Finding Faith ... in knowing what you have for Jesus to eat

EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 3 1/2 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on April 18, the third Sunday in Easter. This was the third in-person/livestreamed service in more than a year after our church was shuttered because of the COVID pandemic. The first in-person/livestreamed service was on Good Friday, but there was no sermon.

This week's preaching text: Luke 24:36b-48

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

36 While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, 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 in their presence.

44 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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.

Message:

I apologize for the chuckle there, but did anyone else there in the middle of the gospel text get some amusement from Jesus standing there before them, and asking them much like a teenager, "Do you have anything to eat?"

The other day a professor of mine from seminary posted a meme on Facebook of the Last Supper. For those who might not be too familiar with Facebook, you've still probably heard that word before, "meme." It's kind of like a visual joke, a cartoon, so to speak. Anyway, it was a picture of Jesus and the disciples sitting around the table for the Last Supper. But if you look at the table, it's not the usual representation of that classic portrait we think of, the one where there's 13 people sitting on the other side of the table, right? ... This is a much rounder table, and it is absolutely chock full of food, every square inch of the table is filled with casseroles, and ham, and mashed potatoes, and beans, and deserts. ... Imagine your Easter dinner at home, and multiply that. It is absurd. You name it, it was on that table. And the caption read: "If Lutherans had hosted the Last Supper." ... And it's funny because we know that it's true.

There is just something absolutely holy to us as Lutherans in the breaking of bread with each other. And something absolutely holy in the providing of hospitality to our neighbors. ... Even if in the moment happens to be our risen Christ. ... I think that's a very important theme of today's gospel: food, hospitality, earthly matters. ... Holy acts involving the corporeal body of a human here on the kingdom of earth.

And I find the timing of today's gospel so interesting. Because here we are; here is our risen Christ, as the cross behind me symbolizes. And we're just two weeks after our Easter gospel. And we are all acutely aware of what happens in that Easter gospel.

But just days after Christ is risen, here in this text, we find him appearing to the disciples again, unannounced. In fact, we're told, he was so unexpected that he startles them and terrifies them.

And then he goes about the act of settling them down. "Hey guys! I'm not a ghost! Look here are my hands, and look at my feet. Hey look, these wounds, you can see them still. It's me! Don't be afraid! ... I am alive! ... And I am alive in my human body! And you know what, disciples? Because I am here in my human body I'm kind of hungry. ... What do you have cookin'?"

Well, I don't know about you, but I think I would be caught off guard. I think I'd look about my place, wondering what I might have, much like the disciples. ... "Oh, hey, Jesus. We have some broiled fish!"... We are told that Jesus takes it and eats it in their presence.

And while this might seem like one of the more cartoonish moments in our gospels: Christ rises from the dead, after all, and to prove that he is real to the disciples, he sits down for a Filet-O-Fish.

But what I really think Jesus is trying to do in this moment is to make a very important theological statement in this very human act. This is Jesus after all. He could have chosen any manner of divine miracles to prove to the disciples that it was, in fact, him standing in front of them that day.

For crying out loud, he turned water into wine. And he cast out demons in those who were possessed. And he healed the sick. And ultimately, he raised Lazarus from the dead. But here, in this very defining moment, for his most ardent believers, standing there with his disciples, just days after conquered death and rose from the grave ... just days after he did the impossible, there was Jesus standing there, simply asking for something to eat. Something to fill his earthly body's stomach ... to prove to the disciples that it was him.

"Hey look I was sacrificed on the cross, and I have risen from the dead, and I'm here standing in my human body in front of you. ... And to prove that, do you have something to eat?"

Faith Family, I think that in this moment Jesus is reminding his disciples that there is still something very divine about our time here on earth. Yes, Jesus did go to that cross, and he did die for our sins. And because he is God, he also rose three days later. But here in this moment, in front of his disciples, the ones who had spent the past three years following him from land to land and temple to temple hearing him preach ... here in this moment, Jesus is hungry and could use a bite to eat. ... And in that moment he tells them, we all still have work to do right here in my Father's creation.

After all, there could have been a very different ending from the moment of Jesus' rising from the dead. God, at that very moment, could have decided that that was the end of human history. That we were all going back to heaven, right? ... Jesus had conquered death!

But that's not the story our God tells in that moment.

God tells us -- through the disciples in that moment -- that don't think that just because I have risen that all of your work is done! It's easy to gather here on Easter Sunday and celebrate the fact of our risen Christ and the joy we get from his sacrifice on our behalf for our sins.

But we are not called home yet, are we? We are sitting in this sanctuary still, some 2,000 years later, followers of Christ. And Christ is telling us: "You still need to feed the hungry. And you still need to extend hospitality to those in need."

Our risen Christ came before those disciples in very human need, and he needed to be fed in that moment. He was expecting the hospitality of his disciples. He wasn't calling them home; he wasn't telling everyone else to pack their bags because we're all going back to the kingdom!

Jesus very pointedly in that act of human need of hunger reminds us that there are naked who need to be clothed. And there are orphans and widows who need to be cared for. And there are sick who need healing. And there are those in prison who need visiting.

Faith Family, this story that could seem so cartoonish at first blush, our risen Christ asking us mortals for something to eat, actually gives us some very critical insight into what being Christian is. Into what being Jesus followers is. And it tells us that we aren't to be just sitting here on this rock we call earth, waiting for God's kingdom to come.

Very poignantly, Jesus reminds us in his human act that our risen Christ came back from the dead and needed something to eat. And he reminded us that our work here is not done!

And so today, I ask of all of you, what is that you have for Jesus to eat? ... What do you have for your neighbor to eat? ... How are you proving to others that Jesus believers and non-believers alike that our Christ is most assuredly alive and still here present among us?

And that, Faith Family, is the Good News for this Sunday, April 18, the third Sunday after Easter. ... Amen.