THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER "B"

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER “B”

A large crowd of more than 500 eyewitnesses saw the risen Jesus Christ at the same time. The Apostle Paul records this event in 1 Corinthians 15:6. He states that most of these men and women were still alive when he wrote this letter, about 55 A.D.  Today, psychologists say it would be impossible for a large crowd of people to have had the same hallucination at once. Smaller groups also saw the risen Christ, such as the apostles. The hallucination theory is further debunked because after the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, sightings of him stopped.

 When the risen Christ appeared to Paul on the Damascus Road, Paul became Christianity's most determined missionary. What could make a person willingly accept—even welcome—such hardships? Christians believe the conversion of Paul came about because he encountered Jesus Christ who had risen from the dead.

Countless people have died for Jesus, absolutely certain that the resurrection of Christ is an historical fact.  Down through the centuries, thousands more have died for Jesus because they believed the resurrection is true. Even today, people suffer persecution because they have faith that Christ rose from the dead. An isolated group may give up their lives for a cult leader, but Christian martyrs have died in many lands, for nearly 2,000 years, believing Jesus conquered death to give them eternal life.

PRAYER (Catherine Hooper)

How can I tell of such love to me?

You made me in your image and hold me in the palm of your hand, your cords of love, strong and fragile as silk bind and hold me.

Rich cords, to family and friends, music and laughter echoing in memories, the light dancing on the water, hills rejoicing.

Cords that found me hiding behind carefully built walls and led me out,

love that heard my heart break and despair and rescued me,

love that overcame my fears and doubts and released me.

The questions and burdens I carry you take, to leave my hands free – to hold yours, and others, free to follow your cords as they move and swirl in the breeze, free to be caught up in the dance of your love, finding myself surrendering to you. How can I tell of such love? How can I give to such love?

I am, here am I.

22^nd. April 2012

The readings today are full of Easter excitement. Peter is speaking to a crowd of Jewish spectators who have come to witness the man whom Peter and John had cured from paralysis. He had been begging for money, but the two apostles could not give him silver or gold, but rather a recovery of his mobility through the Holy Spirit.
Peter begins his speech with a kind of Scripture lesson. He reminds them that the God of their religious fathers, the Patriarchs, has revealed Jesus to be the servant of the Scriptures. Peter reviews how the listeners had been complicit in the handing over of this Servant to His death. Peter ends with a comforting call to repentance and life offered through Jesus Whose death and resurrection was written in their very own Holy Scriptures. He invites his listeners to drown themselves in the forgiveness of Christ, Who before He was born, was buried in their own prophetic writings. This Christ, the Servant of Suffering, once buried in a tomb, now is alive and giving life to all who believe.
The Gospel of Luke has its own Easter event. Two disciples had been taking their exit-walk from Jerusalem back to Emmaus. Jesus had met them, responded to their invitation to stay with them and while eating with them was known to them in the “breaking of the bread”. Then Jesus vanishes, but their hearts were so flooded with joy that they decided to return and reveal to the others what they had experienced.
What we hear in today’s Gospel is the rest of the story. While the disciples are relating their being accompanied, (literally) by Jesus, the very same Jesus appears in the midst of the group and extends “peace” to all. Terrified and thinking they were seeing a ghost, the assembly has a real Easter dinner. Jesus, knowing their doubtfulness, invites them to touch His body and then asks for something to eat. Luke is greatly aware that his Greek readers were skeptical about such a thing as rising from the dead. He inserts this part of the story to comfort such skeptics. Jesus is offered some fish and eats it as a sign that He is truly Himself. Ghosts don’t have bodies nor do they eat.
Jesus concludes this appearance with conclusive evidence from the writings of Scripture. The law, the Prophets and the Psalms all speak of the Servant having to suffer, die and rise. This Good News is meant to affirm Jesus as the Messiah and that forgiveness of sins is to be preached from the top of the Jerusalem Hill to the ends of the earth. Those who have seen Jesus’ risen Body are now to become that Body by living His life and giving His life to the world.