Bear Witness to the Resurrection!

Bear Witness to the Resurrection!

          Bear witness!

 

          The Empty tomb—Messengers from God gleam,
witnessing to the women,
“He is risen!”

          More powerful still, our Risen Lord Jesus himself orders them, “Go to my siblings, tell them that you have seen the Lord!”

          The women see and tell! “I have seen the Lord!”

          “Our Lord, who was dead, lives! He called us by name and comforted us in our sorrow as it was transformed to blinding joy, and he is risen from the dead!”

          To this witness, as we know, the Disciples say, “Nonsense!”

          Nonsense… until they kneel at the tomb’s entrance, and then they know what the women told them is true!
They move from disbelief,
to cognitive assent,
to experiential knowledge
—He is risen!

 

          Along the road—glum believers walk away, away to Emmaus.

          They do not yet know the enlightening weight of the words, “where two or three gather—Christ is present.”

          Present too, as they explore scripture with him who is the very Word of God. Hearing scripture from him,
letting it point to him,
being witnessed to, by Christ himself!

          Inviting him in
—entertaining the Messiah at their home in Emmaus
—their eyes opened,
“It is him, the one whom we had hoped would redeem Israel—those women had said he was risen! And indeed, he is risen!

          And off they go, returning to the others in Jerusalem, sharing their story as other such resurrection stories are shared with them—they, the whole group of them, are called to be witnesses, “The Lord really has risen!”

 

          Thomas though, does not trust their witness.

          Thomas, who left the building when all others hid there, had missed the most magnificent news
—he is still in a pre-Easter place, among a multitude of witnesses on the other side of the tomb. Imagine how alienating that must have been!

          He needs to see resurrection. He needs to feel resurrection! Like Cleopas and the bread…

He needs Easter to be true for him, not in words alone, but in deeds as well.

          He needs to see the failure of the nail to hold him down.

          He needs to feel Christ’s side, feel that the spear was not the end of him.

          And he does! He has one of the most intimate experiences of the Resurrection, save perhaps Lazarus’ odd parallel—he meet the risen Christ—sees and touches the Risen Christ, and responds in confession: “My Lord and My God!”

 

          Peter then, at breakfast, meets again our Lord, meets for a meal of bread and fish, in abundance
—perhaps every meal with Jesus is a feast!
There he enters deeper still into his confession, “He is risen!”

          The resurrection life, that our Lord reveals, repeated three times for emphasis, “Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.”

In this resurrection life we’ve been grafted into love of Jesus is identical to care for his Sheep.
Love the Lord, Love his Lambs.

          “Follow me,” Jesus says, for our whole lives ought to be a witness, ought to say, “He is risen.”

 

          At his Ascension, the end of his Easter sojourns and instructions to the apostles…

          Jesus names it all clearly one more time:

          Scripture, testifies to him.

          His suffering, his death, his resurrection, testifies to him.

          Repentance and forgiveness of sin, testifies to him.

          And we in turn are called to witness, testify,
confess with lips and with life,
that he is risen.

 

          The Good News was completed in him, in today’s readings we can literally see the Gospel of Luke end and it’s sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, begin… Turning the page, a new chapter, a new book… The good news was completed in him even as we continually point to it in this new chapter of life with God.
Witness to the Gospel of Jesus.

          God reigns on earth as in heaven… while the Disciples in Acts get their Kingdoms confused and look for the restoration of Israel, instead of the Reign of God
—we know that we encountered the Kingdom of Heaven whenever Jesus comes near
—and so we continually call people to nestle near him—like a hen with her brood of chicks.
Witness to the Reign of God!

          This blessing Christ gives at the end of Luke, and the funny prompting of the Angels at the start of Acts, “Why ya’ll lookin’ up?” both point to the calling of every Christian—the whole church—to, in our whole lives, mirror the Messiah, to be little Christs to our neighbor.

Witness to Our Savior.

 

Bear witness! A+A.