Sent out with Courage in the Lord / Luke 24:36-49 & Acts 3:11-21 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday April 14th 2024 / Season Of Easter / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Rev. Ted A. Giese / Sunday April 14th 2024: Season of Easter - Luke 24:36-49. “Sent out with Courage in the Lord”

As they were talking about these things, Jesus Himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Touch Me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them.

Then He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends. There’s false courage, like liquid “courage in a bottle” that fades away as sobriety returns to the mind and body and then there’s “courage under fire” the sort of and nerve daring displayed by soldiers, police, fire fighters and paramedics who aren’t thinking of future metals or recognition who quickly bolt into action when the need arises and then there’s the kind of epic courage that produces saintly valour: the kind of courage and righteous audacity that we see it our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. But before we get there let me first take you to the moments just before the beginning of that first reading.

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And [Peter] took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”[1]

The chief priests and the rest of the Sadducees and the Scribes and the Pharisees and all the Elders of the people who had been in on the plot to have Jesus dead had also hoped that Jesus’ disciples and followers would vanish like smoke when they’d managed to have Jesus dead and buried. By this point they had received news of Jesus’ resurrection but didn’t want to believe it. Even still they’d hoped Jesus’ disciples would scurry off to their former lives and shut their mouths the last thing they expected was to have them boldly present themselves in the temple preaching and teaching like they owned the place. And for them the healing of this man was incontrovertible evidence of God at work in these men which was also incredible. The chief priests and the rest of the Sadducees and the Scribes and the Pharisees and all the Elders of the people who had been in on the plot to have Jesus dead would have walked past this very man daily, they would have given him alms, charity, handouts over the years, they would certainly have known him and they would of absolutely known that he was not faking his inability to walk. So now “while [the man healed of his infirmity] clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people:

“Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And His name—by faith in His name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.”[2]

Here we see Saint Peter and Saint John displaying epic courage in the face of certain death: Why wouldn’t the chief priests and the rest of the Sadducees and the Scribes and the Pharisees and all the Elders of the people who had been in on the plot to have Jesus dead not now turn their focus on them to have Saint Peter and Saint John and the rest of them killed? This event happened shortly after the promised sending of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost that Jesus mentions in our Gospel fifty days after Easter, but to get here to this moment we need to return to the events of Easter Sunday: as we do we’ll dig into the roots of the epic courage displayed in Jesus disciples turning them not only into men of faith but also men of courage.  

Like I said today’s Gospel returns us to that Easter Sunday; in it we also switch to a new Gospel Writer, on Easter Day we had Saint John in the first Service and Saint Mark in the second service, last week we had John again and this week we have Saint Luke. And this is good, because Luke provides a perspective that I think many can appreciate today. Saint Luke was a doctor, a physician, a man of medicine and science. He wrote both the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel of Saint Luke and he provides the reader with some medical reason and factual accounting of what happened. All the Gospels talk of Jesus being physically raised from the dead but somehow it’s even more reassuring when the account of the resurrection comes from a physician whose work was to examine bodies and care for them. He would be well acquainted with live and dead bodies, with sick and injured bodies and with healthy bodies.   

Last week’s Gospel from Saint John talked of Jesus asking Thomas to touch Him a week after that first Easter Sunday, this week’s gospel from our Doctor friend is from the week before this on Easter Day. On the first Easter Sunday Thomas is not with the others and the two who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus had just returned with their news that they’d seen Jesus while traveling and as the disciples clamour over each other to tell these two about their good news, that the women had also seen Jesus, right then in the midst of them Jesus appears, saying, “Peace to you!”

Saint Luke establishes some important details for us; Jesus, to allay their doubt, to relieve their doubt, asks them to first look at Him, then He asks them to reach out a touch Him, lastly asking for something to eat, Jesus eats fish right in front of them. Jesus is providing the disciples with hard evidence, He is asking them to make some observations 1) they hear His voice 2) they see Him with their own eyes 3) they touch Him with their hands 4) and for the sake of comparison they watch Jesus do something they had seen Him do before in their presence: all of this is proof to them that what’s before them is not a dream, or a hallucination, or even a ghost. Everything necessary happened and what Jesus said would happen, did happen. “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will rise.”[3]  

From this point on the disciples were changed men, they stopped despairing their situation and started preaching, even though doing so could bring death upon them. Death no longer frightened them after they witnessed Jesus risen from the dead. The same disciples who’d once fled in the garden of Gethsemane, the same disciples who’d locked themselves up in the upper room for fear of their fellow Jewish country men, after seeing the risen Lord Jesus willingly faced beatings, imprisonments and gruesome and painful deaths. They would not do this for a case of mistaken identity, or a dream in the night, or a hallucination, or some apparition they’d thought was a ghost.

