Meeting Jesus Week Two - Have you anything to eat? Luke 24:36b-48
Preached at St John’s by Rev. Lucy Flatt
Yesterday my family and I discovered Timaru’s best hidden secret… in Waimate!
A bakery.
Ah yes.. but not just any old bakery… the Waimate bakery!
Now you might be thinking oh yes a bakery we all know about bakeries – BUT this wasn’t any old bakery. It was the Willy Wonker of bakeries!
There on the counter as we arrived, freshly baked scones in a variety of fads, friands with delightful eyes, loaves the size of obese cats, croissants so light we had to check they were there, rye with a marble effect, and there in the cabinet sandwiches, danishes galore, cakes, patisserie’s and coffee amore!
It was to put it lightly exactly where we wished to find ourselves on a freezing Saturday, with small children in tow.
This week we continue exploring a series called “Meeting Jesus.”
Having elaborately explained the bakery in Waimate you may be wondering if we did in fact meet Jesus – or that I’m about to announce I brought the patisseries back with me.. but as we continue to explore our series on meeting Jesus hold with me as we get to the point.
Today we kick into part two of our series as we are discover the risen Jesus meeting his Disciples in the gospel of Luke.
We will explore this passage in two parts, the first exploring the significance of Jesus eating (hence the elaborate Waimate bakery intro) and the second the significance of Jesus calling the Disciples to be witnesses to these events.
For context - in the reading we have just heard - this is the first time the resurrected Jesus has appeared to his Disciples in the gospel of Luke. We have had the women discover the empty tomb, we’ve had Peter run to see the tomb but the Disciples have not yet seen Jesus.
A few verses before two men have been walking along the road to Emmaus – Jesus appeared alongside them, unpacking the scriptures and then revealing himself in the breaking of the bread. The two race back to Jerusalem to tell the 11.
Now back in Jerusalem listening to the testimony of the two - Jesus appears among them.
Luke 24:36b-48
Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” (that is shalom – the traditional Jewish greeting) 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit (or a ghost). 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. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,[a] 43 and he took it and ate before them.
Jesus himself stood among them.
Not Jesus from main street, or Jesus from Waimate or Jesus from somewhere or other.
But Jesus himself. Dead Jesus. Best friend Jesus. Son of God Jesus.
Jesus’ appearance was a huge surprise for the Disciples!
If a dead friend appeared in my living room I would be shocked! We would all be shocked!
Not only did the Disciples have their dead friend appearing out of nowhere – but the idea of resurrection hadn’t even occurred to them! For every worldview of the day “an individual bodily resurrection was almost inconceivable!”[i]
The Greeks of the day, heavily influenced by the Platonists (those frustrating philosophers who founded much of our western thought) believed that the eventual aim of life was to be freed from the mortal bounds of the body and to find true life in the soul.
The body was earthly but the spirit was heavenly.
The Jews, on the other hand, believed that resurrection (if at all) was to be a communal activity signalling the salvation of Israel and the fulfilment of God’s promises. To hear of an induvial resurrection in the midst of a world that had not been restored would have been ludicrous! No one would imagine such a stupid story.
An individual bodily resurrection for either the Greek or the Jew was an unimaginable possibility!
And yet - “Have you have anything here to eat?” – says Jesus.
Like my family and I entering the Waimate bakery we sought that basic human need - FOOD.
Jesus too sought food.
The significance of verse 41 is HUGE! How does a guy whose just come through a wall eat?!
Is he spirit or body?!
By eating Jesus is immediately dissuading the Greek view of a spirit separated from the body and signalling something triumphant to the Jew.
His request for food immediately humanises him.
After calling the Disciples to touch him – as we heard Josh explain last week -to see his bone and flesh – he asks for one thing a spirit can’t do.
Food to eat.
Broiled fish (rather than patisseries).
He cannot then be – as the Greeks would claim. A spirit freed from the body. The whole aim for a Greek spirit would be freedom and it would never wish to return to the bounds of the flesh.
Much like our first century Greek friends – we have been influenced by the platonic thought train. We have been hijacked into agreeing that surely the spirit/body duality remains. That when Jesus appears somehow Jesus must have been EITHER body or soul - but this is not the biblical case.
Many have misread Paul when contrasting the body and soul, the word spirit is translates spirit but often refers to the Holy Spirit or the idea of our wills – rather than a separate spiritual entity.
Jesus’ resurrected body is thus different.
It is both.
Something is different.
And for the Jew – the implication of Jesus eating is LOUD.
Like a cream pie to the face.
If Jesus is resurrected – only he - then something is happening!
Is he the fulfilment of the Israelite promises, the scriptures fulfilled?!
This is a bold and daunting question the Disciples were immediately faced with.
Let us return then to the second part of our reading Luke 24:44-48;
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.” 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 for[b] the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
Jesus is reminding the Jews that the promises are 1) fulfilled -he was and is the promised messiah. 2) That he was ushering in a new age and 3) that the promise given to the Jews extended to all people – beginning with Jerusalem.
The new age has begun. As Paul puts it in Romans 8 Jesus is the first fruits of the new creation.
A resurrected body – we too will be resurrected in the body when Jesus returns.
From this new creation, in this new creation, Jesus calls his Disciples to be witnesses. Like my witnessing to you of the delights of the Waimate bakery – Jesus is calling his Disciples to go out and to spread the news.
The Disciples are to be witnesses of Jesus bodily resurrection, to the fulfilment of the scriptures, the ushering in of a new age, AND the forgiveness of sins.
This new age is here, and as many scholars note - not fully.
In Jesus we have the ushering in of a new creation, yet not fully complete.
Often I get the question at school – why is there still crying and death, pain, sickness, natural disasters, tsunamis, earthquakes IF Jesus’ death was such a big deal – simply put – because Jesus has not yet returned to culminate this creation.
So what did this sound like to the Disciples? The first Century believers? To ears who had never before seen or heard?
A radical life change!
Repentance for the “Forgiveness of sins,” as NT Wright notes- is to be seen both as the summary of the redemptive blessings promised to Israel and as the key blessing that will enable non-Jews to be welcomed into the one family.” [ii]
E.g. as humans we all sin and the purpose “of the forgiveness of sins is “to enable people to become fully functioning, fully image-bearing human beings within God’s world, already now, completely in the age to come.” [iii]
That is – a new worldview, a new life, a new way of being.
And that new life starts here.
It starts now.
When our will intertwines with God’s will that is new creation.
When we live for God’s good purposes as full image bearers.
If we have or if we are looking to meet Jesus.
Jesus meets us.
He radically transforms us into his image.
He rewires our thinking
and gives our lives purpose.
So in the ordinary this week, in your eating, your toast, your bagel, your tea may you know the extortionary! That Jesus was not simply a historical figure or a figment of mist or imagination but a physical entity that is knowable, touchable and loveable.
That as we eat – know that Jesus ate
And as we eat may we know that we too are called to witness the truth of the resurrection to others.
Let us pray;
Risen Lord Jesus,
as you appeared and ate among your disciples,
may we be willing to invite you
into the ordinariness of our lives
- the simple tasks of the day.
Help us to see you, touch you and be moved by you
To witness the truth of the resurrection to others.
Amen.
[i] Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Chapter 13; The Reality of the Resurrection.
[ii] N.T Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, Chapter 8; New Goal, New Humanity
[iii] N.T Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, Chapter 8; New Goal, New Humanity