Resurrection Of The Lord
Preaching
Preaching Luke's Gospel
A Narrative Approach
Luke 24:1-12 is the text assigned for both the Vigil of Easter and Easter Day. Luke 24:13-29 is assigned for Easter Evening. Luke 24 is one story of the resurrection of Jesus. We choose, therefore, to treat the whole of Luke 24 for preaching possibilities.
Luke 24 is a vital bridge in Luke's sweeping picture of Jesus and the early church. The whole of this chapter affirms the truth of Jesus' resurrection in a variety of ways. No other Gospel writer has taken so much time to speak of the meaning of the resurrection event. The climax of this chapter is one final review by Jesus of what his life's work has been all about. The law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms had to be fulfilled (v. 44). The Scriptures had to be understood (v. 45). It was necessary for the Messiah to die and be raised so that repentance and forgiveness could be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem (vv. 45-46). The disciples are to be the witnesses of these things once they have been clothed with power from on high (vv. 47-49). (Luke 24:44-53 is appointed for "The Ascension Of The Lord.") We recognize these verses as an introduction to the Book of Acts. Jesus' ministry is now complete. The Spirit will come and birth the Church. The Spirit-empowered Church will bring the message to generation upon generation to us.
Homiletical Directions
The end is the beginning! "God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly ..." (Luke 1:52). That's what Mary sang in the first chapter of Luke. That's what God does in the last chapter of Luke. That's what the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is all about! We have returned to this Lukan theme of reversal many times. Reversal took place in the life of a sinful woman (7:36-50). Reversal took place when we heard that in the great eschatological banquet the last will be first and the first last (13:22-30). Reversal took place when those invited came not to the banquet so that people from the highways and hedges of life had to be compelled to come in (14:11-24). Reversal took place when Lazarus ended up in Abraham's bosom while the rich man at whose gate he had groveled pleads to him to have mercy (16:19-31). Reversal took place when a Pharisee was sent home from the temple empty-handed while the tax collector was sent home justified (18:9-14). And now, in Luke's final chapter, we hear of the reversal of all reversals. The lowly one is lifted up. The dead one is raised. Life springs forth from death.
Our first sermon possibility, therefore, is a sermon which an-nounces this reversal for all to hear. Start with Mary's song. Tell some of these reversal stories in Luke. After each story let God speak: "I observed the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet with ointment. I announced the forgiveness of her sins. I reversed her place in life from sinner to saint." A similarly structured proc-lamation can follow a brief retelling of some of these stories.
The climax of this telling, of course, is Luke 24. Tell this grand story of reversal. Spices for anointing. An empty tomb. An angelic announcement. In, with, and under this story God says to all of us: "I reversed the verdict on my Son. He was entombed and I opened the door. He was brought low and I lifted him up. He was dead and I gave him life. And so I promise to do for you. I will reverse the verdict when death strikes you down. I will open the door of your tomb. I will lift you up when you are laid low. I will give you life in place of death."
A second sermon possibility with the material in Luke 24 is to deal with the reality that Jesus' resurrection is a fulfillment of the plan of God. This dominant Lukan theme is called to mind in verse 6. The men said to the women: "Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again" (vv. 6-7). We have noted this "divine must" before. Jesus' word of prophecy on this matter is most clear in 9:22. The theme pulses through Luke's story: 2:49; 4:43; 9:51; 13:23; 17:25; 22:37. Furthermore, this theme runs throughout Luke 24. In verses 26-27 Jesus explains to the disciples on the road to Emmaus that it was necessary that he suffer in order to fulfill that which Moses and the prophets spoke of him. In his last words (vv. 44-49, see above) to the disciples he speaks of his ministry as the fulfillment of the law, the prophets, and the psalms. It was written that the Christ should suffer.
