Sermon: Why Are You Frightened?

Delivered at McBee Chapel United Methodist Church in Conestee, South Carolina on April 15, 2018, the Third Sunday of Easter

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Why Are You Frightened?

Audio Version

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 (NRSV)

Sometimes, when I feel miles away

And my eyes can't see Your face

I wonder if I've grown to lose the recklessness

I walked in light of You

From “Like a Child” by Jars of Clay

The Disciples were gathered in Jerusalem, perhaps in the same upper room where they celebrated the Passover with Jesus just three days earlier.  It had been a strange day following a horrific weekend.  On Thursday night, after Jesus and the Disciples had gone out to pray, Jesus was betrayed by one of His closest followers and was arrested by an angry mob.  He was taken to the religious leaders who found Him guilty of blasphemy.  Early Friday morning, He was taken to the Roman governor who, pressured by the crowd, sentenced Jesus to die by crucifixion, like a terrorist.  Jesus was nailed to a cross, and, around three o'clock in the afternoon, He drew His last breath, and with Him died all the hopes and dreams of His followers.  One of the elders, who did not agree with the actions his peers had taken, claimed Jesus' body and hurriedly laid it in a newly dug tomb.¹

There was a group of women who not only followed Jesus but also funded His ministry.²  Some of these women, who had accompanied Jesus to Jerusalem, took note of where His body had been laid, and, because the body had been buried so hastily, they returned to the tomb on Sunday morning to properly prepare the body for burial.  When they arrived, they noticed that the tomb had been opened, and, when they went inside, they saw that the body was missing.  While they were trying to figure out what might have happened, they suddenly noticed two strange men in extremely bright clothing standing with them.  Startled, the women fell to the ground.  The men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen.  Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”³

The women ran back to the Disciples to tell them what happened.  None of them believed the women's story, but Peter, the de facto leader of the group, went to the tomb anyway, to check things out for himself.⁴

Later that day, two of Jesus' followers left Jerusalem and headed toward the town of Emmaus, and, as they traveled, they naturally began to discuss everything that had happened over the last few days.  At one point, they were joined by a stranger who asked them what they were talking about.  Wondering where he had been hiding for the last few days, they got him up to speed about Jesus, His ministry, their hopes that He would be the one to liberate their people from oppression, His untimely demise, and the news that His body was missing.  The stranger then said to the travelers, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!  Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”  He went on to tell them everything that had been written about the Messiah in the Scriptures, and, as He talked, the two travelers felt an undeniable stirring in their hearts.⁵

When the two travelers reached their destination, evening was drawing nigh, so they encouraged the stranger to stay with them for the night.  When they sat down to eat, the two watched as their mysterious guest took some bread, blessed it, broke it, and handed it to them.  Something clicked in their minds, and they suddenly realized who the stranger in their midst was.  At that very instant, the stranger vanished.  The two ran, as fast as they could run, back to Jerusalem to tell the Disciples that they had just seen Jesus alive and well.  When they arrived they learned that Peter had also seen Jesus.⁶

While the Disciples were discussing these sightings among themselves, trying to process everything that had happened, Jesus, who had apparently just popped into the room with them, said, “Peace be with you!”  Naturally, the Disciples started to freak out, as people tend to do whenever a dead person drops by to say hello.  Jesus 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.”  He showed them the scars in His hands and His feet, and, knowing that they could still not believe what they were seeing, He asked them if they had anything to eat.  They gave them a piece of fish, and He ate with them.  What the Disciples saw before them was not an apparition, a vision, or a hallucination, for such things cannot eat, and neither can they be touched.  What the Disciples saw was a living, breathing human being.  Jesus had been resurrected from the dead.

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What strikes me most about St. Luke's telling of the Easter story is the number of questions we read within it.  So often we think of the Bible as an answer book.  When we search the Scriptures, we are quite often searching for the answers to our questions; however, if we pay attention to what we read, we will find that Scripture is quite often the one that asks us questions.  I wonder if maybe the Bible is really less of an answer book and more of a question book.

When the women went to the tomb, found that it has been opened, and looked inside, some angels appeared next to them and asked, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  That is a good question.

