Sunday Sermon: Jesus was put to death by human decision but raised from the dead by God’s power

The liturgy of the third Sunday of Easter is based on the following readings: Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35. The main theme of these readings is the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise. And this is stressed the more in the resurrection of Jesus who was put to death by human decision but raised from the dead by God’s power according to his promise. The same theme is developed in the Acts of the Apostles and Psalm 16 which remind us that the New Testament is but the fulfilment of the Old Testament. The psalmist tells us that God fulfils his promises and that is why he trusts in God always. Even at night and in the face of death itself the psalmist knows that the Lord will protect him and bring him to eternal and complete joy at the Lord’s side, because he has promised to do so. In the Gospel, St. Luke narrates the experience of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus and brings out one of the most interesting problem of human behaviour: the different levels of human knowledge and understanding. The two disciples are first asked by a ‘stranger’ to tell the facts of what had happened to Jesus and the subsequent incidents. They do this with a disillusioned detachment, just presenting the knowledge of facts in a way that showed that they were already disengaged! We thought he would save our nation, but now we have found out the contrary, they seemed to say. Surprisingly, the would be stranger enlightens them explaining to them the scriptural meaning of these same facts; which elevated them to a second level of knowledge and reality. When this happened, something new happened to them: “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us…” v. 32). They were asking themselves: “How did we fail to recognise our Lord” ? The doctrinal message of our liturgy is in Jesus’ disappearance at the moment of the breaking of the bread with the two disciples. It is a sacramental sign that shows us that Jesus Christ intended to live on in the world through his disciples. He imparted his powers of ministry to them and associated some healing signs with them. Consequently, the disciples’ ministry was to use God’s power to convert minds and hearts to the full Christian meaning of life. Such moments of the Christian experience of conversion and commitment, continue to signify in a visible way the real intervention of God in our lives. Despite God’s intervention in our lives, some time we too like to detach ourselves from our expectations and revert to the calm objectivity of someone who is no longer involved in current problems. Something similar to what happened to the two disciples going to Emmaus does occur to us very often. There are times when we too experience an inner paradox between our hopes and the constant ebbs and tides of the things that do not work out according to our expectations. Then we would like to revert to what we consider to be peaceful. This is not very Christian because our faith does not explain away the roughness of this life; in fact, there is a lot that our Christian faith does not explain. But Christianity above all reassures us of meanings and purposes that go beyond us, and gives us the strength to continue to expect great things in this life and in the next life. In fact the disciples to Emmaus had missed the point by giving up so soon. There is something Christian they were missing. Many Christians do not live as they wish, they do not lead an exceptional life, and may not have notable mystical experiences. They see the same things as the others do. But they interpret reality in a different way, loaded with meaning. They have a spirit that drives them forward in spite of hardships. Like the disciples going to Emmaus their “hearts burn within them” in all these. This liturgy therefore teaches us that Christians should not be afraid of looking at reality as it is. We must see things as they are though at times we fail in this. Jesus showed us an example: He did not skip over the brutalities of his passion and he asked the disciples to remember them. There is a practical therapy to be found and used in the disciples to Emmaus. It begins by facing what we fear and escape from; at times we do this by telling ourselves or others the happy ending of the story. Christian reality has no need of refuge. It is by standing in the face of reality that we can carry our cross and follow Christ instead of calling it a quit. Ends