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The Gospel of Matthew Bible Studies
The Gospel of Mark Bible Studies
The Book of Acts Bible Studies
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April 2009
May 2009
June 2009
July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
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Third Sunday in Easter (B) Text: John 24:36b-48 April 26, 2009 “…to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” Perhaps you recognize these words as well as the monomaniacal character who “spat” them out in Herman Melville’s fictional tale Moby Dick. In literature, few characters have come to epitomize the ever so human motive… known as revenge… as well as Captain Ahab. For those unfamiliar with the story of Moby Dick, Ahab is the peg-legged captain of a whaling vessel, whose single-minded obsession in life is to kill Moby Dick, the monstrous white whale that maimed him on a previous whaling expedition. The whale, whom is to Ahab, the incarnation of all things evil, became the central obsession of his life—a life dedicated to attaining vengeance at all cost. Now, as for revenge. Have you noticed how often this theme arises in our world? Again and again we listen to stories, in books and in movies and probably in your own life, about people whose entire life trajectories are set (or redirected) by this memorizing pursuit—known as revenge. Think of the stories based on revenge in our recent popular culture: From Braveheart, to an assortment of Comic book movies—most notably Batman (the vigilante theme), and not to forget about Clint Eastwood… with his new one Gran Torino, where he has it out with gangs who are terrorizing his neighborhood. Oh, and I must be the first to admit that there is a side of me that just loves to watch as the bad guys get what they’ve got coming to them. Ah, to satisfy this thirst for justice. Yet, I noticed something this week as I prepared for this sermon and was looking at yet another Easter Gospel reading. It’s striking about what is missing from our story, and I think it’s important for us to take note of what does not happen… That Jesus, after being tortured, humiliated, abandoned and killed like a petty criminal, that when he comes back, he doesn’t come back for blood at all. He doesn’t come back to take vengeance against Pontius Pilate, against the Jerusalem Jewish leadership who got him in trouble, against the crowd who called for the release of Barabbas… or against his disciples who abandoned him in the hour of his greatest need. No, what I notice is that Jesus’ mission—his trajectory and life purpose is not ever swayed by the changes and chances of life. And this, brothers and sisters in Christ, may be the most oft-missed miracle of our Easter story. If Hollywood were in charge, you can bet that Jesus (performed by Charles Bronson) would have returned, himself as a monomaniacal ghost, to take revenge against all those whose actions had resulted in his humiliating death… but no. This is not the God revealed in Jesus Christ. This is not the truth being communicated to us through the gospel. Rather, Jesus, his message and his mission is unwavering. God’s mission is unwavering—based on love for people—and Jesus died and rose again so that we would know just that. In our Gospel reading today, Jesus returns, once again, after his death and resurrection to the same faith-challenged group of people (the eleven) who abandoned him in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he doesn’t haunt them by reminding them of their weakness or their failure. Rather, he says to them, “Peace be with you.” Notice how even as Jesus stood in front of them, showing them his hands and his feet; showing them that he was alive—really alive—flesh and bone, and that he had really been dead and that now he was risen..., notice this line in Luke, which is encouraging to all of us who struggle in our modern age to make sense of this central story of our Christian faith. It says, “Even in their joy, they were still disbelieving and wondering...” And to this, Jesus asks a familiar question, “Why do doubts (or it could be translated “questions”) arise in your hearts?” And if you look back in Luke, clear back to the 5th Chapter, there is another story where some friends lowered a man through the ceiling, down to Jesus so that he might heal this man, and Jesus said first to the man, “Your sins are forgiven.” And then he asks the on-looking Pharisees the very same question, “Why do questions arise in your hearts? Is it easier to say, ‘your sins are forgiven,’ or to say ‘rise, pick up you mat and walk?’” Brothers and sisters in Christ, the miracles surrounding Jesus’ life, they are difficult for us to grasp, to understand, or to believe in. Yet, somehow, Jesus keeps making the point that the premise of forgiveness is just as remarkable, just as miraculous as any of the signs he performed. In the story of our Gospels, Jesus is consistent in coming to doubting hearts—even to his own disciples who all at once celebrated and disbelieved in his resurrection. It is with people like this, that God first created the church. It is with people like this that God still creates the church. And the primary miracle that God has given us to confess and to witness to in the world is… repentance and forgiveness. He says, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise form the dead on the third day…, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations…” I have come to believe that repentance and forgiveness is the power of the resurrection in our world today. This is where God’s power over death is revealed most fully in our society. This is the so-called foretaste of the feast to come. Repentance and forgiveness, it doesn’t happen often. It isn’t natural for humans to give up our grudges or our vendettas against each other, but when it does happen… it’s like life after death. And so I return to this story of Moby Dick, in which a whale took Ahab’s leg, but Ahab (in vengeance) dedicated his whole life to that whale. Moby Dick took something from Ahab, but Ahab gave the whole rest of his life (his attention, his strength and his last breath) and more than his own life. As so often happens, the once-victim, Ahab, became himself a tyrant and drove his whole crew (save one) to their deaths at sea in order to pursue his own selfish obsession with revenge. The story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, however… our story… is quite different. The good news of the resurrection is that people need not let the whales of this world rule their hearts. We need not let the evil’s of this world become the driving force or motive of our lives—less we too become what we do not want to be. Jesus Christ is our hope and our savior from such a wasted existence, in that he is the same as he ever was. Before and after the world tortured him, he remained unwavering with his message and his purpose. In his death and resurrection, we ourselves (as Christians) have been given a legacy- which says that with God it is possible to be motivated by something other than revenge for what we’ve been through. Repentance and forgiveness was taught by Jesus throughout his entire ministry—and it is the message that he sent out with his disciples even after the resurrection. “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise form the dead on the third day…, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” This message of repentance and forgiveness is for the whole world, but his disciples were in Jerusalem, and so that is where it needed to begin. It always starts right here and right now. With us. In his Apology to the Augsburg confession, Philip Melanchthon wrote on this topic, saying, “We understand repentance as the entire conversion, in which there are two sides, a putting to death and raising to life. Brothers and sisters, this is the resurrection life—available to us every day, when we remember the grace of God available to us and turn from our own self-generated missions. Repentance means, putting the Ahab’s within us to death and understanding that we have a forgiving God, who wants us to live out our calling from on high—not our mission, but Christ’s mission. And so, turning from the distractions of the world (all of the evils that frustrate us and devour our souls), May it be the love of God, in Christ Jesus, that motivates all that we do this day. Forgiven, let us walk anew and renewed within the light and truth that is the love of God for all people. Peace be with you. -------------------- Pastor Joshua W. Magyar 418 W. Main St. Sidney, MT 59270
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