Easter 3: Recognizing the Risen Christ

Acts 10:34-43

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

1 John 3:1-7

John 20:1-18

It is tellng how the scriptures describe the appearances of the risen Jesus, especially how those who encounter him recognise him.  If you remember in the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene mistakes him for the gardener.  In the Gospel of Luke the two disciples on the road to Emmaus travel with Jesus and speak with him for some seven miles and do not recognise him in all that time.  Last week we heard about Thomas who can only say, ‘My Lord and my God!’ when he has put his hands in Christ's wounds.  Later in John's gospel we are told that the disciples were fishing and Jesus was on the beach.  The disciples saw him, but also did not recognise him.  Today we hear that other disciples believe Jesus to be a ghost, not even the wounds on his hands and feet really convince them.  The gospel tells us that while joyful at the prospect that this might really be Jesus they remained ‘disbelieving and still wondering’ even after he had shown them his hands and feet.   Quite different stories and yet there is running through them a common thread, a common thread that is central for our understanding of the resurrection.

If we look at the gospels, it is clear that the experience of the empty tomb does not inspire belief in the resurrection or the resurrected Christ. As we learned in the gospel of Mark: the women went out and fled from the [empty] tomb for “terror had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”(Mark 16.8)  Neither does being told that Jesus is risen establish belief.  For the angels tell the women and they still leave in fright.  The other followers of Jesus undoubtedly told Thomas and that did not bring him round to belief.  Not even seeing the risen Jesus brings recognition.  Mary Magdalene sees Jesus in the garden and the disciples see him on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, and none of them recognise him by sight.  If we are to believe the gospels not the empty tomb, not being told it is so, not even seeing, brought Jesus’ earlier followers to recognise him as the risen Lord.  What then does?  Well, for Mary in the garden it is when Jesus calls here by name.  He says “Mary.”  Then she recognises him and believes.  For those on the road to the Emmaus it is at the end of their journey with Jesus, and they have stopped for the night.  There Jesus “took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.” (Luke 24.30) And it was only then that “their eyes were opened, and they recognised him.” (Luke 24.31)  For Thomas it is when he touched Jesus; when he puts his hands into Jesus’ wounds in the context of his believing brothers and sisters.  It is only then that he is able to say “My Lord and my God!” (John 20.28)  For the disciples fishing it was when they experienced the abundance of God’s generosity in a great catch of fish.  It was then that they recognised the figure on the shore as Jesus and Peter immediately throws himself into the water and begins to swim towards his Master.  In another episode, it is only when Jesus asks for food and eats it with them that they accept that it is Jesus and are ready to listen to what he has to say.  He then begins to teach them the truth of the scriptures; about his death and resurrection and the proclamation of the good news to all the nations, telling them that they are witnesses of these things.

Not the empty tomb, not hearing the stories of witnesses, not even actually seeing the resurrected Jesus bring people to recognise the Risen Lord.  If it had, then we the latter followers of Jesus would be, as Paul says to the Corinthians, “of all people most to be pitied,” because belief in the Risen Christ would be open only to those who were actually there at the time – those who saw the empty tomb, or heard first-hand the stories of witnesses, or actually saw Jesus for themselves.  But no, the way in which the risen Jesus was made present and recognisable to those first followers is the same way in which he has been made present and recognisable to Christians throughout the generations; the same way in which he is made present and recognisable to us: it is when we are called by name as Mary Magdalene; it is when we are gathered to hear the truth of the Scriptures and break the bread like the two who journeyed to Emmaus and like the gathered disciples on the shore of Lake Tiberias; it is when we touch one another deeply as Thomas touched the wounds of Jesus;  it is when we are able to see the world's goodness and bounty as gift from God's generosity as did the disciples who were fishing.

Today we have gathered together in the name of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And because Jesus tells us that where two or three are gathered together is his name he is there among them (Matthew 18.20), then the risen Jesus is here.  Do we recognise him?  Today we have heard the reading of the scriptures.  We have listened to the stories of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles and praised God in the psalms of the Hebrew scriptures.  We have proclaimed the good news-the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have broken open the Word of the Living God. The risen Jesus is here.  Do we recognise him?  Will we recognise him? Today we will come to the table of the Lord.  We will say the prayers and we will break the bread. Here in Hanford we will share in the heavenly banquet of God and the mystery of Christ's life, suffering, death and resurrection.  Not 2,000 years ago, but here right now, in this time and in this place, Christ will be known to us in the breaking of the bread.  The risen Lord is here.  Will we recognise him?  As friends and fellow Christians in this community we often come together for shared meals and parties.  We rejoice in the company of one another – we eat, we drink (we even get drunk).  Well the risen Lord is there – in the community, in the food, in the music, in the sharing, even in the drink (it wasn't for nothing that Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine). Have we recognised him?

You see, it is not a question of seeing Jesus.  It is a question of recognising Jesus.  For us Christians the presence of the risen and living Jesus is all around us – in the community that gathers here Sunday by Sunday and through the week, in the reading of the scriptures at the Eucharist and in Bible studies, in the daily breaking of the bread, in the prayers we offer for one another, in the gentle touch of our brothers and sisters when are in pain and in their joyful embrace in times of joy.  Jesus is there.  The risen Lord is here.  The problem is that, like his earliest followers, we do not always recognise him; but, the risen Lord is here.

Throughout the season of Easter we greet each other with the acclamation, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!”  and we respond by saying , “He is risen indeed! Alleluia!”  If these words are not to be empty formality, then we must accept that believing in the risen Christ means recognising the risen One in the working out of our lives.  The risen Christ was no more present to his early followers 2,000 years as he is to you and me, to us, today.  He is present in our being called by name in baptism.  He is present when we gather to share the scriptures and break the bread. He is present when we rejoice in God's goodness.  He is present when we touch one another in sorrow and humility.  Alleluia! Christ is risen!  He is alive here among us now.  If not, then what are we here for?   And what in the world do we think we are here doing?   Amen.