Luke 24:36b-48
“Joyful, Disbelieving, Wondering Disciples”
During the Season of Easter, the lectionary suggests a lot of Scripture readings about the Risen Christ appearing to his disciples. It makes sense because there were two important things that shaped the Christian faith of the early church going forward. First, there was the fact that Jesus’ tomb was found to be empty, with his body gone. And second, there was the experience and witness of a number of his friends and followers who saw him raised.
If you were at worship last Sunday, but perhaps not carefully checking the Scripture reference, you might have thought that we repeated the same Gospel passage today that Taeyang preached about last week. In both cases, it was a story about Jesus appearing to a group of disciples in Jerusalem, not too long after they’d found the tomb to be empty and heard reports from the women that they’d seen Jesus alive.
Both of these stories, that are probably describing the same event in their own unique ways, have Jesus standing among the disciples with a greeting of “Peace be with you.” They also both include some doubt on the part of the disciples, with John’s account attributing the disbelief … Read more »