Luke 24:36-48; April 19, 2026; Third Sunday after Easter
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They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence (v.42-43) … Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures (v.45)”
What an incredible statement and image. He opened their minds.
In a sense then it excuses the disciples for their lack of understanding, as if they were previously blocked from being able to before. Perhaps due to their humanity, their mortality, their social and sinful conditioning, so often scripture reports that they just couldn’t grasp what Jesus was actually talking about, and what he was asking of them.
Just. Like. Us. Today.
Wouldn’t it be great for him to open our minds too, my friends, so that we could all understand him more clearly and follow in his footsteps more closely?
Wouldn’t that be great? What a gift that would be! Maybe then we wouldn’t have people posing about their religion, bandying about “verses” from movies with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta detached from anything resembling Jesus’ actual teachings or meaning.
And more, what a gift it would be to eat fish with Christ! To sit down at table and have some tilapia, some salmon, while he changed our tap water into wine. Cabernet Sauvignon, please.
“They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence (v.42-43).”
On the surface, at first glance, this seems sort of silly. He’s just returned from the dead, the disciples are grieving and confused, and of all the things to record, Luke captures that he ate some broiled fish among them. Like, what?
It’s with good reason though. You see, some scholars have argued that this is Luke’s attempt to counter an early Christian belief that Jesus’ body was just an illusion because they thought that the Son of God couldn’t possibly physically die, especially on a Roman cross. This is often called the heresy of Docetism, that Jesus’ human body/appearance was just an illusion.
But my friends, we know that his body wasn’t an illusion. That he did actually die, and that he did rise from death, and that he opened his disciples’ minds and ours to that mind-bending truth that he was and is both divine and human. Which means he could not only die, and rise, but also break bread and eat some broiled fish in their presence thereafter.
And I just love that, notably because I love fish and would much prefer to eat caviar with Christ than gluten free wafers. In fact, Robin, let’s switch that up next month and get some blackened red snapper up in here!
But more seriously now, take note of verse 47. After he eats the fish, Jesus says to them this: “repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.”
The first thing he tells them after opening their minds is to proclaim repentance and forgiveness.
These are the bedrocks of the faith moving forward, now and always, my friends. And this message is for all nations to hear and receive. Repent/turn back from your old ways: from wars, violence, lies, and destruction, to a new, higher way of understanding and thinking where all can be forgiven. Where love and peace are actually given a chance to reign.
This is the gospel. This is the good news. This is the mind-bending, mind-opening promise that Jesus gives to us all: for with him there is new life and a new community. And every day is new opportunity to turn the page and to begin again. To be better. Like Him.
Amen?
Which, in conclusion, reminds me of the show, Seinfeld…
Yup! That great show and particular episode where George is upset that his girlfriend hands a big salad to his friend Elaine (hence, the photo on this week’s bulletin cover).
You see, even though George was the one who bought it for her, Elaine says thank you to his girlfriend instead. But worse, to George’s incredible dismay, his girlfriend doesn’t bother to correct Elaine, saying “well, George was the one who actually bought it.” No, in his mind, she just absorbs the credit undeservingly, and that just burns George up. He can’t let it go. And he vents to Jerry all about it.
To which Jerry sarcastically responds: “Imagine… her taking credit for your big salad.” Saying it in a way which emphasizes just how absolutely silly and ridiculous it is that George, or any of us, could ever get so upset about something like this in the first place. That another person might receive gratitude and grace that we think should only be reserved for us.
But God doesn’t play favorites, my friends. God doesn’t just bless one country or one people over another. Nor those on a certain side, or hemisphere. No, the good news is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations and all people!
The point then is that even those of us who don’t deserve it, who never bought the salad in the first place, are yet given the same amazing grace as if we did, as if we earned it at all.
And we are given this gift freely by Jesus, who isn’t keeping score; who breaks bread, lettuce, and fish with us all, dying and resurrecting for all, proclaiming forgiveness and life to and for all.
Amen?
Amen.
