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While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.
Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them,
“Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds
to understand the scriptures,
and he said to them,
“Thus it is written,
that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,
and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations,
beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
- Luke 24:36b-48
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In the days when the disciples gathered around Jesus,
breaking bread and sharing broiled fish
many Jewish people (such as Jesus’ disciples) throughout that Mediterranian world
were hoping for, looking for, and even expecting
a messiah.
someone who would arrive, or someone who would show up soon,
and someone who would bring about the Reign of God,
a better world - in one way or another,
a world (as we often recall) where the last would become first and the hungry would become fed.
Someone who would save God’s people
and restore them.
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Some among the many who hoped for a messiah
desired a messiah
who would be descended from David
And, as such, they desired a Messiah who would come as a king.
Perhaps a warrior-king. A revolutionary. They desired a messiah with sword in hand who would liberate God’s subjugated people with strength and with might.
This kingly messiah, they hoped,
would overthrow the Roman caesar,
and restore the Hebrew people to sovereignty
and independence.
This messiah
would then sit on the throne of Israel
and reign
forever and ever!
World without end!
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On the other hand,
some hoped that a descendent of Aaron would arrive:
something of a messiah-priest.
Those who hoped for this messiah desired not so much
a new kingdom
or a new hierarchy (or order) to replace the old,
but, rather, a restored temple and a renewed way of worship.
It will not be by physical might that we are saved, they held,
but by spiritual practice and righteousness.
The messiah they desired would clear the house of worship,
the home of God,
from corruption.
This messiah would turn over the tables,
restoring God’s people to proper worship and deep devotion.
In this messianic scenario,
right relationship to God would win the day
and such a right relationship would leak out spiritual benefits into all the earth as a result.
Things would be better.
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Of course, some desired in a messiah something of a combination of these two.
And some desired something quite different, altogether.
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But it’s probably safe to say that whatever spaces of pain people were desiring from,
whatever world they envisioned, quite different from our current situations,
whatever hopes remained in the hearts of the desperate who still somehow dared to dream for a messiah...
It’s probably safe to say that when they imagined a savior, political, spiritual, or more,
that almost nobody imagined a messiah
with scars.
Not even Jesus’ disciples.
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And Yet, in search of a messiah,
in their quest to find a better Way,
this is what they received.
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In this morning’s gospel reading, in the Gospel of Luke, we find ourselves still in the aftermath of a terribly violent and traumatizing week. Last meals have been shared and crosses have been erected.
Here, (in that aftermath)
we are greeted by a very beaten down,
recently arrested
and
physically tortured
prophet and visionary whose life we (his disciples) are still deeply mourning.
Here, miraculously, we are greeted by our teacher, who was murdered by an unjust system
for his dreams of a better world,
a system that, when it was presented with an option to change
(God’s dream in Christ of what could be),
struck back with all the tools-of-pain it could muster.
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And…
here, today, we are greeted by a messiah whose love for the world was so strong
and so eternal
that it could not be contained in a tomb sealed with stones.
Indeed, we are greeted by a messiah who rose up before his own scars could heal
so that he could share a meal with the disciples,
and so that they would not be consumed by their mourning,
but so that they might also
rise up
against a world
that would crush them beneath injustice’s weight.
Indeed, we are greeted by a messiah who rose up before his own scars could heal
so that he could share a meal with the disciples,
and so that they would not be consumed by their mourning,
but so that they might also
rise up
against a world
that would crush them beneath injustice’s weight.
So that they might rise up and feast! :
on Jesus’ dreams (the last shall be first and the hungry shall be fed):
And upon this simple meal, enjoying one another, nourishment, and joy, even as they wait.
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“Look!” Jesus says as he greets us here just as he did for Thomas in another Gospel.
“Look!”
“These are scars. This is who I am.”
“You are witnesses to all of these things.”
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I have no doubt, siblings in Christ,
that Jesus’ scars are not the only ones we have born witness to this week.
Indeed, we’ve seen and heard of many holes
in many bodies.
We have felt the pain of loss and estrangement.
Trust violated.
Lamps put out as worlds are shaken by violence.
We mourn collectively the nails that power continues to drive into the bodies of young people and children whose dreams have been met by the nightmare of an early and violent end.
We have been witnesses to hopes cut short and sealed by stone in tombs.
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We look for salvation, for resurrection. We look for the uprising of the dead.
And our messiah arrives:
scarred, yet alive. And with us.
Our messiah arrives.
He carries supplies for a Banquet,
but, it seems, no sword.
Our messiah arrives.
“Peace be with you,” he says. “Do not be afraid.”
“The last shall be first and the hungry shall be fed.”
Teaching on the other side of the grave:
“Blessed are the poor.”
“Blessed are those who mourn.”
“And:
you are my body,”
he says.
“You are my scars and my rising.”
“You are my scars and my rising.”
“Blessed are the poor.” “And you are my body.”
“You will bring love and healing and justice into the earth.”
“You are my scars and my rising.”
“Mourn every life that is lost.”
"That is taken."
"That is cut short,"
Jesus says.
And the rise.
Be resurrection.
You are my body.
Don't let it happen again.
You are my scars and my rising.
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May healing flow from our scars as it does from Christ.
May we build a Banquet together for the good of all who suffer pain.
As we remember that Christ is risen, may we do the same.
Until the last become first and all the world is able to eat.
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Christ is risen.
He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
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