Third Sunday of Easter- Luke 24: 13-35

The Gospel for today (Luke 24:13-35) is the story of Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. This passage could lead to several discussions. There is the timidity, lack of understanding and lack of faith of the disciples. There is the reference to the Eucharist: the risen Lord Jesus is known to His disciples in the breaking of bread. There is the mysterious nature of Christ's resurrection body. On one hand, it is real and tangible. Through it Jesus walks, talks, breaks bread and eats. On the other hand, this transformed body is hard to recognize at times, and it can suddenly appear and disappear in unusual ways.

However, this time, I want to stress another theme: Christ-centered interpretation of Scripture. Luke 24: 25-27 says, "Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself" (KJV).
Christians often recognize that Christ the Word and Son of God is at the heart of the New Testament. Every passage points to Him as Lord and Savior, either directly or indirectly. However, Christians (especially in modern times) often forget that Christ permeates the Old Testament Scriptures as well. Of course, we take the Hebrew context seriously. We study the language, the culture, and the literary forms such as history, poetry, prophecy, parable, law, hymn, etc. We value the developing moral principles. Nevertheless, as Christians  we must not be content with linguistic, literary, historical or even ethical studies of the Old Testament.

There are higher and deeper meanings in the Old Testament centered in Jesus Christ, the eternal Word. From Genesis to Malachi, all is pointing to Christ, God's living and active Word, who has been with the Father and the Spirit from all eternity. All the genealogies, all the ancient laws, all the strange stories of human behavior, all the history of Israel reflect and point to God's redeeming work in Christ, directly or indirectly. Jesus spent the three years of His public ministry trying to get His followers to see these truths. Sadly, most of the time, they seem to have missed His deeper points. Fortunately, when Christ rose, He explained things all over again during forty days, and this time, they started to understand all Scripture, all human history, all of life in light of His cross and resurrection. May Easter bring us, His modern followers, the same awareness of divine truth.

Second Sunday of Easter- John 20:19-31

In today’s Gospel (John 20:19-31) , there is the risen Christ’s appearance to ten apostles, and then a week later the appearance to Thomas. When He comes, Jesus blesses the disciples with divine peace. Even after the first reports of Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples remained fearful and timid. The risen Lord came to where they were locked in. He came to change them. He brought greetings in the common Jewish manner, saying “Peace be with you,” in Hebrew shalom alechem. 

In the Bible, this greeting is more than a hello. It is always an implied prayer for God’s peace. This implied prayer for peace takes on a special meaning in light of Christ’s resurrection. Now the greeting becomes a specific blessing from the risen Lord. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s peace. He has established a new and lasting relationship with the heavenly Father for all who truly believe in Him.
After everything that has happened, the disciples had a special need for peace. They need His assurance that He has not returned to judge them for their weakness.

Thus, Christ says reassuring words, but He does not stop there. After comforting them, Jesus adds something. He adds a commission or a call to action. As the heavenly Father has sent Him, likewise Christ’s sends the apostles and through them, His whole Church. Jesus shares His resurrection victory over sin and spiritual death with His disciples. He gives the apostles the authority to forgive human sins.
Through His Cross and Resurrection, Christ has accomplished atonement, the reconciliation of penitent sinners with God. This is true peace, and Jesus shares this divine peace with the apostles. But the peace is not limited to the apostles alone. They are to share the message with others. Jesus the Christ is risen and alive, and His peace is to be spread. His followers are to continue His work in the world and call people to faith.

In Scripture, peace has many implications, but many people, including Christians, have poor understandings of peace. They see “peace” in material or naturalistic ways, but those are only parts of peace. Besides freedom from violence, disease and want, in the Bible, peace can refer to spiritual well-being. Besides external conditions, peace is about relationships between God and human beings.

The resurrection of Jesus is the high point of scriptural teachings about peace. Although faith in the risen Lord can contribute to other types of peace, it is basically an offer of peace with God. Christ's peace removes our fallen estrangement from God; it offers us new eternal life in God’s holy and merciful presence.

Accepting this divine peace in faith can also open to other aspects of peace. Human life on earth still has its internal and external problems. In many ways, we may lack peace and tranquility, but Christ's peace helps us face the turmoil and disorder of the fallen human condition. He has overcome sin and death, and His peace is greater than the struggles of this world.

