Sermon Text: Luke 24:36–49
Date: April 14, 2024
Event: The Third Sunday of Easter, Year B
Luke 24:36–49 (EHV)
As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37But they were terrified and frightened and thought they were looking at a ghost.
38He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41While they still did not believe it (because of their joy), and while they were still wondering, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
42They gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb. 43He took it and ate in front of them. 44He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to 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.”
45Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46He said to them, “This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49Look, I am sending you what my Father promised. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
You Are Witnesses
I try to avoid sports analogies too often in sermons because if you don’t care about or don’t follow sports, the illustrations won’t be very meaningful. But as I read the Gospel for this morning, one sports analogy was inescapable to me. Way back when, in 2003, Cleveland’s professional basketball team, the Cavaliers, drafted an 18-year-old LeBron James straight out of high school. To say the hype was over the top would be an understatement, with LeBron receiving the title “The King” before he even set foot on an NBA court for a game.
A few years after that, though, he had done much to live up to that hype. In 2007, four years after his NBA debut, Nike ran a new advertising campaign focused on LeBron. It was usually a stark black background with the words “We are all witnesses” printed in white text. The idea was that when you watched LeBron play, you saw some special, unique, memorable moments in the game’s history. And, if while doing so, you wanted to buy some things from Nike as well, they wouldn’t complain.
But the idea of being witnesses, of seeing something that is perhaps once-in-a-lifetime or once-ever type of thing, is special. Many traveled to the path of totality for the eclipse this past Monday to witness that astronomical history, at least on our part of the globe. Perhaps you’ve had a moment or two like that, moments that you were glad or thankful that you had the TV on or were in attendance at an event to be a witness. Maybe it was something of global importance; maybe it was pretty much just for you.
But for anything of any importance, you probably not only see it but also share it. You tell the story of that great moment in sports you saw, or that concert you attended, or share photos of a spectacular sight you were present for. That’s what a full-fledged witness is—not just one who saw something but also shares what they saw.
In our Gospel for this morning, we once again visit the disciples on that first Easter evening. The disciples in the locked house were talking with the men who had been on the road, walking to Emmaus. Jesus had come to them, unrecognized, and walked with them. He had explained to them, from the Old Testament, “what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Their hearts burned as the Holy Spirit worked through Jesus’ words to have them begin to understand what happened at the crucifixion and to start to make sense of these early reports of an empty tomb.
As soon as they realized it was Jesus, he disappeared, and they ran back to Jerusalem to tell the brothers there what had happened. They were talking about this as Jesus came and stood among them again. They were terrified, as I suspect any of us would be if we suddenly saw someone we knew had died standing before us, seeming to be alive and well. Here, Jesus is proving his physical resurrection from the dead because it is a cornerstone of the gospel these men would share.
But what was going on here? Luke writes, “They still did not believe it (because of their joy).” Were they rubbing their eyes? Pinching themselves? Were they trying to figure out if this was a dream or some hallucination?
How patient Jesus is! He doesn’t scold them for their lack of faith or rebuke them for their unbelief; he simply gives evidence. He offers them the same opportunities that Thomas would have the next week: see him, touch him. Jesus isn’t a ghost or a mere spirit but a flesh-and-blood living human being. He eats some fish. Ghosts can’t eat, but Jesus can.
So Jesus gave them the tools to understand what was happening. Jesus doesn’t really tell them anything different than what we teach our catechism students. When looking at the purpose of the Bible, we teach that Jesus is the center point of the whole thing; the Old Testament points forward to Jesus in prophecy and promise. The New Testament points back to Jesus, telling us what he did and what it means for us. And that’s exactly what Jesus did for these men. He said, “This is what is written and so it must be: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” The time was now for them all to understand, finally, why this all happened: why he had to suffer all those grievous things on Good Friday and why he needed to stand before them, not a ghost or a spirit or a vision, but a man risen from the dead.
