He Opened Their Minds to Understand
Luke 24:36-53
[Imperatives for this sermon:
1. Understand how Jesus with his sacrificial atonement, his resurrection from the dead, and his commissioning of his disciples to world mission, fulfilled the Old Testament.
2. Let the Holy Spirit open the scriptures for us.
3. Experience the Risen Christ through the scriptures.]
Shalom
24:36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.
The events Luke describes in 24:36-43 are set perhaps a few hours after the sundown of Resurrection Sunday. Just as in John’s Gospel, Jesus suddenly and surprisingly appears among his disciples, greeting them with the traditional Jewish shalom, meaning peace and wholeness. John is the one who tells us that they were gathered behind locked doors. This would explain why they thought he was a ghost.
Touch Me and See
24:38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See 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.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
Luke tells us that Jesus invited all the disciples to see and touch his wounds. But then, in Luke’s account, Jesus takes matters one step further:
24:41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them.
Jesus wanted the disciples to be in no doubt that something utterly unique in human history had just happened. He was not just returned to normal life as Lazarus had been when Jesus restored him from the tomb. He was not just a ghost as Samuel in the Old Testament had been when King Saul violated God’s laws by having a medium call him back from the realm of the dead. This was something new, a resurrection body, showing unmistakable continuity with the body of Jesus the crucified.
Everything Written About Me Must Be Fulfilled
24:44 Then 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.”
Earlier in the day, Jesus had met two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke tells us,
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
The two disciples summarized, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
Jesus now introduces the subject to the rest of his disciples. Prior to the crucifixion, Jesus had repeatedly told the disciples that he would be crucified and, on the third day, raised from the dead. At the time, they were in such denial of his coming crucifixion that they could not hear what he was saying about his subsequent resurrection. Only now, with crucifixion and resurrection behind them, are they prepared to listen and understand.
24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Three Points That Fulfill the Old Testament: Atonement, Resurrection, World Mission
As he explains the Old Testament, Jesus focuses on three points that must happen to fulfill the Old Testament purposes, promises, and prophecies:
- The Messiah must offer a sacrificial atonement with once-and-for-all sufficiency. Jewish interpreters of the Old Testament had by-and-large missed this, but Jesus would have been able to show its necessity from many scriptures spread throughout the Old Testament. The redeeming and reconciling work of the Messiah is anticipated throughout the pages of the Old Testament.
- The Messiah must be raised from the dead. Many Jews believed that there would one day be a resurrection, but they had missed the role that the Messiah must play in leading the way into the resurrection life. Once again, Jesus would have been able to explain from his interpretation of the Old Testament why his resurrection was a necessary part of fulfilling the promises and prophecies of scripture. His resurrection would be the foundation of the new people of God who were to include representatives of all nations. The reigning of God over all opposition, even over the last enemy, death, is anticipated throughout the pages of the Old Testament.
- The Messiah would call a group of followers to spread the message of his crucifixion and resurrection, thereby building a new people of God, and he would empower them with the Holy Spirit so that they could carry out their mission. The renewing of our minds and the reforming of our lives so that we can serve the Lord is anticipated throughout the Old Testament.
These three points are the ones that Jesus drove home to his disciples as he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.
Empowered Witnesses
24:48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And 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.”
Luke does not give us the time span of the teaching Jesus did with the disciples. For reasons too numerous to talk about in this sermon, I am convinced that the lessons stretched over forty days, some of them being offered in Judea and some in Galilee. With that assumption, we can account for all the other details in Matthew, Mark, John, and Acts. This brings us to the ascension:
24:50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.
If I am right that these verses report the ascension that happened forty days after Resurrection Sunday, then the disciples who are waiting in Jerusalem to be clothed with power from on high are simply preparing for their Pentecost transformation that will come ten days after the ascension.
They Returned with Great Joy
But what gains my attention today is that they return to Jerusalem with great joy. I am convinced that their joy is based on the teaching that Jesus invested in them.
Because of Jesus’ teaching, they are now prepared to see that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plans and purposes from the beginning of creation.