In other words, Jesus fulfilled the plan of God for his life. His death and resurrection are the final events in what Jesus must do on earth. Robert Tannehill says this concerning Jesus' fulfillment of the plan:
A pattern of experience rooted in Scripture and applying to both Jesus and his witnesses helps to make sense of their stories. A sacred pattern assures those who accept it that events are not meaningless and chaotic, for they reflect the rhythm of God's work in the world. Events manifest a sacred pattern which hallows and reassures even when it cannot be rationally explained. A sacred pattern can be effective in sustaining faith and guiding life even when it does not lead to theological explanation. The narrator may have been content with this sacred pattern. It translates easily into narrative, while theo-logical abstractions do not. Thus the narrative as a whole seems to suggest that the risen Christ illumines his blind disciples by conveying to them something like this pattern of prophetic destiny as a key to Scripture and his own story.1
This quote from Tannehill provides some excellent ideas for a more didactic sermon. What we see coming to climax in the story of Jesus' resurrection is the whole plan of history. Life has a pattern, a meaning. We do not live in chaos. We do not live in a meaningless world. The world has meaning because Jesus carried out God's plan.
In our sermon on "God's plan for the world" we can tell some of the Lukan stories suggested above which show the necessity of Jesus' walk through life. Luke 24 touches upon this theme in verses 7, 26-27, and 44-49. The final verses give us the outcome of God's plan in perfect clarity. Because Jesus has fulfilled the plan the dis-ciples can be commissioned to preach repentance and forgiveness in his name beginning in Jerusalem. This is precisely the message that they preached on the first Pentecost as told in Acts 2. "And Peter said to them, 'Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven ...' " (Acts 2:38).
A Lukan Easter sermon, therefore, would very properly be a sermon which culminates in our stepping into the shoes of the disciples, calling for repentance and announcing the forgiveness of sins to repentant people. We have said before that Luke does not talk about Jesus dying as a ransom for our sins. For Luke, re-pentance and forgiveness are the heart of God's plan for the world. Through his suffering and death Jesus fulfilled God's plan and can therefore announce the message of repentance and forgiveness. We are not attuned to this way of telling the story. Luke's picture of the saving work of Jesus has not been much used in the history of Christian interpretation. We can use it! An Easter sermon in the Lukan mode would quite naturally culminate in our proclamation: "In the name of Jesus Christ I announce to all repentant sinners the entire forgiveness of all your sins. Easter means: your sins are forgiven. Go forth and live in the forgiven peace of mind of Easter."
A third possibility for preaching on this Easter text has to do with the gradual opening of the eyes and minds of the disciples so that they might grasp what has transpired. It was the women who first found the empty tomb. They were the first preachers of the resurrection! But the disciples did not believe them (24:11). The disciples on the road to Emmaus fare no better. Jesus himself came to join them and yet "their eyes were kept from recognizing him" (24:16). This Emmaus road encounter would seem to tell us that no one, not even the disciples, could have anticipated what God was up to in Jesus. It would take the Risen One himself to teach the faithful how to understand God's plan!
The conversation between the disciples and Jesus is filled with irony. The disciples tell Jesus the whole story of Easter! Here they were seeking to tell this story to the very One who lived the story! This story "dramatizes human blindness by presenting an ironic situation. The disciples do not recognize that they are trying to inform Jesus about Jesus."2 Part of the irony here is that divine and human purposes collide. "These experiences are sufficiently impor-tant in the plot to describe the God of Luke-Acts as the God who works by irony."3
When the disciples reach Emmaus they invite Jesus to eat with them. They still have not recognized their companion. Even a Bible study led by the Son of God has not opened their eyes. A meal will do what words would not! "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over," the disciples say to Jesus (v. 29). One is tempted to hear even this invitation as one full of irony. The disciples think the day is nearly over. They haven't figured out yet that the "day" is with them in the person of Jesus, and it has just begun!
The story then moves to the table, a very familiar setting in Luke's Gospel. Suddenly the guest becomes the host: "... he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him ..." (v. 31). Mealtime is revelation time! This is true throughout Luke's Gospel. Tannehill cites Richard Dillon who teaches that "the breaking of bread" is associated with instruction concerning Jesus' person and mission in Luke's Gospel.4 There is more teaching by Jesus in the Lukan version of the Lord's Supper than there is in Matthew or Mark. A common theme of the instruction is that of Jesus' suffering (9:22; 22:15, 22; 24:25-26).
In Luke's story, revelation takes place in the context of the "breaking of bread." In Luke 9:12-22 we hear Luke's version of the feeding of the multitude. This passage is omitted from the lectionary. This means that during the Luke year we hear of no feeding miracles. We can tell it for Easter! In this story it is im-mediately after Jesus took "the five loaves and the two fish ... and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd," that Jesus asked the disciples who they thought that he was. Peter's answer was: "The Messiah of God." Jesus immediately began to teach the disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great sufferings. Mealtime is revelation time.