You may not have witnessed Good Friday while standing at the foot of the cross, or helped prepare Jesus’ body for burial, or walked the dusty road to Emmaus, or spent time in that locked upper room. You might not have seen him eat some fish or placed your fingers in the nail marks on his hands. But you, too, are witnesses of Christ’s work. You’ve sat in these pews, and through the eyes of faith, you’ve seen it all. You’ve heard his anguished prayer in the garden, you’ve felt the energy of the crowd screaming for his blood, you’ve seen the nails go into his flesh even as the sun hides its face from the travesty of justice. You’ve heard him cry out a proclamation of completion—it is finished! You saw where he was buried. You went into the tomb and touched those neatly folded burial cloths but did not find his body. By God’s grace, you’ve come to understand and believe what it means: because he lives, you too shall live. You are witnesses of all these things.
Witnesses need to speak up, to share. What good is it to anyone if you keep this whole message under your hat? Evangelism is not primarily done through increasing an advertising budget for the congregation. Evangelism doesn’t just happen at the behest of the Evangelism Committee nor does the pastor just take care of all of that work. No, evangelism, being a witness, happens in your living room. It happens at work. It happens at a friend’s kitchen table.
It happens when you look into the sad eyes of a neighbor drowning in despair. It happens when your coworker voices his anger at God but then there’s a sliver of an opportunity for you to share comfort. It happens when you talk to your son, daughter, or grandchildren about how they’re living their lives—encouraging them in their positive choices and offering warning about where the path of sin leads.
You are witnesses of all these things. You are witnesses of a law that can crush stony hearts of sin and a gospel that can build up the despairing because you know it yourself. You’ve been the hardened sinner, angry or indifferent to God. You know the pain of the law’s hammer. You know the comfort, then, that comes from knowing that Jesus saved you. You, who shouldn’t be worth a thing to God, and yet he died for you. That is what you testify to. That is what it means to be Christian—to tell the full truth about Jesus as you can. That’s what it means to be a witness.
Easier said than done, though, isn’t it? It’s easy to preach or listen to a sermon about being a witness; it is far harder to do the witnessing. Jesus had no delusions about the difficulty of the work he placed in his disciples’ laps. When he sent them out earlier on what we might call their “practice” witnessing work during his ministry, he told them, “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on guard against people. They will hand you over to councils, and they will whip you in their synagogues. You will be brought into the presence of governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. (Matthew 10:16-18).
The apostles were going to have a challenging time. They would face opposition at every turn, and the people they were trying to reach would fight them tooth and nail. Do you think that was easy for them to face? Don’t you think they had to drag themselves, kicking and screaming, to witness to people when it would undoubtedly be, at best, uncomfortable and, at worst, downright horrible for them?
But Jesus reminds them of a promise he had made to them before. Even as their hearts are perhaps still racing from being startled at seeing him, he tells them, “Look, I am sending you what my Father promised. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” The power he would send, the power promised by the Father, was the Holy Spirit. When Jesus had warned them earlier of all the troubles they would face, he had also said, “Whenever they hand you over, do not be worried about how you will respond or what you will say, because what you say will be given to you in that hour. In fact you will not be the ones speaking, but the Spirit of your Father will be speaking through you” (Matthew 10:19-20).
That promise applied to the disciples’ early work during Jesus’ ministry and their full work at the start of the Christian church after Jesus’ work was complete. And that promise still applies to you and me today. That’s why you’re here right now: to be built up in your faith and to hear the Holy Spirit’s words for you to share again. At this place in worship, Sunday School, Catechism Class, and Bible Class, we learn the things we are to say. Here, we learn the words that the Holy Spirit was preserved for us. Here, we become witnesses, yet again, of all that Jesus has done. Here, we are motivated to speak solely from the joy of knowing that our sins are forgiven and that we have no fears. Here, we are reminded that this news can and will bring joy to the hearts of people we have contact with every day.
You may witness many amazing things in your lifetime, whether in sports, politics, world history, or phenomena in the sky. The things you witness may be important to many or few, but none will ever be more important or applicable to more people than this: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
