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Sections The Daily B.R.E.A.D. April 26, 2006 - Sunday Meditation (Witnessing - Cost and Reward)
Sections The Daily B.R.E.A.D. April 26, 2006 - Sunday Meditation (Witnessing - Cost and Reward)
| April 26, 2006 - Sunday Meditation (Witnessing - Cost and Reward) |
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| Sections - The Daily B.R.E.A.D. | |||
| Written by Bobot Apit | |||
| Friday, 24 April 2009 05:37 | |||
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We are called to share what we have seen, heard, and touched with others. We, like the early Christians, are to witness to God activity in his creation and among his people. Witness involves speaking the truth in love. Telling others God's truth about faith in Christ. Extending God's love (that we enjoy) to others. The cost of this endeavor is high for it leads to the cross. The reward is that much greater, for it leads to the resurrection.
Luke 24:35-48
T hen they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. (36) As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them. (37) But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. (38) And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? (39) See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have." (41) And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" (42) They gave him a piece of broiled fish, (43) and he took it and ate before them. (44) Then he said to them, "These are my words which 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." (45) Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, (46) and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, (47) and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
Word Study & Meditation with Larry Broding
In an inconspicuous room of old Jerusalem, followers of a dead prophet gathered to reflect on their loss. Suddenly, news came of an incredible, not to believed event. Their prophet was alive. Then, the Risen One appeared in their midst. His appearance turned their lives in a completely new direction. His message would guide the rest of their lives. They were to proclaim the Resurrection and God's offer of forgiveness. Have you ever experienced something so strange you had to re-orient your thinking to explain the experience? What happened? Experiences can overwhelm us, dazzle us. Sometimes experiences change us. But there are those rare experiences that leave us completely flustered. We cannot give the experience a context. The experience does not change what we know or feel. It does not even change the way we live. The strange nature of the experience challenges us to seek a completely new understanding, a entirely different context if you will. If you have never had such an experience, consider the conversion experiences of your family, friends, or fellow church members. Many of those people had experiences that led them on a life-long journey to faith. They had to find a context to give their experience or their inner yearnings a true home.
The followers of Jesus had such an experience. What they saw, heard, and touched so completely flustered them, the disciples needed the risen Jesus to give them the context for true understanding.
In the aftermath of the walk to Emmaus, as Luke recorded, Jesus appeared to his followers, gave them convincing proof of his resurrection, and opened their minds so they could preach about the Messiah.
(37) Having been terrified and having become fearful, they were thinking (they) saw a spirit. 24:36 "While they were saying these (things)" is a temporal participial clause. 24:37 "(they) saw a spirit" is an infinitive. This passage began like other Resurrection narratives. Jesus appeared with the greeting of "Shalom," God's peace. The reaction of the disciples to their first sight of the Lord is the same. They felt fear and a sense of awe. Yet, in spite of the testimony from the women and the two travelers, the disciples still could not believe their eyes when Jesus appeared before them. Why were they so upset? The appearance itself might not have caused their discomfort. After all, visions were far more accepted in the culture of Jesus than in the modern Western culture with its scientific scepticism. The disciples had advanced knowledge that Jesus was risen. But they were not ready for the TYPE of experience they encountered. The appearance of the risen Lord was so new, it was outside the experience or comprehension of the disciples. They could not rightly interpret the experience; they could not put it into a proper context. In fact, they were powerless. Only Jesus could validate the experience and supply its proper understanding.