Christ’s words to the disciples also point us to mission in this world. The peace of His resurrection is not some private possession. It is not a secret that we are to keep to ourselves. The risen Christ comes to His apostles in peace so that they can share the joy of His spiritual peace with others. He commissions them to share the peace brought by His victory over sin and death.

In Lutheran thought, pastors have a special role in sharing this divine peace in Word and Sacrament. Nevertheless, we must not confine our thoughts of sharing peace to the role of clergy. The risen Lord’s commission to the apostles is also to the whole Body of Christ, to the entire membership of Christ’s Church. All believers ought to affirm in word and deed that Jesus Christ has brought us spiritual peace through His resurrection. He is also ready, able, and willing to overcome evil in the lives of all who will have faith. All of us are called to witness to God’s peace in Christ Jesus. Despite our human failures, by grace, we can all become greater channels of Christ’s peace to the people around us.

Easter Day- the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ- Matthew 28:8

There is so much that can be said about the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Along with the crucifixion, it is the key event in human history.  It is the foundation of all Christian doctrine. It is the core of the Gospel message. It is the heart of Christian worship. All those things and more deserve our attention.
Many Scriptures point us to newness and life on this day.  In the Gospel from Matthew 28, we see a specific account of the discovery of Jesus' empty tomb. There are two main reactions to this event. The first is fear. There is the fear of uncertainty about what the empty tomb means and fear about the dazzling the angel. Jesus' followers feared many things- Roman soldiers, the priestly establishment, life in a world where Jesus dies, their own weaknesses, and so on. Such tangible fears are real, but there is another element in the disciples' fear. They is fear of the divine power manifested in the act of resurrection. 
Many modern people don't even want to acknowledge the word "fear" for this human reaction.  But if we take God's awesome power seriously, we will experience some healthy fear in facing His mighty acts. Such fear is natural, but we do need to move beyond it.
Now let us turn to the second basic reaction to the resurrection. Matthew 28:8 (KJV) says, "And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy." The good news of Jesus' resurrection from the dead starts to transform natural fear into great spiritual joy. The fear of divine power is changed into a deep awareness of divine comfort- of faith, hope and love. Mary Magdalene and other disciples begin to change. Rejection, cross and tomb do not have the final word. Jesus is alive, and because He lives, His followers can also live in joy. And they can share this good news with others,
On Easter and every day, we Christians should be filled with great joy. In the New Testament, joy is more than ordinary happiness. A person may be happy about some Easter dessert, but true joy is spiritual. Jesus speaks of joy repeatedly (for example, John 15-17). Joy is connected with believing (Romans 15:13) and can come even through suffering(1 Peter 1:5-6). Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). So we may not be superficially happy about many things in our world. We may be sad, troubled or worried about disease, disaster, injustice or personal issues. Those things are real. Yet, through faith in the good news of the risen Christ, we can still find deep and profound joy. On this day of all days, I conclude, "Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord" (Philippians 3:1)! He is  risen! Alleluia!

Good Friday

To me Good Friday never seems like a time for long-winded sermons, but it is a time to read, hear and meditate upon the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a time to pray quietly and deeply. So let us briefly consider two important readings. Isaiah 53 is one of several passages which speaks of the Suffering Servant of God. This Messianic figure bears horrible sufferings innocently for the redemption of God's people. In the end, He also overcomes suffering and is honored by the Lord God. Jesus Himself alludes to such prophecies and applies them to Himself and  His work (Luke 24:26-27). Afterwards, the Apostles (I Peter 2:22-25), Evangelists (Matthew 27: 12,29; John 12:38) and Christians down through the centuries have seen these prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

We see Isaiah's prophecy made personal and concrete in the Passion account from John 19. Jesus is holy and innocent. He deserves all honor, respect and love. Yet, He humbly and quietly accepts rejection, insults, physical abuse, torture and an excruciating and slow death to deliver people from sin, death and the devil. He suffers for our transgressions. He lays down His life for His sheep. In what C.S. Lewis ironically calls "deep magic," Jesus restores balance to a fallen creation. He overcomes the imbalance and disorder caused by sin. He does something that we humans could never do for ourselves. He atones; He reconciles sinners with divine righteousness. Only through Christ's suffering and His perfect offering on the cross does goodness decidedly triumph. Because of His redeeming work, it is "Good Friday" after all. Thanks be to God!