In Luke 22:7-23 we have the "breaking of the bread" which is the institution of the Lord's Supper. Here, too, Jesus teaches that he must suffer in a kind of Farewell Discourse (v. 15). In cup and bread Jesus presented himself to the disciples. Mealtime is reve-lation time.
On Easter Sunday when the Lord's Supper is celebrated among us these meals would make an excellent focus for preaching. Tell briefly the story of the supper and revelation in Luke 9, noting that mealtime is revelation time. Tell the story of supper and revelation in Luke 22 making the same point. Thirdly, tell the story of the Easter walk to Emmaus. It was at the table, in the breaking of the bread, that the disciples' eyes were opened to the reality of Jesus' presence. Mealtime is revelation time.
This is very good Easter news! We somehow think that it would have been much easier to believe the good news of Jesus if we would have been there ourselves. Not so! The disciples on the road to Emmaus were right there and they didn't "see" at all. Their eyes were opened only in the breaking of the bread. This means that the disciples have no advantage over us at all! We, too, are invited to the "breaking of the bread." Our eyes can be opened in this meal in just the same way that the disciples' eyes were opened. The disciples had their best access to the Risen Jesus in the breaking of the bread. So it is for us today. We have our best access to the Risen Jesus in the breaking of the bread as well. Mealtime is rev-elation time! Here we eat and drink the very life of the Risen One. From his life we have our life. Life here. Life forever.
A sermon that tells these three mealtime revelation stories ends in the proclamation of the supper itself. Our sermon might close by inviting people to the action itself. "Come now to this table," we might say. "The Risen Jesus will meet you here. The Risen Jesus will reveal himself to you here. The Risen Jesus reveals himself to you in simple words: 'This is my body. This is my blood.' Through these words Jesus announces his presence today to enter your life. Through these words Jesus announces his presence today to open your eyes. Through these words Jesus announces his presence to give you a foretaste of the Easter life that is to come."
____________
1.aRobert C. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, Volume One (Minne-apolis: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 288.
2.aIbid., p. 282.
3.aIbid., p. 284.
4.aIbid., p. 290.
Luke 24 is a vital bridge in Luke's sweeping picture of Jesus and the early church. The whole of this chapter affirms the truth of Jesus' resurrection in a variety of ways. No other Gospel writer has taken so much time to speak of the meaning of the resurrection event. The climax of this chapter is one final review by Jesus of what his life's work has been all about. The law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms had to be fulfilled (v. 44). The Scriptures had to be understood (v. 45). It was necessary for the Messiah to die and be raised so that repentance and forgiveness could be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem (vv. 45-46). The disciples are to be the witnesses of these things once they have been clothed with power from on high (vv. 47-49). (Luke 24:44-53 is appointed for "The Ascension Of The Lord.") We recognize these verses as an introduction to the Book of Acts. Jesus' ministry is now complete. The Spirit will come and birth the Church. The Spirit-empowered Church will bring the message to generation upon generation to us.
Homiletical Directions
The end is the beginning! "God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly ..." (Luke 1:52). That's what Mary sang in the first chapter of Luke. That's what God does in the last chapter of Luke. That's what the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is all about! We have returned to this Lukan theme of reversal many times. Reversal took place in the life of a sinful woman (7:36-50). Reversal took place when we heard that in the great eschatological banquet the last will be first and the first last (13:22-30). Reversal took place when those invited came not to the banquet so that people from the highways and hedges of life had to be compelled to come in (14:11-24). Reversal took place when Lazarus ended up in Abraham's bosom while the rich man at whose gate he had groveled pleads to him to have mercy (16:19-31). Reversal took place when a Pharisee was sent home from the temple empty-handed while the tax collector was sent home justified (18:9-14). And now, in Luke's final chapter, we hear of the reversal of all reversals. The lowly one is lifted up. The dead one is raised. Life springs forth from death.
