How can we best live out our lives in the knowledge that Jesus is alive? Obviously our lives should show something for the trust that we have put in Jesus. I’m tempted to say that our lives should be spectacular, but it seems that the reality of life on earth continues to dent that possibility for all of us. Spectacular joy and worship seems to be reserved for heaven. But should that be the case? Should we give in to that?? Even given how difficult life now can be, can’t we just find at least a little bit of resurrection and eternal life to embrace now!
1. Astonishment and Fear
Things can come to us out of left field. Things that surprise, things that scare us; things that we just don’t know how to deal with! Even being presented with something potentially wonderful can frighten us if we are not ready for it. Despite having this previously explained to them, the disciples were still not expecting Jesus’ resurrection. They didn’t know how to respond because they were not prepared for this great happening. In their defence of course, was the fact that they hadn’t had the chance to get over Jesus’ death yet. This too had taken them by surprise, and they were suffering from sudden and deep grief, not only because of Jesus’ loss, but also that they were not able to stop it!
Having come into their presence, Jesus identifies himself through the wounds that were inflicted upon him at his crucifixion (verses 39-40). He is no ghost, he is a mortal human being brought back to life. But sometimes things that are plainly before our eyes, still allude our understanding; the disciples still had trouble recognising that Jesus was alive again. Excitement was building, the disciples started to feel that something amazing was happening, but we read that, “in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering” (verse 41). It seemed too good to be true, and they just couldn’t process properly what had happened.
And I can’t blame them given what had happened on that cross. And Jesus didn’t blame them either; rather, he helped them out of their disbelief – first he ate some fish right there in front of them (something only a physical person could do), and then he “opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (verse 45).
2. Having Our Minds Opened
Jesus fully and wholly represented the attitudes and interests of God in his life on earth, especially in the last three years. Everything that God had done, and in each of the ways God had communicated with humankind over the centuries, had led up to this dramatic point in time. In a way it would have been ideal if Jesus hadn’t needed to come, yet from the moment humanity was given freewill, and that freewill had been abused, it would be necessary for God to identify with humanity personally ... in a redemptive way. Otherwise human beings would largely remain lost.
Thus, we, as modern Jesus followers, should read all of the Old Testament Scriptures (the holy writings used to teach the people of Israel), in the light of what we have come to know about Jesus. This is the way forward for us in knowing how God wants to relate to the modern world. Jesus was the absolute fulfilment of all God’s desires to connect with and liberate people across the whole world.
Jesus and his gospel rekindles the hope that was first promised in Genesis and makes sense of the whole Exodus liberation experience. The heart behind the old covenant foreshadows the new covenant that Jesus inaugurates. Jesus and his gospel are the ideal which all the judges and kings either inclined towards or rebelled against. Jesus and his gospel add the necessary insights to the life experiences of David, and certainly fulfil the visions of prophets like Isaiah and Micah.
These disciples had actually heard before ... many times ... that Jesus would “die and on the third day rise again” – but they hadn’t understood it. But now was the moment for them to really get it, for the penny to drop, so Jesus “opened their minds” to new understanding. Why?? Why was this so important?? Verse 48 tells us – they were to be “witnesses of these things”. The future of the Jesus movement in the world depended upon them being able to witness to the reality and meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
It seems that the disciples’ minds were opened whether they liked it or not ... I’m sure in hindsight they appreciated that this has happened. I think for us though, we have to allow our minds to be opened – we have to be ready and willing to receive new insight. Rather than being stuck in certain mindsets, we have to be attentive listeners, prayerful, and thoroughly expectant. Then, and perhaps only then, we will be ready to recognise and understand all sorts of things that will aid our level of influence and true witness to Jesus.
Once the disciples’ minds were opened, they fully appreciated that the Jesus whom they followed through his public ministry, and then saw crucified, had been raised from the dead; and that all of this was central to God’s desire and plan to offer salvation to all people. Wow!! They had witnessed the cross, knew Jesus was dead and buried, but now they’re seeing him back with them in person, touching him, and watching him eat lunch.
3. The Message of Repentance and Forgiveness
What was the other thing that Jesus was opening their minds to (as you read verses 45-47) – the other thing that the disciples would need to witness to? Here it is in verse 47, “... that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations ...”. Jesus’ death and resurrection had a purpose – a real tangible and worldwide purpose, that is, change ... personal, collective and cultural transformation.
This call to repentance, of course, was not primarily a judgement of humanity, even despite the rejection of Jesus just seen; but it was embracing humanity through the eyes of mercy and compassion. God does not seek “repentance” only because of how bad people’s behaviour is, but also because of how much better this could be! This is not so much a reactive response to evil, because if that was God’s primary attitude, he would not have created in the first place; and even if God did create, he could not have abided how things turned out, and could not have been this patient for this long.
When we read in the Noah story how God responded to evil with a flood, we also read that God put a rainbow in the sky to remind him not to take that action again. The Noah story reminds us of the gravity of wickedness and terrible toll evil behaviour brings to human community. But God always has the hope that people would be prepared to freely respond to grace and change; so much so, that the Son of God was prepared to suffer the indignity of the cross. This is what we are to be witnesses of – God’s continuing, often outrageous, love.
God understands people’s situations, their burdens, and their very great need ... way, of course, more than we do. But God does call us to make attempts to connect with their need. Yet first, to be effective witnesses of “repentance and forgiveness”, we need to be free of some of our own shackles, the chains that bind us to our past. Otherwise we limit how much we have to offer!
“Repentance” means to have a turnaround of attitude that accepts Jesus’ rule over our lives (Paul Baxendale). This means we will be serious when we seek forgiveness about doing things differently. The call to “repentance”, which lies right at the heart of Luke’s gospel proclamation, includes both the call to reform individual lives and reform community practices – in line with the prophetic vision of justice found in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament (R.B Hays).
4. A Promise of Effectiveness
The disciples were not going to be left on their own or simply to their own devices, even though Jesus was returning to God; for surely the mission ahead of them would be just too hard if that were the case. They were going to be “clothed with power from on high”. Wow again!! So that’s how we can truly live the resurrected life against the odds! Where the amount of fear we experience makes us feel naked in the face of the crowd (which sometimes can be full of antagonism and damaging materialistic attitudes), the Holy Spirit will clothe us with all the resources we could possibly need.
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