An Open Mind

The Third Sunday of Easter

April 14, 2024

Luke 24:36-49

 “An Open Mind”

Whenever we are engaged in discussion with others, it’s important to keep an open mind. We might just learn something! There is a Latin phrase that sums this up well: Audi alteram partem, which means “Let the other side be heard as well.” This is especially relevant as our congregation prepares for a pivotal voters meeting two weeks from today. At this meeting on Sunday, April 28, we will consider proposed renovation and expansion to our church facilities as these have been shared with the congregation at the four recent town hall meetings. Through these meetings, as well as additional meetings, different viewpoints and concerns have been raised. Our congregational leadership, both through the Campus Projects Team and Church Council, have done yeoman’s work to keep an open mind; to let all sides be heard. Now in the days leading up to the voters meeting on April 28, we are in prayerful discernment about what the Lord would have us do as together we pray that petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The decision we will be making is not one that we enter into lightly or easily, but we do so with an open mind, trusting that through the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit the Lord will make clear the pathway forward. In today’s Gospel lesson, the risen Christ appears again to his disciples. He showed them his hands and feet – the wounds of his crucifixion. Jesus made clear that he was not some disembodied spirit, but that he had flesh and bones even in his resurrected body, he then ate a piece of broiled fish. And having done so, “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). The message for today, based on these words from the Gospel lesson, is entitled “An Open Mind.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

I marvel at the physical nature of Jesus’ resurrection. The physical body of Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 1:14), remains intact after he is risen from the dead. His disciples are able to see him with their own eyes; they are able to feel and touch his body, even the terrible scars of his suffering and death. Still visible in his glorified body, it is through these blessed wounds of Jesus that the disciples know that it is really and truly their beloved Lord and Master. Jesus even partakes of food, eating that piece of broiled fish as we hear today (Luke 24:42-43). All of these indicate that the physical body of Jesus remains, though transformed into a glorified and resurrected body. The minds of the disciples must have been turned inside-out and upside-down with all of this! The risen Lord Jesus Christ honors what the Lord God first created Adam out of the dust of the earth, and creating Eve out of Adam (Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7, 18ff.). We are flesh and blood, physical human beings. We believe that like our risen Savior, even when we die, by God’s almighty power there will be a resurrection of our mortal bodies, like we confess in the creed: “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” The physical nature of our bodies will remain, but in the new creation will give way to something which defies imagination as God’s Word tells us: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).

All of this is received by faith. Logic and reason tell us that dead is dead, but faith looks to Jesus, who is risen from the dead, who lives and reigns to all eternity. Today’s Epistle lesson (1 John 3:1-7) reminds us of this close connection between the risen Savior and his children: “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Did you catch that? Not only will we see him, but we shall be like him. Jesus’ glorious, resurrected body will be ours as well. Here is a call to keep an open mind in the midst of all the failings and frustrations that we now experience with our own bodies. Jesus promises that we shall be like him when he appears. How great is that?!

But wait – there’s more! After appearing to his disciples and eating that piece of broiled fish, Jesus goes on to explain that “everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44b). Jesus is referring to the totality of the Hebrew Scriptures – Tanakh, as it is often called. Tanakh is an acronym based on the three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures:  Torah, the Law of Moses; Nevi’im, the Prophets; and Ketuvim, the Writings (Psalms, Proverbs, etc.). At the center of all Scripture is the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ. It all points to him and has been gloriously fulfilled in him. As Jesus opened the minds of his disciples to receive this, so he must open our minds to receive this as well. Human logic and reason will come up with a whole laundry list of criticisms and critiques why this cannot be. We do have the terrible power within us to close our minds; to shut out the light and life of the risen Christ. Will we give the risen Christ permission to enter our minds and hearts so that he might open them? God forbid that we should turn in on ourselves, shutting out the risen Christ, closing our minds to him!

In opening the minds of his disciples then and now, Jesus makes clear that all of Scripture testifies to his suffering, death and resurrection. Yeah, but what’s the reason behind all of this? What’s it for? What’s the purpose of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection? So “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47). Friends in Christ, that is why we do what we do. That is what the church is all about: proclaiming Jesus to people everywhere so that all nations, tribes, peoples and languages may come to that about-face, that turn-around, that change-of-heart and life that is Spirit-given repentance which leads to forgiveness, life and salvation through what Jesus has done. The message remains the same from generation to generation. It might be packaged differently, but the content is unchanging. It’s all about Jesus and what he has done for us. “You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48). Jesus’ words here were originally spoken to those first disciples, but Jesus is speaking these same words to his children of every time and place. He is speaking these words to us today: “You are witnesses of these things.” And so what we have learned through Joining Jesus on His Mission, by Greg Finke (Dwelling 1:14 (dwelling114.org),  is extremely relevant. We see ourselves as everyday witnesses – missionaries – in all the places where God has placed us. We’re striving to see what Jesus is doing out there ahead of us in the mission field of our homes and neighborhoods, our schools and places of work, wherever we might be. We’re looking for the opportunities that Jesus is presenting to us. We’re willing to walk through the doors that Jesus is opening to us. We’re keeping an open mind to what Jesus would have us learn and do. Jesus’ cautionary words to his first disciples about “stay[ing] in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49) is a promise already fulfilled. When we were baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, we  were clothed with power from on high through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Rejoicing in our risen Savior, with open minds and hearts, we go forth to be witnesses of these things. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.