When Jesus covertly joined the two disappointed disciples as they walked to Emmaus and listened to them discuss what had just happened in Jerusalem, He asked them, “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”  That too is a good question.  After all, Jesus had warned His followers more than once that, when He entered Jerusalem, He would suffer, die, and be resurrected from the dead.⁷

When the risen Christ stood among the unsuspecting Disciples, scaring them half to death, He asked them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”  Those are also good questions.

I wonder if maybe these questions were not meant solely for Jesus' earliest followers.  I wonder if maybe these questions are also meant for those of us who call ourselves Christians in the twenty-first century.

Popular Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton, in his book The Way, asks the reader, “What is your defining story?”  Your defining story is, according to Hamilton, “the narrative that shapes the way you view the world and your place in it.”  Your defining story “determines how you understand your life mission and ultimate destination, how you face adversity, and how you put into context all the suffering you see around you.”⁸  Hamilton contends that whatever you choose for your defining story will determine the kind of person you become.  It determines whether you become more loving or more hateful, whether you become more giving or more selfish, and whether you become more hopeful or more despairing.⁹

Christ calls us to follow Him, and, when we accept His call, we choose to make the Gospel, the story of Jesus Christ, our defining story.  The Gospel contains betrayal, injustice, death, and disappointment, but it does not end with these things.  It ends with surprise, and joy, and hope.  Our defining story does not end with a bloody cross and a dead wannabe Messiah; it ends with a empty tomb and a risen King.

As Christians, we are not Good Friday people.  We are Easter people!

Adam Hamilton likes to say that the Easter story reminds us that “the worst thing is never the last thing.”¹⁰  This aphorism originates from a novel by Frederick Buechner titled The Final Beast.  This novel tells the story of a pastor named Theodore Nicolet, who abruptly leaves town to seek out a runaway parishioner, a woman named Rooney Vail.  At one point in the story, the pastor agonizes over the sermon he is scheduled to deliver when he returns to town.  Rooney had once confessed to him that she returns to church Sunday after Sunday just “to find out if the whole thing's true,” in other words, to find out if all the claims of the Christian faith really are true.¹¹  Nicolet starts to wonder if his other parishioners might be wrestling with the same question, so he considers stepping up to the pulpit and saying, “Yes.  It's true, all of it.  Yes.  He lives.  He has power.  Can you believe it?  Yes.  It comes down.”¹²  At the same time, Nicolet does not want to deny the ugliness in the world, so he considers saying,
Beloved, don't believe I preach the best without knowing the worst...  But the worst isn't the last thing about the world.  It's the next to the last thing.  The last thing is the best.  It's the power from on high that comes down into the world, that wells up from the rock-bottom worst of the world like a hidden spring.  Can you believe it?  The last, best thing is the laughing deep in the hearts of the saints, sometimes our hearts even.  Yes.  You are terribly loved and forgiven.  Yes.  You are healed.  All is well.¹³

For Jesus' followers, the Crucifixion was the worst thing that could have happened, but it was not the end of the story.  The Resurrection was the last and best thing, for it showed that Christ had triumphed over sin and death, the things that have tormented humanity since the very beginning.  It showed that the darkness could not snuff out the Light.  The Resurrection is a source of hope for all who put their trust in Christ and seek to follow in His footsteps.  It has been said, “Everything works out in the end.  If it hasn't worked out yet, then it's not the end.”¹⁴  If anyone has a reason to believe that “everything works out in the end,” it is one who believes in the Resurrection.  In the Resurrection, we see that, in the words of St. Paul, “God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.”¹⁵

I cannot blame Jesus' earliest followers for their incredulity.  The Resurrection of Christ was, after all, unprecedented.  We modern-day Christians, on the other hand, know the end of the story.  In fact, many of us have known the end of the story almost as long as we've been living.

As I said earlier, we are not Good Friday people but Easter people.

So why don't we live like Easter people?

The angels asked the women at the tomb why they sought the living among the dead.  Why do we seek the living among the dead?  Why do we waste our lives on things that are not life-giving?  Why are we so hesitant to listen to a new word being spoken?  Why do we refuse to leave behind what always has been so that we can pursue what could be?  Why do we continue to lament what is no more when we could anticipate with hope what will be?

