The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke the 24th Chapter
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.
This week’s Gospel starts with a quick, but important, reminder from last week. Jesus stands among the disciples on the beach and says, “Peace be with you.” Just like last week, this isn’t a suggestion. This is Jesus ORDERING peace to be in, with and under the disciples’ entire beings... and it WAS... and it IS! Both for the disciples then AND for us disciples now! Peace be with you! BOOM! DONE! YOU HAVE IT!
Apparently though, they had trouble fully living into the peace Christ gave them... filled with joy, disbelief and wondering as they were. But it’s important to understand that their joy, disbelief and wondering were not an indication of whether or not they possessed Christ’s peace... They had it alright. No, their joy, disbelief and wondering were indications of their struggle (like our struggle) to recognize it, live into it, and accept it as real.
When Hanna, our oldest, was a toddler, she told us one night, “I NOT have a bath.” We said, “You can have a bath the happy way or the sad way.” She chose the sad way... She often chose the sad way. After she was bathed, we dried her off and said, “So... you had a bath.” She said, “NO! I NOT HAVE A BATH!” She had a bath, but we couldn’t make her admit that she’d had one. We disciples are sometimes like that with Christ’s peace. “I NOT HAVE CHRIST’S PEACE!”
After giving the disciples his peace, Jesus invited them to look at his hands and feet... to TOUCH his wounds and SEE he was really there... flesh and bones. Then he asks them for something to eat and the disciples give him a piece of broiled fish. Broiled fish. Isn’t that oddly specific? Broiled fish. Not grilled, fried or poached but broiled. Not baked, steamed, roasted or sauteed, but broiled. Not sushi style or en papillote, but broiled! Why would that detail... Jesus eating BROILED fish... be important enough for Luke to include?
It turns out that the detail of Jesus eating broiled fish was important for Luke to include because way back then, when Luke wrote his Gospel, there were people who were convinced that Jesus was not concerned with matters of the flesh. They believed that focusing on Jesus meant they should focus ONLY on the place where they believed Jesus now was... the spiritual world... heaven... the hear-after. They believed things of the flesh were evil and things of the spirit were holy. The day to day concerns of their neighbor’s flesh and blood needs, therefore, weren’t important. Only their spirit mattered... only the after life mattered. Wounds and hunger in THIS world were simply unchangeable facts of the evil world of the flesh. It was something we all simply had to endure. They could not be changed. Things would be better in the sweet by and by and that should be enough.
Luke told of Christ giving his peace and of Jesus having the disciples TOUCH his wounds and FEED him fish, because Luke wanted to remind all who read his Gospel that JESUS was of the flesh! There was no separation of “so called” evil flesh from righteous spirit! Human, earthly concerns WERE Christ’s concerns! This world, these bodies, these people, our neighbors ARE all holy, because God made them holy. Luke wanted to remind the people then, and us now, that when we TOUCH the flesh and blood, real-life wounds of our neighbors in THIS world, we touch something holy... we encounter Christ. It is in feeding our neighbor who needs something to eat... it is THERE that we SEE Christ in THIS world... and Luke makes this story SO specific and SO detailed, telling us that Jesus ate BROILED fish so that we would not mistake this story to be about some sort of spiritual meal.
Luke gives us those details so it is crystal clear. Disciples are called to fill the ACTUAL bellies of real, FLESH and BLOOD people, with REAL, chewable, belly-filling food. He wants us to understand that it is in the nitty, gritty, real life, here and now act of giving food to someone who is hungry... In THAT act, we meet Christ. By walking THAT path... walking the JESUS WAY of flesh and blood, wounds and hunger that we live into the PEACE which Christ has already given us all as a gift.
God has a deep desire to connect with humanity and all of creation. In earlier times, the Jewish people encountered God in the Temple, but as Luke wrote this, that had been destroyed. Followers of Jesus had connected to God through the person of Jesus and his teachings and his life but now he too seemed to be gone. So, there were many in Luke’s day... and there are still many today... who believe we no longer have that physical connection with God. They believe God is just “up there” and so “up there” should be our focus. Focus on the spiritual. Focus on the day we’ll be vacuumed up to join him in glory... focus on saving souls, winning hearts for Christ, making sure sinners get to heaven (or keep them out of hell)... focus on making sure we turn ‘em before they burn!
But here’s the thing. In Luke’s time, that focus on the spiritual... the insistence that God had no part in flesh and bones or the wounds and hunger of the people in the world... that was a misguided notion Luke fought with a passion. Luke insisted, with “broiled fish” detail, that Jesus isn’t “Up There” concerned about our souls. Luke insists that Christ is RIGHT HERE... in, with and under the wounds and in the hunger of the people we encounter every single day. We’re reminded of that, right over there, every Sunday when we see and touch broken body... when our hunger is fed at the Table.
I think Luke had it right. We have Christ’s peace. We’ve been freed from having to worry about our souls and heaven. That strife is o’r! That victory’s won! Heaven doesn’t need our focus... heaven’s been handled for us on that first Easter. Where our focus is called for now, is to be on Jesus, and we meet Jesus HERE in the flesh and bone of the people of the world who are wounded and hungry. The wounded, the hurt, the broken... they are asking to be touched and seen. The hungry... they are looking for something to eat. Luke is telling us, touch the wounded and you will touch Christ. Feed the hungry and you will see the face of God. Amen.
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