Palm Sunday/Lent 6 (year A)- Zechariah 9; Philippians 2; John 12

On this Sunday before Easter, there are meaningful suggested readings from Scripture. There is a profound selection from Philippians 2 about Jesus humbling Himself and dying before being exalted by the heavenly Father. There are Gospel accounts about Jesus entering Jerusalem to the praise of the crowds (for ex., John 12:12-19). And there are long readings from the Gospels about our Lord’s Suffering and His Death on the Cross.

Of course, in the popular mind, this is Palm Sunday. People like to recall this moment of external triumph. Jesus rides into Jerusalem to fulfill a prophecy from Zechariah 9. By coming to King David’s city on a donkey, Jesus is making a Messianic claim. He is coming in humility and peace to begin His rule. And despite their confused ideas about the nature of Christ, many praise Him. Jesus the Christ receives the praise that He deserves, and like the ancient crowd, we tend to get caught up in the enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, many people who praised Jesus that day did not really understand Him. They used great and honorable titles for Him, but they did not sense what sort of king He was. So by the end of the week, many who praised Jesus turned on Him, and some would go from shouting “Hosanna” to shouting “crucify him.” Even those who remained sympathetic to Him and His teachings, including His closest disciples, would flee in confusion and fear.

On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus was asking for spiritual and moral commitment, but the people in the crowds were looking for other things. They were blinded by their physical, material, and worldly aspirations. Jesus Christ came to redeem people from their sins. He came to offer His life to deliver them from the power of evil. He came to conquer death through His innocent suffering and death. He came to rise again, establish the kingdom of heaven, and offer eternal life and blessed life in God’s presence.

But most people, even would-be disciples, misunderstood. They were looking for Him to bring them temporal or worldly blessings. Their chief desires were things such as wealth, power, free food, healing and health, material comfort, and external happiness. And when they began to realize that He wasn’t that kind of king, their responses to Him started to change.

All too often, modern people, even many who say that they are Christians, are much like those first century crowds. Many human beings continue to have poor understandings of redemption. We still look for false messiahs. We still misunderstand what kind of Messiah, what kind of king, Jesus is. We still try to make Him fit our personal preferences.

People still tend to focus on the material, physical and worldly aspects of Christ’s divine kingship. Yes, He does care about all aspects of human life, and He asks His followers to care as well. He wants us to live in general safety and health with reasonable food, shelter, medical care, rest, and so on. But such matters are not His primary or ultimate concerns for human beings. He is not a worldly king. He does not preach some sort of distorted prosperity or social gospel.

Instead, Christ’s main concerns are spiritual. Although He cares for our earthly lives, but He focuses more on our spiritual and eternal lives. He knows that human beings will always have crosses to bear in this world. And He wants people to respond to those crosses in ways that lead to resurrection and eternal life spent with Him.

As Christians, our priorities are spiritual and moral. Faith in Jesus as the Savior of our eternal souls comes first. Then we respond in love- love for God and for our neighbors. Many things can be included in our faithful responses. We do good deeds to the extent that we are physically and materially able.  We express love for our neighbors through polite words or kind actions. We also love our neighbors by pointing them to Jesus Christ, who alone can give their lives the deepest meaning and save their souls. We support the Church and charitable institutions. We study Scripture. But above all, we love God and express that love spiritually through worship and prayer.

During this Holy Week, let us seek to better understand and appreciate the kind of king that Jesus really is. Jesus Christ is a spiritual king who comes in humility and peace to establish His rule in our hearts, minds, and souls. He is a king who asks us to keep following Him even when the hymns of praise fade. He is a king who asks for our loyalty as He and we walk the way of the cross.

Jesus Christ certainly deserves our praise, our “hosannas.” He deserves praise more than anyone else. But the praise He wants is not just for the big events and celebrations. He wants our praise and our loyalty even on ordinary dull days. And He even asks for our praise and our loyalty on the days, like Good Friday, when the honor and cheers of the crowd turn into rejection and jeers.