Luke 24:36b-48
Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
“They Disbelieved For Joy”
Good news as well as bad news is hard to believe. It is too good to be true.
To disbelieve for joy is to believe that which is too good to be true. It is perhaps the most honest way to hear and respond to the Easter message.
As Eugene Kennedy, says in his book, Believing, the disciples here are
“experiencing an impulse to believe more deeply...a passionate need to believe as richly and profoundly as possible.”
For “believing cannot be activated by force or by fear.” It happens when we encounter the mystery of the resurrection. And discover a truth which is too good to not be true!
Acts 3:12-19
12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.
“But God...”
The genius of the poet is that he says more then he knows.
The same is true for the Bible, and those who speak in it.
Like Peter in today's lesson.
He begins by blaming them for Jesus crucifixion; but he doesn’t belabor it. Blaming doesn’t help anyone! It doesn’t bring times of refreshment.
Words of a father in a TV story where a boy drowns:
“To blame ourselves is the easy way out. It was a tragic accident.
It happened. It doesn’t make any sense. And to blame ourselves for it happening is to run away from it, and it is to keep life from ever happening to us.”
To blame is to die; to accept the mystery of it is to be open to times of refreshing.
Peter also gives them an excuse as a way out but doesn’t stay with it. There is no hope in making excuses. It is a cowards way of blaming.
What we need to dare say is, “I blew it...but God didn’t and God doesn’t!” God can reverse it! That brings times of refreshment.
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