Whiteboard: Deja Vu

It is a bit of deja vu this Sunday.

Last Sunday we had John's take on the Christ's resurrection appearance with the disciples (an encounter that we like to label as the story of "Doubting" Thomas, although I unpacked that unfortunate nickname in my sermon).

This Sunday we have Luke's accounting of Christ's resurrection appearance with the disciples and...it sounds pretty familiar.

Not only does this appearance sound an awful lot like the Gospel of John's account from last Sunday, but it bears a striking resemblance to the story that comes right before this Sunday's reading in Luke too -- we know that story as the Walk to Emmaus (no unpacking necessary here, they really were walking to Emmaus!).

Lucy Lind Hogan has an excellent reading on the similarities in these texts and more importantly why those similarities matter.

For my money, I think the scriptures are trying to tell us that in no uncertain terms that Christ comes to folks who doubt and fear and brings them peace and purpose. And maybe, just maybe it is a point so crucial that we need to hear it again and again in these Sundays of Eastertide.

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Luke 24:36b-48

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

 Then he said to them, ‘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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.