Reflection by Jeff Koch
Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35
Cry out with joy to God, all the earth, O sing to the gory of his name.
O render him glorious praise, Alleluia!
I am still in a rejoicing mood! To know that Jesus has overcome death and he has passed that victory on to us. Let me remind you of a passage I quoted not long ago. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15) Jesus defeating death by entering into death and overcoming it, is one of the greatest, if not the greatest truths in History. When Peter preaches the sermon on the day of Pentecost, one of our readings this week, he says two things that interest me. The first is that when humanity killed the Christ, “using lawless men to crucify him. . .. God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it is impossible for him to be held by it.” Impossible for him to be held by death. Jesus is life and in him there is no death at all. So, the enemy thought that if he could kill Jesus; death, the power Satan has to wield, would be the final weapon that would kill God and he would win. But divinity can’t die, only that which is mortal can die. Jesus took on mortality, so that the divine could dwell with us, and while the body died, the divine did not! Death could not hold him; death could not when the victory. As one teacher shared with me, while death could swallow up the humanity of Jesus, the grave could not hold or defeat the divinity of the Messiah, the Christ. And now that Jesus is alive and death has lost its sting; that victory is given to us as we live in faith. And the reality of life. Hallelujah!
Secondly, when Peter preached this sermon, he takes a quote from Psalm 16, speaking of the coming ‘son of David,’ God would not abandon the soul to the grave, nor would the ‘holy one’ see corruption. He continued by saying that David died and was buried and his tomb is in their midst. When I went to Israel on my visit to Jerusalem, our tour guide took us to see the tomb of David. It was a strange place, I can’t describe it fully what I felt, but it was just strange. But later that afternoon we went the garden tomb, a possible location for resurrection, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea where Jesus body was laid. But it was different. There was the stone ledge where Jesus was laid, but the tomb was empty, Jesus was not there. David’s bones were in that mausoleum in the city. But outside the city in the garden tomb there was a different feeling. A joyous feeling, a knowing of the reality that death could not hold him. One of my favorite verses comes after the resurrection, one of the angels said, “why do you seek the living among the dead, he is not here he is risen.” Another couple entered the garden tomb with us, in the silence, the other gentleman burst out, “He is risen!” To which I responded, “Yes, he is risen indeed!” No one said that in David’s mausoleum. Jesus is alive.
When Cleopas and his companion were walking along the road to Emmaus, they were confused about the events of the day. They had hoped that Jesus was the one, the Messiah and the king that would come and overthrow Rome and as King would lead Israel to be the world leader and rule the world. But what they didn’t understand is that it was Jesus who walked beside them. This companion explained that this is the way it must happen, for death to be reversed and sins forgiven, the son of man would have to die, defeat death and on the cruel cross of crucifixion, would take the sins of the world into himself and pronounce forgiveness. He does this by sharing with them, Moses and the prophets, the story of the Old Testament scriptures. While their hearts burned within them, they still didn’t see Jesus. It wasn’t until he blessed the bread and broke it that, they saw it was Jesus.
A pastor friend of mine tells it this way. When Jesus held the bread up and blessed and broke it, the realization of “this is my body given for you,” their eyes were opened and the recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. As he broke the bread and disappeared, the bread fell to the table with a thud . . . now, this is the body of Christ for us to participate in as Paul says. Now this may be a little corny, but I think theological accurate. When we gather at the table and the bread is broken, we could all shout, he is alive. That is why it is said, this great mystery. “Christ has died, Christ IS risen and Christ will come again.” Death is swallowed up in victory and as we participate in Christ, death cannot hold us. Our bodies may die, but our souls, our spirits are divine, and we will rise with him. Hallelujah!
May your people exult forever, O God. In renewed youthfulness of spirit, so that. rejoicing now in the restored glory of our adoption, we may look forward in confident hope to the rejoicing of the day in resurrection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, you Son, who lives and reigns with you n the unity of the Holy Spirit God, fore ever and ever. Amen!