Our first sermon possibility, therefore, is a sermon which an-nounces this reversal for all to hear. Start with Mary's song. Tell some of these reversal stories in Luke. After each story let God speak: "I observed the sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet with ointment. I announced the forgiveness of her sins. I reversed her place in life from sinner to saint." A similarly structured proc-lamation can follow a brief retelling of some of these stories.
The climax of this telling, of course, is Luke 24. Tell this grand story of reversal. Spices for anointing. An empty tomb. An angelic announcement. In, with, and under this story God says to all of us: "I reversed the verdict on my Son. He was entombed and I opened the door. He was brought low and I lifted him up. He was dead and I gave him life. And so I promise to do for you. I will reverse the verdict when death strikes you down. I will open the door of your tomb. I will lift you up when you are laid low. I will give you life in place of death."
A second sermon possibility with the material in Luke 24 is to deal with the reality that Jesus' resurrection is a fulfillment of the plan of God. This dominant Lukan theme is called to mind in verse 6. The men said to the women: "Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again" (vv. 6-7). We have noted this "divine must" before. Jesus' word of prophecy on this matter is most clear in 9:22. The theme pulses through Luke's story: 2:49; 4:43; 9:51; 13:23; 17:25; 22:37. Furthermore, this theme runs throughout Luke 24. In verses 26-27 Jesus explains to the disciples on the road to Emmaus that it was necessary that he suffer in order to fulfill that which Moses and the prophets spoke of him. In his last words (vv. 44-49, see above) to the disciples he speaks of his ministry as the fulfillment of the law, the prophets, and the psalms. It was written that the Christ should suffer.
In other words, Jesus fulfilled the plan of God for his life. His death and resurrection are the final events in what Jesus must do on earth. Robert Tannehill says this concerning Jesus' fulfillment of the plan:
A pattern of experience rooted in Scripture and applying to both Jesus and his witnesses helps to make sense of their stories. A sacred pattern assures those who accept it that events are not meaningless and chaotic, for they reflect the rhythm of God's work in the world. Events manifest a sacred pattern which hallows and reassures even when it cannot be rationally explained. A sacred pattern can be effective in sustaining faith and guiding life even when it does not lead to theological explanation. The narrator may have been content with this sacred pattern. It translates easily into narrative, while theo-logical abstractions do not. Thus the narrative as a whole seems to suggest that the risen Christ illumines his blind disciples by conveying to them something like this pattern of prophetic destiny as a key to Scripture and his own story.1
This quote from Tannehill provides some excellent ideas for a more didactic sermon. What we see coming to climax in the story of Jesus' resurrection is the whole plan of history. Life has a pattern, a meaning. We do not live in chaos. We do not live in a meaningless world. The world has meaning because Jesus carried out God's plan.
In our sermon on "God's plan for the world" we can tell some of the Lukan stories suggested above which show the necessity of Jesus' walk through life. Luke 24 touches upon this theme in verses 7, 26-27, and 44-49. The final verses give us the outcome of God's plan in perfect clarity. Because Jesus has fulfilled the plan the dis-ciples can be commissioned to preach repentance and forgiveness in his name beginning in Jerusalem. This is precisely the message that they preached on the first Pentecost as told in Acts 2. "And Peter said to them, 'Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven ...' " (Acts 2:38).
A Lukan Easter sermon, therefore, would very properly be a sermon which culminates in our stepping into the shoes of the disciples, calling for repentance and announcing the forgiveness of sins to repentant people. We have said before that Luke does not talk about Jesus dying as a ransom for our sins. For Luke, re-pentance and forgiveness are the heart of God's plan for the world. Through his suffering and death Jesus fulfilled God's plan and can therefore announce the message of repentance and forgiveness. We are not attuned to this way of telling the story. Luke's picture of the saving work of Jesus has not been much used in the history of Christian interpretation. We can use it! An Easter sermon in the Lukan mode would quite naturally culminate in our proclamation: "In the name of Jesus Christ I announce to all repentant sinners the entire forgiveness of all your sins. Easter means: your sins are forgiven. Go forth and live in the forgiven peace of mind of Easter."
A third possibility for preaching on this Easter text has to do with the gradual opening of the eyes and minds of the disciples so that they might grasp what has transpired. It was the women who first found the empty tomb. They were the first preachers of the resurrection! But the disciples did not believe them (24:11). The disciples on the road to Emmaus fare no better. Jesus himself came to join them and yet "their eyes were kept from recognizing him" (24:16). This Emmaus road encounter would seem to tell us that no one, not even the disciples, could have anticipated what God was up to in Jesus. It would take the Risen One himself to teach the faithful how to understand God's plan!
