A Meditation for the Third Sunday of Easter
Today’s gospel reading is taken from Luke’s gospel
account – Chapter 24. This chapter has four parts: 1. Easter morning and the
empty tomb of Jesus; 2. The encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus; 3. The appearance
of Jesus in Jerusalem; 4. The Ascension of Jesus.
In each of these encounters, the people involved are overcome
with amazement and struggle to understand what they are experiencing. Obviously,
they did not understand what Jesus had been foretelling of his pending suffering
and death, but that he would overcome death and return to them. The cross
crushed all the hope they had in Jesus, as the two disciples on the road to
Emmaus reveal. That is evidence of the great power death has to tear apart the
trust and hope of any believer.
With his resurrection Jesus begins the healing and
restoration of their shattered faith, and it begins with physical evidence: “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.” But Jesus does not intend that this
physical way of coming to certain faith will be the way of the future. A more
convincing and certain way is now to be revealed.
Do we
not sometimes wonder why Jesus did not continue to remain physically present
for every generation to see and be convinced?
Luke has
given us two books to instruct us and answer that question. His first book is his
Gospel Book, and his second book is the Acts of the Apostles. It is in Acts
that we learn of this better way. Let me use an illustration to explain. Suppose
I were to lead you to the entrance of a tunnel, and I explained that on the
other side of this tunnel is a glorious ancient city, magnificent and beautiful.
Now you know about the existence of that city, but only by the evidence of my reporting.
But if you enter into that tunnel and pass through it to the other side, you will
know for certain, by your own experience, of the existence of that city I
described. Knowledge comes from hearing, certainty comes by experience.
Jesus
wants to take us into the mystery of his resurrection by way of the “tunnel” of
spirituality. This will be accomplished through the working of the Holy Spirit.
We see the beginnings of this certifying of faith with the two disciples on the
way to Emmaus. They asked one another,
“Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke with us on the road and
opened the Scriptures to us?” Lk 24:32 <> Then he opened their minds to understand
the scriptures. Lk 24:45
When the
Holy Spirit seeds the revelation of Jesus’ gospel, deep within our hearts,
nothing, not even death itself can destroy such certain faith. This is work of
the Holy Spirit and it happens within us when we engage in the practice a
personal spiritual life. Lots of people know about Jesus and his teachings;
indeed, great scholars have far more knowledge of scripture than you or I could
ever hope to know, yet some of them are atheists. A dynamic living faith is a
work of grace, and it is discovered when we enter the “Tunnel of Prayer”.
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