The disciples were so overwhelmed with emotion and incredulity, they did not fully grasp the truth of the situation. First, Jesus would prove their experience was no hoax. Like the appearance to Thomas in John's gospel, Jesus showed his wounds and challenged his followers to "touch" him. The experience of the Risen Lord was tactile. Jesus has substance, unlike a ghost. Unlike John 20, Jesus showed his followers his hands and feet (not his hands and side). Here, Luke inferred Jesus had been nailed in his feet. This passage also paralleled John 21 with the subject of the cooked fish. In John 21:9-14, Jesus was cooking the fish. He blessed it and gave it with his followers to eat. But in Luke, the disciples gave Jesus the cooked fish to eat. If Luke 13:35-48 is combined with the narrative from the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), both stories involved the breaking of bread (Luke 24:30, 35 and John 21:13). The most notable narratives with the blessing of bread and fish were the multiplication of the loaves and fishes (Mark 6:30-44, 8:1-9; Matthew 14.13-21, Matthew 15.32-39; Luke 9.10-17; John 6.1-14). A meal that featured fish and bread was common around the Sea of Galilee and in Jerusalem (dried fish was sold in the marketplaces as food for the common people). Such meals were a regular part of life on the road with Jesus and his followers. Whether meals of fish and bread had any religious significance to the apostolic communities is a matter of some debate among scholars (were they meals of leadership?). If there was a so-called "fish and bread Eucharists" (as John Dominic Crossan likes to call them), the rituals died quickly as Christianity spread to areas that did not have a ready supply of fish.
The deeper issue did not lie with the meal but with the quality of the vision experience. Jesus appeared as a living, solid form. This would have a great impact on the spirituality of Christianity. The holy could be found in the tangible. Holiness was not only a matter of ecstacy, touching the transcendent, while leaving the world behind. No, God reached his people through his creation, not in spite of it. This insight became the foundation of the Church's self-awareness as the Body of Christ. It also grounded the worship in the Church as sacramental. The believer could encounter the Risen Christ through the bodily senses. His followers saw, touched, and heard the Risen One. We see, hear, and touch Christ today through the sacraments, through shared witness and serve to others. But, when we, like the early followers, experience Christ through the common items of the world, what is his message? 24:43 "These (things I referred to) are MY words I spoke to you when I was still with you." The "things" are his risen state, the result of the resurrection which he prophesied ("my words I spoke to you") during his ministry ("when I was still with you"). His appearance to his disciples justified his ministry as the Suffering Servant (that is, his ministry in Galilee, his ministry in Jerusalem, and his death). 24:45 "HE (thoroughly) opened their minds so as to understand the scriptures." Since the heart and the mind were synonymous to the ancients, understanding meant more than intellectual clarification. Understanding also encompassed emotional focus. As Jesus had validated the vision experience, he had to give it a context. As the notes above explain, Jesus justified his risen state, as he referred back to his ministry (first) and finished with the Scriptures (second). Reread Luke 24:44-47 without 24:45 to get the flow of his explanation:
(Jesus) said to them, "These (things I refer to) are MY words I spoke to you when I was still with you, because everything having been written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms needed to be fulfilled. Thus it has been written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that a repentance and a forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name among all nations, beginning in Jerusalem."
Jesus reminded his disciples that he prophesied his resurrection during his earthly ministry. Then he placed in the greater context of the Scriptures: the Law, the prophets, and the psalms. The "Law and the prophets" were code words for the Hebrew Scriptures which the Pharisees revered. The "Law...and the psalms" were revered by the Sadducees as basis for Temple worship. By including the term "psalms" with the "Law and the prophets" (an unusual combination), Luke not only wanted to change the interpretation of Scripture through the words of Jesus, he wanted to validate the newly developing forms of Christian worship. This change was a radical shift from the way Jesus' early Jewish followers lived (a live dominated by spirit and regulations of the Pharisees and Sadducees). The new Christian communities among the Gentiles (to which Luke addressed his gospel) had new needs, new insights, and new ways to live out the Christian message. No wonder Luke edited in 24:45 ("Then HE thoroughly opened their minds so as to understand the Scriptures.") The followers needed to open their minds and hearts to new possibilities as they fulfilled the mandate to preach repentance and forgiveness everywhere in the name of Jesus. After all, they were witness to a new reality. Catechism Themes: The Mission of the Church (CCC 849-856)
"All of you are witnesses to everything that has happened." As witnesses, the early disciples were charged to tell others what they saw. Not only did Jesus command them, the Spirit impelled them to preach to all nations as the Father desired. Hence the missionary activity of the early disciples, as it is now in the Church, stemmed from the activity of the Trinity. As Father, Son, and Spirit are now working in the world, they desire that we, the Church, lead all people into union with the Godhead. As the commentary above implied, we are called to share what we have seen, heard, and touched with others. We, like the early Christians, are to witness to God activity in his creation and among his people. Witness involves speaking the truth in love. Telling others God's truth about faith in Christ. Extending God's love (that we enjoy) to others. The cost of this endeavor is high for it leads to the cross. The reward is that much greater, for it leads to the resurrection.
How has your Christian experience change you? How have you had to change in the face of Christian witness? Over the past two weeks, the Sunday gospels have recalled the confusion and fear caused by the Resurrection. They have also echoed Jesus' greeting of Shalom that soothed the emotions of the early followers. This Sunday added a new element to the disciples' vision experience: a context for understanding. This context would sustain the changes the Church would undergo in its first few generations of believers. We, like most Christians, are tempted to take the context for granted. The Good News might become the old news. To shake off this inclination, let us place ourselves in the company of those who first heard the words of the two from Emmaus. Better yet, let us place ourselves in the company of those who evangelize others by word and deed. Let us walk with those who serve the poor and needy in the name of Christ. Let us walk with those who serve the children or those outsiders who seek Christ. In the mere process of being witness, the context comes alive. For Christ walks with us when we serve others.
Alleluia! Jesus truly is risen! Alleluia!
Reflect over your experience of the past Easter. If it hasn't sustained you, plan to seek out others who will help you rekindle the Easter fire. Spend some time with those friends. Listen to their Easter stories and their Christian passion. If your experience has sustained you, seek out others you can encourage and enlighten.
Supplementary Reading
Being Choked by Wealth
Workplace believers are especially susceptible to a trap in their spiritual lives - one to which others may not be so susceptible. That trap is wealth. Scripture tells us that if we are having our basic needs met for food and clothing, we are considered to have riches. Jesus cautioned us against living a lifestyle that required more than our basic necessities. However, it is clear that Jesus was not against wealth, but against a dependence on wealth. Jesus continually taught that a dependence on anything other than God was evil. Whenever Jesus determined that money was an issue for an individual, He addressed it and found that the individual could not let go. This was true for the rich young ruler. When talking about what he must do to inherit the Kingdom, Jesus told him to do the one thing that would be the most difficult - to give away his wealth and follow Him. Jesus was not saying this was what every person must do, only the rich young ruler, because Jesus knew this was his greatest stumbling block. For others of us, it could be something else Jesus would ask us to give up (see Mt. 19:16-30).
In the parable of the sower in which He describes four types of people, Jesus also gave us another example of the problem money creates for any follower of Jesus. A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop - a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown (Matthew 13:3b-8). The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful (Matthew 13:22). Much like the frog in the boiling pot, if we are not careful we gradually begin to acquire and walk the treadmill of material gain. Those around us begin to expect more and more. Soon we begin expanding our lifestyle. Before we know it, we are worrying about how to take care of what we acquire. Our emphasis becomes what we own versus our relationship with Jesus and His Kingdom. One day I woke up and realized I had a cold heart toward God. Apathy toward the things of God became apparent. I was still going through the motions of service toward God, but with no power. We wake up to realize Christ is no longer Lord of our lives, much less of our money. The greater independence money gives us, the less dependence on God we need. Christ talked much about money in the Kingdom because He knew how much of a problem it was. This is why we have so few who are bearing 100, 60, or 30 times what is sown. Do you have the same hunger for God that you once had? Has financial blessing had an adverse effect on your passion for Jesus Christ? Ask Him today if your heart has grown cold as a result of financial blessing. Ask Him to keep you hungering for more of His presence in your life. GOD BLESS US ALL!
PRAY as if everything depended on HIM. ACT as if everything depended on YOU.
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| Last Updated on Saturday, 25 April 2009 21:06 |
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