Jesus asked the two disciples on the road to Emmaus if it was not necessary that the Messiah should endure suffering before entering into His glory, as He had told them multiple times in the past.  If we believe in Jesus, then why do we have so much trouble believing what He says?  Can we not accept that suffering is just a part of this life?  Do we not trust that times of suffering will eventually give way to times of joy?  Do we not believe that God is present with us in our suffering and trust that God will somehow bring something good out of it?  If we believe that suffering is not the end of the story, then why do we do everything in our power to avoid it?

When Jesus appeared to the Disciples in the upper room, scaring them half to death, He asked them why they were frightened and why doubts filled their hearts.  If we truly believe that Christ triumphed over sin and death, as the Easter story teaches us, then why are we frightened?  Why do doubts fill our hearts?  Why are we far too often more motivated by fear than we are motivated by love?  Why are we so often paralyzed by things like shame and guilt?  Why are we so surprised when something good happens?  Do we doubt the goodness of God?

Are we really Easter people?

Please understand that I ask these things not as some holier-than-thou Bible thumper on his soapbox.  I ask these things as a man who is frustrated with his own puny faith.

Philosopher Peter Rollins is not what one would call a traditional Christian, but, in my opinion, he says a lot of things that Christians need to consider.  In early 2009, he spoke at Calvin College where he apparently raised some eyebrows with his rather unconventional views of the Christian faith.  Someone in attendance saw it fit to ask him if he denied the Resurrection of Christ.  Rollins replied,
Everyone who knows me knows I deny the Resurrection.  I do deny the Resurrection, every time I do not serve my neighbor, every time I walk away from people who are poor.  I deny the Resurrection every time I participate in an unjust system.  And I affirm the Resurrection every now and again when I stand up for those who are on their knees.  I affirm the Resurrection when I cry out for those people who have had their tongues torn out, when I weep for those people who have no more tears to shed.¹⁶

Rollins was basically saying that, regardless of whatever we claim to believe, we either affirm or deny the Resurrection of Christ by the way we live in response to it.  We deny the Resurrection of Christ when the presence of the living Christ is not evident in our lives, and we affirm the Resurrection of Christ when Christ lives through us.  I would add that maybe we deny the Resurrection whenever we act as if the worst thing really is the last thing, whenever we become cynical or jaded, whenever we take on a pessimistic mindset, whenever we give into despair, whenever we unnecessarily throw in the towel, whenever we throw up our hands in defeat, or whenever we utter the words, “Why bother?”

Again, I ask you, Are we really Easter people?

Jesus, while He was with the Disciples in the upper room, explained to them everything in the Scriptures that pointed to Him, as He did for the two travelers on the road to Emmaus.  He said, “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.”  He then said, “You are witnesses to these things.”  The Disciples went on to do exactly what Jesus called them to do.  They traveled throughout the world, proclaiming the story that Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected from the dead.  They announced the forgiveness of sins and invited people to change their ways.¹⁷

We too are witnesses to the Resurrection.  We too have a story to share with the world.  We testify to the Resurrection not only through our words but through our actions as well, for our actions have a way of telling the world whether or not we truly believe the words we speak.  May we live our defining story.  May we learn what it means to “know Christ and the power of his resurrection.”¹⁸  May we live our lives in such a way that others might believe that somewhere, in a garden, there is an empty tomb.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Luke 22:7-23:53
2. Luke 8:1-3
3. Luke 23:54-24:7 (NRSV)
4. Luke 24:8-12
5. Luke 24:13-27, 32 (NRSV)
6. Luke 24:28-35
7. Luke 9:21-22, Luke 43b-45, Luke 18:31-34
8. Adam Hamilton.  The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus.  2012, Abingdon Press.  p. 160
9. Adam Hamilton.  “The Worst Thing Is Never the Last Thing.”  United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, 04/13/2014.
10. ibid.
11. Frederick Buechner.  The Final Beast.  1965, Harper and Row.  p. 28
12. Buechner, pp. 173-174
13. Buechner, pp. 174-175
14. This quote, in some form, has been attributed to multiple people, including Tracy McMillan and John Lennon.
15. Romans 8:28 (CEB)
16. Peter Rollins.  “I Deny the Resurrection.”
17. See St. Luke's other work, the Acts of the Apostles.
18. Philippians 3:10 (NRSV)

The Holy Women at the Tomb was painted by William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1876.  Jesus Appears to the Disciples was painted by William Hole in 1906.