Acts 9:1-6; Luke 24:36-49
3rd Sunday of Easter
St Barbara’s 04.05.2025
Rev Tulo Raistrick
I hope over the last couple of weeks many of you have managed to have an Easter break.
Holidays, rest periods, can be enormously important, can’t they.
I remember after a particularly busy Easter period in my first year as a priest getting to Easter Monday and being totally exhausted, almost unable to get out my armchair, or string a coherent sentence together. It took just a few days of rest and recuperation and I was back to normal again, batteries fully charged.
Sometimes when people return from a break they are told: “You look like a different person.” The stress and strain have fallen away; you look healthier and happier.
But it is not just the result of holidays where we see that change. Shedding pounds of weight or finally returning to full health after a long illness can leave us looking quite different, more alive, more full of life. People can change quite visibly too if relationships around them change for the better or they fall in love.
Such changes give us perhaps a tiny glimpse into the extraordinary changes that must have occurred in the appearance of the resurrected Jesus. When he appears in the upper room, the disciples are startled and frightened. He is recognisably Jesus, and yet different.
This is not like Jairus’ daughter or Lazarus, brought back from the dead, but to face death again at some time in the future. This is Jesus resurrected, having gone through death to the other side, showing what life beyond death is like.
He is showing us a life where all potential for decay and disease is removed – a person who is brimming with health, fully alive.
He is showing us a life where all potential for sin and selfishness is removed – a person almost glowing with holiness and love. (If you’ve ever been in the presence of someone remarkably kind, loving, holy, you may have caught a glimpse of what that can be like).
He is showing us a life where all weakness and shortcomings have been removed – a person strong and at ease.
A life where all limitations to the Spirit’s indwelling have been removed – a person overflowing with the grace, love and forgiveness of God’s Spirit.
If a reduction in stress, or the joy of a relationship, or a recovery from illness, can change our appearance, how much more these changes of a profound and eternal nature. Here is the risen Jesus before his disciples – still Jesus, but transformed.
For some of us, we may be all too aware of our decaying and fragile bodies, whether through illness or age; we may be aware of our weakening minds, our inability to think as fast or as clearly as we once did. And for some of us, we may be all too aware of our emotional struggles, our susceptibility to stress, to worry. Our bodies, our lives, may feel a long way from a resurrected body.
The appearance of the risen Christ, eating broiled fish, showing his hands and feet, to the disciples, can give us immense hope for the future. For he is the first-fruits of the new creation. He points the way to what we will all become. A time will come when we too will have new resurrected bodies, freed from decay, freed from our propensity to selfishness and sin, freed from worry and self-doubt. When we will be overflowing with the Spirit of God within us. A time when, possibly for the very first time, we will be free to be fully the people we were always meant to be.
Easter is a time to renew our hope. In the midst of the very real struggles we have with our ageing
bodies and minds, our emotional struggles and spiritual doubts, we are reminded that the risen Christ shows us what is to come, a life of fullness, freed to be fully the people we were always meant to be, for all eternity.
With that hope for the future also comes an encouragement for the here and now. We are to root our lives in Scripture, and we are to be active in God’s mission.
In all of Luke’s accounts of the risen Jesus meeting with his friends and disciples, a common theme is that of Scripture being fulfilled. The angel at the empty tomb tells the women to remember that isn’t this what Jesus had foretold; the stranger on the road to Emmaus, as we saw last week, explains how Jesus rising from the dead is in line with all the teachings of the Old Testament; and here too, Jesus reminds them of what is written in the Scriptures. Jesus didn’t want them to rely on experience alone. He wanted them to place their trust and confidence in God’s Word too.
We touched on this last week, so I am not going to say too much more today, but it is striking that Scripture as well as experience go together in these resurrection encounters. I mentioned last week about reading the Sunday readings or using the Everyday Faith app. Did you know that all St Barbara’s Sunday sermons are on the website each week so you can read them again? And some of you may find it helpful to also learn from others, to join one of our home groups that meet to read the Bible and talk about it. Do speak to Jeremy if you are interested in joining a group.
Rooted in Scripture. Active in mission. The disciples, having encountered the risen Jesus, are now called to be witnesses, to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all people. And that is what they do. We heard in our first reading about Paul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. But it needs the later intervention of Ananias, one of the local Christians, to go and speak to him, that helps Paul make sense of that encounter and follow Christ.
Having received this extraordinary good news, the hope of God in Jesus Christ, we too are to share it with others. That, first and foremost, is about living out the good news, living lives that are marked by love for others, by a willingness to forgive, a willingness to serve.
Tomorrow, hundreds of people will come through our church building during the May Day fete, and meet many of us as we man the stalls, serve at the kitchen hatch, welcome and chat to people. What impression will they get of us as a church? Will they experience something of the good news of Christ in us? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if as a result of tomorrow, people start coming to church, whether here or another church in the area.
And of course, sharing the good news with family, friends, colleagues is part of our calling as well.
We have been given an amazing hope – a life beyond death that is freed from the physical decay and the spiritual and emotional burdens we bear now. A life to be fully the people we have been made to be.
So let’s ground that hope in God’s word, and let’s share it with others.
For Christ is risen!
