4
May 2003
Seeing
Ghosts?
Last week,
when Barry was here, we read the story of Jesus’ appearance to his disciples as
told by John. This week, we have part
of Luke’s account of the event, which is slightly different. Luke doesn’t stress the fact that the
disciples were frightened, huddled together behind locked doors, the way John
does. All the same, it’s pretty clear
that this is what was happening, and you can’t blame them.
Imagine,
if you will, that you are a citizen of a middle Eastern country which is
occupied by an Imperial power. Your
leader has been killed by elements of his own people joining forces with that
Imperial power, and you are afraid that you will be next on the list. And there are funny rumours going round
about what has happened to your leader – you would have sworn he was dead, but
some quite sensible folk are saying that they’ve seen him and chatted to
him.
Well,
that may well be what is happening in Baghdad right now, but it also happened
in Jerusalem all those years ago.
And
those sensible folk who were claiming to have seen Jesus, and talked to him,
include Simon Peter, for one – and here are Cleopas and his wife, who had
decided to try to make it home to Emmaus, seven miles away, coming roaring back
and saying that they’d seen Jesus, and spoken to him. Is he alive?
Could he be?
And
then, suddenly, there he is. A
ghost? Surely you’re seeing
things? Perhaps it’s a result of your
own longing for him to be alive, like the Juliet Stevenson character conjuring
up the Alan Rickman character in Truly, Madly, Deeply.
But
no, he’s suggesting you grab hold of him.
Feel – he’s well solid! Luke, in
his account, doesn’t actually mention the wounds in Jesus’ hands and feet, the
way John does, but the implication is there when Jesus tells the assembled
disciples to touch his hands and feet.
And
then he demands some food – trust Jesus to be hungry, that hasn’t changed! Not only asks for food, but actually eats
his helping of fish, and I’ve no doubt that, had they had chips in those days,
he’d have had some of those, too. Ever
heard of a ghost who could eat?
So you
are beginning to reckon that Jesus must be real, after all. And so he takes you back through the
Scriptures – just as he did with Cleopas and his wife on the road to Emmaus –
and shows you how this was all part of the plan, all prophesied, all foreseen
and foretold, that God would raise the Messiah from death after three
days. And this time, finally, you see
what he is getting at.
You
know, I wonder whether the disciples hadn’t quite realised what it was all
about because Jesus himself hadn’t been absolutely certain. When you think of all the struggles he had
had with himself about who he was, and what his mission was. After all, no matter how much we say we
believe, when push comes to shove and our faith is tested, it’s not always easy
to be quite so certain. Look how scared
Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane.
For him, it must have been such a relief to find he hadn’t been
mistaken, after all! He knew he must
die if he went to Jerusalem; so much was obvious. The Jewish authorities weren’t going to put up with a teacher
like him any longer than they had to.
But it must have been very difficult to be absolutely sure that he was
doing the right thing in allowing himself to be put to death. If he were mistaken, it would have been so
unnecessary, a life cut tragically short.
And even if he were not mistaken, could he be really sure that his
Father would raise him?
We
know that on the Cross Jesus felt utterly alone, utterly separated from
God. That cry of despair: “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?” But
then, at the end, when he cries out, “It is finished!”, I’m almost sure that is
a cry of triumph. A sort of “Done
it!” “Yesssssssssss!” His doubts were vindicated. He had got it right, after all!
And so
when he had been raised, the Scriptures, which he had thought before that he
understood, he now knew, so clearly, that he had understood them, and was able
to explain them to the disciples.
“Look, this is what it says, do you see how it has worked out!”
===oo0oo===
But
what does all of this mean to us? It’s
all too familiar, these stories; we let them wash over us, we reckon we
probably believe them, although whether we actually do or not we don’t
particularly trouble ourselves to find out.
After all, it was all so long ago in history….
I
think the first thing we learn from this story is that it’s okay to doubt. The disciples were pretty doubtful; they had
serious trouble believing that Jesus had been raised. It wasn’t until he’d shown them in as many ways that he could
think of that he was alive and well that they were able to listen and
understand how it was all part of God’s plan.
