Luke 24:36-49 (Easter 3B)
St. John, Galveston 4/14/24
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

As I read over the Gospel reading for this morning, it struck me how many times, over the last several weeks, the Gospel reading has included Jesus’ promise to His disciples that He was going to be crucified and then three days later be raised from the dead. That promise is before us again this morning in Luke 24. “Thus it is written (Jesus said), that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.”

You may recall, Jesus speaking about His death and resurrection to His disciples didn’t go over very well. In a at least two of the instances, the disciples responded as if they didn’t understand what He was talking about. On one occasion, Peter took Him aside and promised to protect Him from such a tragic death. Jesus was incensed by Peter’s action. Consequently, He rebuked him rather harshly. “Get behind Me satan (He said), for you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

On another occasion, James and John demonstrated that they too were clueless as to what Jesus was talking about. And so, they took the opportunity to ask Him for the two highest seats in the Kingdom. One of them to sit, as it were, on Jesus’ right, and the other on His left. Jesus told the two brothers, “you don’t know what you’re asking for.” Greatness in the Kingdom of God is measured in servanthood and not in achievement or excellence.

In this morning’s reading from Luke 24, just before He spoke of His death and resurrection, Jesus said, ““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.” “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.””

Sometimes the Bible is a difficult book to understand. I think we can all agree on that premise. There are different reasons that it’s hard to understand. One is that it deals with the mysteries of God. And so, some parts of it are hard to understand because the things of which it speaks are simply beyond our understanding. The Trinitarian nature of God, for instance, is beyond our comprehension. God is one God, and yet, He is three persons. And so, when the Son, who is God, prays to His Father, who is God, we have a hard time understanding how that all works. Or, the two natures in Christ. Jesus is both fully God and fully man. These and other passages that deal with the mysteries of God and of our faith are, by their very nature, difficult to understand.

It’s difficult too to understand the Bible when it presents teachings that are contrary to our powers of reason or logic. When those situations arise, we are confronted with a choice. We can either follow our reason, or we can follow the word of God. For example, on the night of His betrayal and arrest, Jesus took the bread of the Passover in hand, and said, “take and eat, this is My body.” Reason says that a piece of bread cannot be the body of Jesus. And yet, Jesus and the Scriptures say that it can be and that it is. And so, as Lutheran Christians, we believe that the body and blood of Jesus are truly present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, even though we our belief is contrary to our reason.

So, there are a number of reasons why the Bible can be difficult to understand. Perhaps though, the greatest reason the Bible is sometimes hard to understand is one that we don’t often think about. God actually never intended for us to be able read and understand the Bible apart from the intervening power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, our understanding of the Scriptures is itself an amazing of God’s grace.    

“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed (says the Apostle), to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

Even more, says the Apostle, “We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” I hope you caught that last part. THE NATURAL PERSON (that is, the unbeliever),  IS NOT ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE THINGS OF GOD BECAUSE THEY ARE SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED.

And then here, in Luke 24, we are told that Jesus “opened the disciples minds to understand the Scriptures.” All of this is to say that even our ability to read and understand the Scriptures is a gift from God, who works in us to open our minds that we might understand and believe what has been witnessed and written about Him. And what He tells us this morning regarding our faith, is that all of the Old Testament, from Moses, to the Prophets, to the Psalms, were written about Him. And so, as one of my professors is fond of saying, “all theology is Christology.” The Bible is, from beginning to end, about Jesus.

Central to Moses, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the entirety of the Scriptures, for that matter, are the three aspects of our faith that Jesus mentions in this morning’s reading. It’s what He kept telling His disciples, even though they were unable to comprehend what He was talking about. He would be crucified and raised from the dead on the third day. Here, in Luke 24, He then adds to the promise of His death and resurrection that repentance and the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

It seems such a simple message, and yet, it is profound. God has reconciled the world to Himself in Jesus. Our sins have been gathered up in God’s mercy and nailed to the cross. We have been set free from our bondage to sin and death. We have been declared holy and righteous before Almighty God. A new day has dawned, God is no longer against you, rather, He is for you.

And even today, men are moved by the power of the Holy Spirit to discern the Call of God on their lives to proclaim His word, and they respond, saying, “here am I, send me, send me.”

We are honored to have just such a man and his family in our congregation. Well, for a short time longer anyway. Zach Stuckwisch and Rebecca, and their four children, Cheri, Donovan, JJ, and one child yet to be born and named, will be moving to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, for Zach to begin studies at Concordia Theological Seminary. Indeed, from Jerusalem, to Galveston, to Ft. Wayne, and to all the world the name of the Lord shall be proclaimed and praised.

As a congregation, we are also honored to help support Zach and his family while he prepares to be ordained as a Pastor in the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. In doing our little part, we’ll join Zach in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection leading to repentance and the forgiveness of sins to all the world.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +