Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 16, 2020 - Octave of Easter - Thurs
[Acts 3:11-26 and Luke 24:35-48][Jesus] 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 in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third way and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." [Luke]
The gospel scripture for today is a continuation of the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The apostles and others had only heard of Jesus' resurrection from Simon (Peter). Now they hear of it from the two disciples who were on the road. Finally, Jesus appears and challenges them to touch him and see that he is truly risen! Since they had initially thought they were seeing a ghost, one can imagine that reaching out and touching Jesus standing there, wounds and all might be a difficult thing to do! But Jesus wastes no time in giving them their marching orders, which are quoted above. What the evangelist Luke is doing is to sum things up as they stand at the time the gospel was composed. So, there is a kind of overlap with the Acts of the Apostles even if the Pentecostal experience is still ahead in the story.
Two things stand out in Jesus' instructions. A disciple must have a mind open to the Scriptures and what they say about Jesus. [Remember, the New Testament was just beginning to be written.] As with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus "opens their minds to understand." The second thing is to preach this understanding to all nations. That started in Jerusalem and has spread around the world, but still has a long ways to go. It is accomplished not just from the pulpits of churches but in the living rooms and workplaces of the world. Each one of us has received the same instructions from Jesus. We are "witnesses of these things." AMEN
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