And, as I said, I reckon Jesus himself must have had his doubts – he
was, after all, human. And we all
doubt.
I know
there are some teachers who reckon we should never doubt, that it is sinful to
doubt, and so on. Rubbish! Or an even stronger expletive than that, but
let’s not use bad language! But
honestly, it is all rot, you know. Because
it’s only when you begin to doubt that your faith becomes important to
you. Someone once said “Doubt is the
crucible of faith”, it’s where your faith becomes refined, where all the
inessential things fall away, and what is left is what really matters. Jesus promised us that “When the Holy Spirit
comes, he will guide us into all truth”, and I think we can rely on that. After all, faith is a gift from God – maybe
our doubts, when we have doubts, are God’s way of helping us to use that gift
to the best of our ability!
===oo0oo===
Jesus
went through the Scriptures, first with Cleopas and his companion, wife or
whoever, and then with the other disciples, showing them that it was all there,
all written, that the Messiah would be raised from death. And because they were there, with him, they
could believe and understand. And, of
course, later on, when Jesus had been finally taken into heaven, the Holy
Spirit did come upon them, Luke says like a rushing mighty wind, and with
tongues like flame. And then, of
course, they were enabled to proclaim, as Jesus had said, “repentance and
forgiveness of sins in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem”.
And
we, too, have the Holy Spirit, since that promise was to all of us. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth,
and gives us joy and peace in believing, helping us to find out what is true
through all our doubts and fears. And
giving us hope that, no matter how much we may doubt, it really is true in the
end!
And,
of course, bringing about what John said in that first reading that June read
to us: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called
children of God; and that is what we are.”
We can know that, even in this life we are God’s children, and John says
that we don’t know what we will be when we, too, are raised. “What we do know is this:” says John, “when
he is revealed we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”
Moreover,
both in this life and especially in the life to come, there is healing. I don’t know so much about physical healing
– I do know that this does sometimes happen, and very wonderful it is,
too. But if we believe in resurrection,
and why are we celebrating Easter if we don’t?, then maybe physical healing isn’t
just so important. It feels important
at the time, of course, nothing is worse than being in pain, but in the end our
bodies are going to wear out or rust out, whatever we do to prevent it.
But
that part of us that makes us “us”, if that makes sense. That, we are taught, carries on even after
these bodies have gone to dust. One of
the things that Jesus’ being raised shows us is that there is something else to
look forward to, however improbable that seems most of the time! But if we carry on, and even if we don’t,
spiritual healing makes sense. It’s not
so much about laying-on-of-hands and so on, although that sometimes is part of
it. It’s mostly about becoming the
person God designed us to be. Becoming
whole. Learning to identify, and
dispose of, all the negative stuff inside us, the memories of painful or
embarrassing times that still hurt, the times when someone let you down, or
wasn’t there for you, the tings that you maybe feel guilty about, or angry
about, even though there was nothing you could have done to prevent them. That sort of thing. Sometimes you need someone to help you
confront these memories, other times you can manage alone, with God’s
help. And the thing is, once you know
what it is that is stopping you being truly whole, you can just hand it all
over to Jesus, and ask for His healing touch.
I can tell you from personal experience that we are healed like
that when we ask.
===oo0oo===
It’s
time I stopped, but I just want to finish with a thought that only occurred to
me relatively recently. If we just look
on the Resurrection as an event in history, then no matter how much we believe
it, we aren’t making the most of it.
Christ was not raised for his benefit, although that too. He was raised for our benefit. For your benefit. For my benefit. Because
of the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit can come and indwell us, heal us and
enable us. Because of the Resurrection,
our sins, which Christ took upon himself on the Cross, have not only been
forgiven, they’ve been totally disposed of.
Let’s not waste the Resurrection.
Let’s allow God to come and indwell us through his Holy Spirit, to help
us work through our doubts to a more secure faith, to heal us where we need
healing, and to make us whole. Who
knows, we might be in for an exciting time!