesus stood before them before he asked for a piece of fish. The contrary nature of the resurrection did not make sense until it was physical.

The disciples, for three years, had witnessed the physical signs and miracles confirming precisely who Jesus was. What they saw was contrary to the way they knew the world to work.

Water turned into wine at a wedding in Cana.

The healing of the royal official’s son and the healing of the man who laid ill for 38 years by the healing pool at the Sheep Gate on the Sabbath.

The 5000+ people were fed after they said it couldn’t be done.

Jesus walking from the shore the meet them in a boat on the water.

The disciples had witnessed first hand the work Jesus had been engaged in and the Gospels tell us early on that they believed. They believe after having received physical confirmation. The disciples believed enough to give up their lives and follow Jesus, an itinerant rabbi, for three years, and at every turn along the way physical signs were being performed to confirm who Jesus was to the disciples and the world. 

Every day, for three years, the disciples were alongside Jesus, witnessing Jesus’ ministry and hearing Jesus’ teachings all of which pointed to and revealed his glory - the glory confirmed on Easter.

So now, on the day of the resurrection, the disciples needed another physical reminder of who Jesus is. Just as the Emmaus journey encountered ended with the sharing of a meal, here we have Christ revealing the fullness of the resurrection with a meal. With his real-physical presence.

In eating a piece of broiled fish and in the breaking and sharing of bread Jesus offered the disciples then and us today exactly what they and we need. And it is nothing new and it is the greatest of news. The physical presence of our Lord has been the norm since the beginning of his ministry. As the disciples were 2000 years ago, we are witness to the physical signs of Christ’s presence, recipients of faith by grace not so we can hold on to it for ourselves. No, instead we proclaim a new reality, the good news in the light of the empty tomb - that the resurrected life begins and is sustained not by anything we have done or will do. We are sustained through this very community, through being the body present to somebody - through word and sacrament, in the physical presence of Jesus Christ.

Christ is with us now, tomorrow, and always.