The conversation between the disciples and Jesus is filled with irony. The disciples tell Jesus the whole story of Easter! Here they were seeking to tell this story to the very One who lived the story! This story "dramatizes human blindness by presenting an ironic situation. The disciples do not recognize that they are trying to inform Jesus about Jesus."2 Part of the irony here is that divine and human purposes collide. "These experiences are sufficiently impor-tant in the plot to describe the God of Luke-Acts as the God who works by irony."3
When the disciples reach Emmaus they invite Jesus to eat with them. They still have not recognized their companion. Even a Bible study led by the Son of God has not opened their eyes. A meal will do what words would not! "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over," the disciples say to Jesus (v. 29). One is tempted to hear even this invitation as one full of irony. The disciples think the day is nearly over. They haven't figured out yet that the "day" is with them in the person of Jesus, and it has just begun!
The story then moves to the table, a very familiar setting in Luke's Gospel. Suddenly the guest becomes the host: "... he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him ..." (v. 31). Mealtime is revelation time! This is true throughout Luke's Gospel. Tannehill cites Richard Dillon who teaches that "the breaking of bread" is associated with instruction concerning Jesus' person and mission in Luke's Gospel.4 There is more teaching by Jesus in the Lukan version of the Lord's Supper than there is in Matthew or Mark. A common theme of the instruction is that of Jesus' suffering (9:22; 22:15, 22; 24:25-26).
In Luke's story, revelation takes place in the context of the "breaking of bread." In Luke 9:12-22 we hear Luke's version of the feeding of the multitude. This passage is omitted from the lectionary. This means that during the Luke year we hear of no feeding miracles. We can tell it for Easter! In this story it is im-mediately after Jesus took "the five loaves and the two fish ... and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd," that Jesus asked the disciples who they thought that he was. Peter's answer was: "The Messiah of God." Jesus immediately began to teach the disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great sufferings. Mealtime is revelation time.
In Luke 22:7-23 we have the "breaking of the bread" which is the institution of the Lord's Supper. Here, too, Jesus teaches that he must suffer in a kind of Farewell Discourse (v. 15). In cup and bread Jesus presented himself to the disciples. Mealtime is reve-lation time.
On Easter Sunday when the Lord's Supper is celebrated among us these meals would make an excellent focus for preaching. Tell briefly the story of the supper and revelation in Luke 9, noting that mealtime is revelation time. Tell the story of supper and revelation in Luke 22 making the same point. Thirdly, tell the story of the Easter walk to Emmaus. It was at the table, in the breaking of the bread, that the disciples' eyes were opened to the reality of Jesus' presence. Mealtime is revelation time.
This is very good Easter news! We somehow think that it would have been much easier to believe the good news of Jesus if we would have been there ourselves. Not so! The disciples on the road to Emmaus were right there and they didn't "see" at all. Their eyes were opened only in the breaking of the bread. This means that the disciples have no advantage over us at all! We, too, are invited to the "breaking of the bread." Our eyes can be opened in this meal in just the same way that the disciples' eyes were opened. The disciples had their best access to the Risen Jesus in the breaking of the bread. So it is for us today. We have our best access to the Risen Jesus in the breaking of the bread as well. Mealtime is rev-elation time! Here we eat and drink the very life of the Risen One. From his life we have our life. Life here. Life forever.
A sermon that tells these three mealtime revelation stories ends in the proclamation of the supper itself. Our sermon might close by inviting people to the action itself. "Come now to this table," we might say. "The Risen Jesus will meet you here. The Risen Jesus will reveal himself to you here. The Risen Jesus reveals himself to you in simple words: 'This is my body. This is my blood.' Through these words Jesus announces his presence today to enter your life. Through these words Jesus announces his presence today to open your eyes. Through these words Jesus announces his presence to give you a foretaste of the Easter life that is to come."
____________
1.aRobert C. Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts, Volume One (Minne-apolis: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 288.
2.aIbid., p. 282.
3.aIbid., p. 284.
4.aIbid., p. 290.
