A Second Re-Creation

Gospel: John 21: 1-14

At the resurrection of Jesus we saw how John recreated the drama of Eden in various images to suggest that the death and resurrection of Jesus is our re-creation and restoration back to our original innocence before the fall.  In today's Gospel portion, John again recreates two scenes and molds them into one story in order to demonstrate the same idea of  restoration and renewal that takes place in an encounter with the risen Jesus and the ritual meal.

First, we find ourselves reliving the multiplication of loaves with the miraculous catch of fish, wherein the disciples recognize the presence of the Lord.  Then, when they arrive on shore, they find Jesus preparing a meal of fish and bread on a charcoal fire, the very place of Peter's denials on the night of Jesus' arrest.  The meal is a Eucharistic one, a meal designed to restore the broken relationship of the disciples who abandoned him and the one who denied him.  

It is only after the meal is finished when Peter and Jesus then have the exchange of love where Jesus asks Peter three times if he loved him.  The meal has provided the way forward in the relationships. It has enabled the healing to proceed fully.  Imagine if we regarded the Eucharist in the same way rather than some prize for the perfect.  The very power of the Eucharist is the fact that it is the vehicle of reconciliation, not a reward for it.  

Doubting Disciples

Gospel: Luke 24: 35-48

Consider the record of these eleven men over the past week.  First, each pledged that they would never betray or deny the Lord, and that they would die for the Lord.  One betrayed him, another denied him three times, and the others abandoned him.  When Mary Magdalene and the other women tell them about the risen Jesus, they do not believe them.  These men even go to the empty tomb and still do not believe the Lord had risen.

In today's scene we have the two men who encounter the Lord while going to Emmaus, and the eleven do not believe them either.  So, the risen Jesus appears to them, and they think it a ghost.  They still do not believe.  It is only after Jesus eats with them that they come to acknowledge the Lord is indeed risen and is in their midst.  We may speak of doubting Thomas, but his incredulity is one that is shared by all the men in the apostolic band.  

What of our own faith? Do we put our faith in the Prince of Peace, the nonviolent Jesus who died rather than wield the sword, the one risen from death? Or is our faith in other things completely alien to the person of Jesus? How often do we choose the anti-Christs, the way of political power and influence, the way of violence and lies, the way that threatens our own church with its alleged might! Only the way of Jesus leads to authentic peace and new life.   

A Real Presence

Gospel: Luke 24: 13-35

Two disciples are on the road to Emmaus.  They encounter Jesus along the way, but initially they do not recognize him.  They tell him about all that has happened in the last few days regarding the death of Jesus and then the empty tomb.  Jesus then takes them through the scriptures, connecting them to his life, death, and rising, and yet they still do not recognize him, even though later they will recall how their hearts were burning within them.  

They then stop to rest along the way and share a meal.  When Jesus breaks the bread it is then that they come to recognize him, but he vanishes from their sight.  The Lord is only fully revealed and known to us in actions, not in words alone.  The words stirred their hearts along the way; the action of sharing the meal together fully revealed Jesus to them.  It was the action that brought together everything else into a real presence for them in the world.

The same is true in our own lives.  We can talk all we want about Jesus.  We can read the scriptures and all sorts of other things about him.  But Jesus does not become real in the world until we break bread with others, i.e. when we engage in actions of love and mercy directly with others.  Only then does the presence of Jesus in the world become real, only then does the resurrection of Jesus have any meaning in people's lives.  The faith of Jesus is not an abstraction; it is a lived reality.