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Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you." But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, "Have you any food here?" So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence.
Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."
And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.
- Luke 24:36-53
In Tuesday's reading, we read about the women who had followed Jesus' ministry from Galilee, who came to His tomb with spices and fragrant oils, but His body was not there. They were greeted by two men in shining garments, angels, who said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!" When the women went back and told the disciples, they dismissed it as idle talk and they did not believe them. But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened. Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things, which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. And He said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?" Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, "Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?" And He said to them, "What things?" So they said to Him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see." Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Then they drew near the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone further. But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went into to stay with them. Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you." My study bible points out that this phrase, "the resurrectional greeting of Peace to you," frequently resounds in the worship services of the Eastern Church.
But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, "Have you any food here?" So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence. A note tells us: "To counter the fears and doubts of the disciples, the Lord demonstrates the reality of His Resurrection by inviting them to touch Him and by eating with them. This is a special instance, since the glorified body of Christ needs no food for sustenance."
Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." My study bible tells us: "The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms were the three sections of the Hebrew Scriptures -- also called the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings." The centrality of Christ to the history of Israel and its spiritual life is essential for us to understand; this is what the author Luke gives us through Christ's words to the disciples. The Venerable Bede has written: "It is perfectly evident that the church is one in all its saints and that the faith of all the chosen is the same, of those who preceded and who followed His coming in the flesh" (Homilies on the Gospels 11.15).
And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. My study bible tells us that "understanding is not merely intellectual, but a full experiential, spiritual understanding. To comprehend and receive the spiritual value of the Scriptures is a gift of the risen Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit." Here the action of Jesus tells us of the centrality of the word of Scripture to the mission of the disciples into the world.
Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things." My study bible says, "Repentance and remission of sins are part of the gospel, which is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations."
"Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." A note tells us, "Endued with power from on high means filled with the Holy Spirit, which occurs on Pentecost (Acts 1:8; 2:2-4). The apostles are to wait in Jerusalem, because their divine mission can be accomplished only with the enabling of divine power. Luke concludes his gospel with this reference to the Promise of My Father and begins the Book of Acts with the fulfillment of it."
And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. My study bible tells us: "Luke alone records the event of the Ascension (see also Acts 1:9). The Ascension signifies Jesus' full glorification and lordship over all. He is Pantokrator [in the Greek], the All-ruling Christ, sharing equal glory, authority, and honor with the Father. The Ascension is as great a mystery as the Resurrection, and should not be understood simply in terms of time and space. The risen Lord Jesus Christ is now enthroned, sharing fully the ruling power of the Father together with the all-Holy Spirit. The disciples worshiped Him because His Resurrection and Ascension fully reveal His divine nature. They also continue to meet together, praising and blessing God for all the gifts of salvation in the Son. Joy dominates their lives through the renewing experience of His Resurrection."
In Jesus' greeting of "Peace to you" we can read many things that tie in these last verses in Luke's Gospel. Peace is more than just an absence of strife or violence in the colloquial sense in which we often hear this word used. According to Strong's Concordance, scripturally it can be defined: "Peace, peace of mind; invocation of peace a common Jewish farewell, in the Hebraistic sense of the health (welfare) of an individual." Other etymological speculation indicates it may be derived (in the Greek) from a verb that means putting things together, like stringing beads on a necklace. It's an image of wholeness, of reconciliation, of bringing all the parts together in order to make something new and different from merely the sum of parts. In this sense, Peace to you becomes a statement about everything else that Christ brings to this picture of what happens at the end of Luke and also about the Promise that is to come. Christ stands in their midst, and commentators such as Bede remind us that Jesus has already taught them that "where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” So the fullness of peace in the sense of "bringing together" in order to make something new out of the whole is there in this picture. Augustine has written in commentary that the appearance of Christ's very body in their midst serves as a teaching about the Church itself: "They could see Christ talking about the church that would be. When Christ said something they could not see, they believed Him. They could see the head, but they could not yet see the body. We can see the body, but we believe about the head. They are two: husband and wife, head and body, Christ and the church. He showed Himself to the disciples and promised them the church. He showed us the church and ordered us to believe about Himself" (Sermon 229I.1.3). So once again, peace in the sense of reconciliation, a new whole made out of the sum of parts that is more than simply a sum, plays its role in this final scene in Luke's Gospel. We've already commented on Jesus' mentioning of the whole of the Scriptures concerning the entire history of Israel, and noted the commentary from Bede regarding the fullness of the communion of all the saints -- those who have ever been and those who are to come. In so many ways, Peace to you tells us about Jesus and the Church and the great fullness of a glorified creation. Jesus' specific words about the gospel message they are to preach, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," tell us about an even greater wholeness, a bringing together, a reconciliation, because these words specifically point to the things which we find wrong with ourselves and with our world. The wholeness included in this picture is also bringing to itself His suffering and our suffering, the sins we do and the sins done against us, together with all the nations included in this gospel message. Redemption and reconciliation, the glorified and transformed world, is to bring together not only the things that we imagine are good and true and beautiful, but make it possible for every aspect of our lives to be included in its wholeness and sound health. In every breadth and depth, Jesus' reconciling power is to be at work: in the fullness of the gospel message, in the fullness of the communion of all the saints, in all the Scriptures, in the Body that covers all of time and space, "all the nations." Peace is in Him, the One who stands in the midst of us and makes all things new, and gives us life through faith and grace. In the Promise of My Father the wholeness of the Holy Trinity is found here, the future of the Body that continues to shape itself with Him as the head. It is in that wholeness of His peace that we find a redeemed and transformed life, the light that shines in the darkness, and gives us a Way to go forward. This is the way of the disciples, the way the Gospel points us. Amen.
