Still Wondering

Still Wondering from Joseph Taber on Vimeo.


Acts 3:12-19

12When Peter saw it, he address the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13This God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, 15and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

17“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. 19Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.

Luke 24:36-48
36While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37They were startled and terrified, and through that they were seeing a ghost. 38He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Look 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.” 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41While in their joy they were disbelieving  and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42Thy gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate in their presence.

44Then 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.” 45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and 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. 48You are witnesses of these things.

We're gathered with the disciples behind closed doors. We've heard story after story about our crucified Lord. The women have told us that the tomb is empty, but it was easy enough to write that report of as an idle tale, but then more and more of us have experiences that back up what the women have told us, Jesus has appeared to many of our fellow disciples. We find ourselves wondering if he's some disembodied spirit, or maybe a comforting vision.

The disciples are gathered behind closed doors, and nobody really understands what's going on, because each of these tales is impossible. He was crucified! What do these appearances mean? "While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.’ These words are familiar to us as we read a similar story in John last week. These words are familiar to the disciples because they are the the greeting that they had always heard from Jesus. This is the same man who died on the cross and was buried in the tomb. To appear among them so suddenly, “They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.”

Seeing their fear, Jesus moves from a greeting to teaching them again, compassionately reaching out and saying “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and feet; see that it is I myself.” Jesus is confronted with doubt and reaches out with a relationship, he is still the person they have known, he still bears the wounds from the cross. The crucifixion and resurrection are not a magic trick with some behind-the-scenes explanation, they tell us who Jesus is. “Look at my hands and feet; see that it is I myself.” I myself, the same one who walked among you throughout Judea.

But the resurrection shows that calling him teacher doesn’t cover it all. “I myself” is a reference to the name of God, which is given in Exodus as I AM. “Look at my hands and feet; see that it is I AM”. This is the same man who walked and ate with them, but he’s also the same God who speaks into being things which do not exist, the same God who heals and cures and speaks through prophets. This man who stands in front of them is also the God who raises the dead. No wonder they were startled and terrified. They didn’t know what was happening, and knowing what’s going on gives us security. But "Jesus did not bring [the disciples] security. Rather, they risked all in following his call.” But before they knew how to risk it all, they were frightened. Having seen that Jesus arose, doubts also arose.

Maybe we prefer Jesus to stay in the ground so that he can remain a good teacher, a nostalgia-coated memory, but not a consistent challenge to grow more faithful. Maybe the risen Lord is easier as an idea, a story, an idle tale than in the flesh. Yet here is our Risen Lord, still wounded from the cross, but also unbroken by death and unblemished by sin. We may have seen the cross as the conclusion, but God reaches a different conclusion and brings our story even further, out the other side of the tomb and back into a life that is free from sin and death.

We would not have reached that conclusion on our own, but God breaks through our knowledge and reveals something wondrous about God. ”…the revelatory moment enables individuals and communities to appropriate other events...that had previously appeared unintelligible." In those early days the cross and the empty tomb seemed unintelligible. Jesus's appearance blessed the disciples with claiming, and being claimed by, that event. Just as Jesus is risen, so too the disciples will have new life, so too we have new life, even if we haven’t quite figured that new life out. Whether they understand it or not, their relationship with God in Christ is as sure as God’s love.

“While in their joy, they are disbelieving and still wondering.” This is the heart of revelation: an upwelling of joy and wonder even as complete comprehension escapes us. We don't always understand what God has done. How could we? It's so beyond our expectation and experience that comprehension slips right through our fingers even as we are invited to look and wonder at Jesus's hands. But we don’t have to know or understand everything, because what we know is enough to leave us still wondering after all these centuries at the amazing love, the overwhelming grace, of Christ Jesus our Lord.

The disciples joy was real, and it was so powerful that they still weren’t sure they could believe it. Their joy defined them, but they were still wondering, disbelief still chased after them and Jesus’s faithfulness pulled them forward. In the face of their wondrous joy, peppered with disbelief,  "Jesus did not launch into explanations about the mechanics of resurrection, nor did he provide an itinerary of his whereabouts since Friday.” Instead, the light of the world chases away the darkness by sharing a meal with his friends, his disciples, the first generation of his church.

It’s the relationship that carries us forward into this world as people of the resurrection. Not just a personal relationship with Jesus, but with the relationship God maintains with the whole community of father. “They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence. It’s the whole community together sharing a meal, whether that’s a piece of broiled fish with the Risen Lord, the bread and wine of the Communion, a covered dish luncheon as a community gathers in Christ’s name, or a few thousand chicken pot pies that warm the homes and stomachs of untold crowds to support a community outreach project. We don’t need a data sheet that answers all our questions because we are confronted with a God who doesn’t even let the grave break his connection with God’s people. We have the amazing, wondrous joy of Easter and it carries us into the unknown with the faith to explore and proclaim the mystery of faith: Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again.

"Revelation yields not the solution to a problem but the unveiling of a mystery." The resurrection is a mystery that no amount of data can pin down. As Jesus appears to the disciples, he unveils the mystery of the resurrection, and promises the ongoing relationship of God with us. Given that promise, we are freed to be carried off into joy, still wondering at the mystery. We are free to joyfully trust and know God, rather than to merely know about God.

We do get some knowledge though, “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,” The whole narrative of humanity’s relationship with God points to the crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus gives us that bit of knowledge, but he doesn’t give it to us as game-show winning trivia, he shows us that this relationship has been from the beginning, and that it is ongoing, driving the church out into the world to not only look at Jesus’s hands and feet, but to be God’s hand and feet, participating in building up the kingdom of God all around us. The understanding we are given brings us closer to God and to one another, it builds emotional and spiritual connection throughout God’s people.

“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.’” We are a people who are sent out into the world. We can talk about these things as much as we want, as the disciples did in the days after Easter. But Jesus’s presence among us is what fills us with joy. Jesus’s continual intervention in the world, through his disciples, is what makes us a church. We are the ones who tell this story, who live this story, because Jesus has revealed himself to us, and so we are able to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations. We are filled with joy and wonder, singing the clear, though far off hymn that hails the new creation.

Therefore, as the church of Jesus Christ, expressed as the people who are the Presbyterian Church of Lowell, we are witnesses of these things. Christ is Lord of heaven and earth! How can we keep from singing?