They, the disciples, who knew Jesus personally before His death, believed that He rose from the dead; this is what Saint Luke reports to you today. And by believing this their lives didn’t get easier, their lives got actually harder more arduous, yet in the midst of their struggles they had more joy, more happiness, more courage, more conviction. At the beginning of the Gospel Saint Luke writes, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”[4]

The disciples had this certainty and so can you. As they all stood there in that room together, Jesus with His disciples, “said to them, “These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, [just as Jesus had done with the ones on the Road to Emmaus] and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” [Jesus said to them], “You are witnesses of these things.” Courageously from there they set forth with the Good News of Jesus.  

They were charged with a certain task to be apostles and pastors and evangelists, to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations in the name of Jesus; you have not all been called to the same vocation as they, but remember that doesn’t mean you’re without a part to play in this task: You may well recall the hymn “Hark the sound of Jesus Crying” where we sing, “If you cannot speak like angels, If you cannot preach like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus, You can say He died for all. If you cannot rouse the wicked, With the judgment’s dread alarms, You can lead the little children To the Saviour’s waiting arms.” “Let none hear you idly saying, “There is nothing I can do.” While the lost of earth are dying, And the Master calls for you; Take the task He gives you gladly; Let His work your pleasure be; Answer quickly when He calls you, “Here am I, send me, send me.”[5] Each of us in our vocation in life, in the various forms of work and responsibilities the Lord has given us to do, will be provided with opportunities to share our faith with others, opportunities to bravely share our certainty in the resurrection of Jesus. We may not do it before councils and kings or out in foreign lands as missionaries, but we may well do it with co-workers, and family, with children and random people we meet.

In such circumstances have courage and be strong. As we heard from the Acts of the Apostles today they didn’t shrink from the proclamation of Jesus when doing do was dangerous. Pray that you in your baptism will have the same backbone and courage when you find yourself in challenging situations. Saint Thomas who we heard of last week was reportedly martyred in what is now India and you can even visit the location where he was said to have been run through with spears because he would not back down from telling people of his Lord and his God, Jesus.[6] Saint John was the only one of the faithful disciples who was not martyred. Likely because John was tasked with caring for the Virgin Mary, but for his instance in preaching, teaching and writing about Jesus Saint John was exiled on the isle of Patmos and made a prisoner for the name of Jesus. He with the rest all face men who could end their earthly lives but they had no fear of them because they saw death broken and dead at Jesus’ feet as Jesus stood before them alive.

This was not false courage, like liquid “courage in a bottle” that fades away as sobriety returns to the mind and body; this was not even “courage under fire” the sort of nerve and daring displayed by soldiers in combat or Fist Responders in the face of danger; this is the kind of epic courage that produces saintly valour in the hour of need.

I leave you with these words that Jesus spoke to His disciples before His suffering, crucifixion, and death, before His Easter resurrection from the dead and His ascension to His Father’s right hand: Jesus said to them these words that you can now take to heart for yourself, “when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”[7] Take heart, you will have the courage you need, when you need it most and when you falter in whom do you find your forgiveness? In Christ Jesus the one from whom all courage flows like a river, who bids you drink without payment.[8] Amen. 

Let us pray: Lord, have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Acts 3:1–10
[2] Acts 3:11–16
[3] Mark 9:31
[4] Luke 1:1-4
[5] “Hark the Voice of Jesus Crying,” Lutheran Service Book, Concordia Publishing House 2006, #826, verses 2 and 4.
[6] John 20:28
[7] Luke 12:11–12
[8] Revelation 21:6

Photo Credit: Montage of "Peter and John Healing" by Rembrandt (1606 - 1669) from europeana.