Because of Jesus’ teaching, they are prepared to see that his life, death, and resurrection are the turning point of history.
Because of Jesus’ teaching, they are now prepared to find the meaning of their lives as they come to fit into the story, as they are being shaped and equipped to serve his mission.
The Key to Joy
There are reasons that they are filled with great joy. The key to the joy that the early disciples felt is this: by understanding the Scriptures, by seeing the shape of Jesus imprinted on all of history, the door is opened for us to see the Risen Christ involved in our daily lives as his disciples. Word and Spirit come together in him and, through that combination, we can experience his daily presence.
A True Story
Some of you have heard me tell the following story. I tell it today to show how Word and Spirit can come together to make the Risen Christ real for us.
In 1978, my first year as pastor of Pulaski Heights Christian Church in Little Rock, I was preaching through the lectionary, a list of scriptures suggested for preaching texts. In preparing for December 10, the Second Sunday of Advent, I selected the Old Testament text, Isaiah 40:1-11. I knew why the text was suggested for this Sunday: it anticipated John the Baptist’s ministry of preparing the way for the Lord, and it spoke of the Lord’s comforting, redeeming, restoring care for his people, care that was embodied by the coming of Jesus. I knew that I was supposed to speak on these themes in ways that led up to the celebration of Christmas. But, quite against my will and good sense, I was driven to another part of the text, a part asserting that all flesh is grass, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.” It was about faith in the face of human vulnerability and death. I protested, “I can’t preach about that. They’ll hate me.” But I could not get away from it, so preach about it I did. Much to my surprise, that inappropriate, out-of-season sermon drew more positive response than any that I had to that point in my ministry yet preached. People lingered to talk about it after the service.
That evening, as I returned from a Christmas caroling party, the phone rang. It was my mother reporting that neighbors had just helped her find my father dead, killed by a tree he had been cutting down that had jumped off the stump as it began to fall and then reversed the direction of its fall.
He had returned from the morning at church. He had only been actively attending church for about three years, but he had leaped in full force, studying the Bible, serving on committees, the whole bit. Pleased with a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, he had decided to cut down the tree for the sake of a woodworking project that he wanted to undertake in his forthcoming retirement from the farm.
My mother said, “You know it was odd, but on the way home from church, for only the second time I remember in our whole lives together, your Daddy talked to me about death. You see, the minister had preached about death.” I asked, “What was the minister’s text?” Mother said, “It was from Isaiah.” Also following the lectionary, the pastor of my parent’s church had taken the same out-of-season approach that I had taken. Mother said, “It got your Daddy thinking about a younger cousin who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and how much her faith in the face of impending death had encouraged him.” It also provided my mother and other family members with extraordinary comfort, and set the theme for the funeral and graveside sermons that followed. In time, I came to understand that only the combination of the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit could have produced the sermons surrounding my Father’s death.
[A follow-up story has been deleted from this published version of the sermon because of its personal nature for some relatives. The story illustrated how scripture and the Holy Spirit can work in combination to produce extraordinary transformations].
Seeing Life Through New Lenses
I was a child in the 1950’s, the second period of history in which 3D glasses were the rage. I remember cereal boxes that contained little 3D comic books that looked like a blur of three-colored lines until the glasses sorted things out and the images practically leaped off the page. I thought it was so cool! I felt like I could almost jump into the scenes. There were also 3D movies, picture books, and more.
As the risen Jesus taught his disciples to find him in the words of the Old Testament, he was giving them the special lenses by which they could see the whole picture of God’s plans jump off the scrolls and into their lives. Let’s put on those lenses.
There is a richness in God’s Word that won’t quit, won’t let you down, won’t desert you in the face of life’s stiffest challenges.
Cherish the Word. Let Jesus teach you how to read it. Seek to understand that the Bible from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, is about Jesus and how he can transform our lives. Commit to his Living Lordship and watch what follows!
Like those first disciples, you will find the path of deep and overflowing joy.
Experience the risen Christ through the Scriptures!
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