Getting Our Attention
Luke 24:36-48
How do you get someone’s attention? If you drive around the community these days, you’ll see the cardboard road signs of countless politicians. All want your vote and each is hoping his or her sign catches your attention. If you watch television, advertisers will use creativity, shock value, and humor to get your attention. In Punta Gorda, Florida, there was a short, dumpy, unattractive guy who was trying to get the attention of attractive women. All his attempts failed until he hit on something that worked. When he encountered a woman he wanted to meet, he would pretend to choke. He’d flail his arms, cough, and sputter and if the woman helped him, he’d suddenly get better and start hugging and kissing her to thank her for saving his life.[1] Given the fact this man’s story made the news is probably an indicator that he’s now getting some legal attention.
In each of these cases: politics, advertising, and romance, we all know that what really gets someone’s attention is food! Politicians feed voters and they might get votes. Advertisers give out free food in the supermarket and people might buy their product. Dating success can often hinge on where the “dater” takes the “datee” to eat. Food gets people’s attention!
I know this is cruel right before lunch but have you ever noticed how much of the Easter story revolves around food? Before Jesus was crucified, his final attempt to convince his followers of his mission on earth came during the Passover meal.[2] After the resurrection, Jesus joined two disciples on the road to Emmaus and they don’t really get that it’s Jesus with them until he breaks bread with them.[3] And then we have our text today with the broiled fish. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus eats bread in Emmaus and then eats fish in Jerusalem? Easter, at least in Luke’s Gospel, seems like some kind of ancient progressive dinner where the vehicle for belief is not so much the empty tomb but food![4]
Now, being good Baptists, we understand the importance food plays in spiritual growth…yeah, well…but have you ever wondered what Luke might want us to get from this?
We know part of the answer. Most of us can easily detect that Luke wants us to see the resurrection is not just some kind of spooky ghost appearance. When Jesus was raised, he actually came back to life! We’re talking about a human being here who dead for three days and now has physically come back to life! This was important for Luke’s readers because by the time Luke’s Gospel was written – most likely in the latter part of the first century – there was growing skepticism about Jesus’ humanity.[5] People had a hard time believing Jesus was fully human and fully God. And let’s face it, the whole resurrection story is easier to digest if we’re talking solely about a supernatural event. But if we’re going to embrace an orthodox theology here, then Jesus was fully God but also fully a human being who came back to life! Is that hard for any of you to wrap your minds around this?
Maybe this is one reason why there are more Sundays during the Easter season than Lent or Advent. Have you ever thought about that? Most of us think that Easter is simply one Sunday but if you look at the Church calendar, Easter is really seven Sundays! For those who follow the lectionary, Easter goes on for 51 days! We keep telling the same story over and over again![6] It’s the same story that we constantly are trying to wrap our minds around. To get back to our food imagery, the resurrection is simply not something anyone swallows whole without gagging on the meal.[7]
As an aid to our digestion of the resurrection this year, I think there’s more to Luke’s intent than simply emphasizing the humanity of Christ in this resurrection account.
It’s probably easier for most of us to define Easter as a trip to the empty tomb than a meal around the table. A trip to the empty tomb confines Easter to very early in the morning on the first day of the week, once a year. We know when resurrection happened and can schedule it on our calendars. Everything’s confined and tidy. But if celebrating Easter happens at the table, then we’re not so sure anymore. Resurrection could happen at any table and every table – yours, mine, and ours! We have no way of knowing when, where, or how the risen Christ will bring new life in our lives! Isn’t that exciting to think that Jesus can breathe new life into so many uncertain situations? And that’s just how Jesus does it in this text. One minute he’s in Emmaus for the bread course, and still makes it to Jerusalem in time for fish! Guess what? He might show up at your table next![8]
We should not be too frightened by all of this because in each resurrection food encounter, Jesus gives a gift to his followers – understanding. Jesus doesn’t just want to show his followers he’s alive, but he carries them to a point of understanding which leads to faith. That’s true for us too. Each time, the thing that gives rise to faith, that which makes us Christians, is not that we have done a careful study of the Bible and decided what is really possible to believe. It is not that we have closed our eyes and tried real hard to believe the unbelievable. The thing that gives rise to faith is that the risen Christ has come to us, has shared the table with us, has opened the scriptures to us, and we believe. Faith in Christ is not an achievement. It’s a gift.[9]
So how has Jesus grabbed your attention today? How has he showed up at your table recently and asked you to believe? Now is the time for us to step out in faith. As you hear me say so many times from this pulpit, the most likely place Jesus will show up is not necessarily here, but in your everyday life…at your table. He wants you to believe. He wants to give you the gift of faith. Does he have your attention?
Amen.
[1] “A Matter of Life or Death,” LectionAid, Volume 14, Number 2, March 2006-May 2006, p. 37.
[2] See Luke 22:14-38.
[3] See Luke 24:30-31.
[4] Craig A. Satterlee, “Living By The Word,” The Christian Century, April 18, 2006, p. 21, mentions this aspect of Luke’s Gospel and I shape this sermon around this thought.
[5] E. Glenn Hinson, “Theological Themes,” Lectionary Homiletics, April-May 2003, p. 37. Hinson points out that some forms of Gnosticism considered all forms of matter evil and so these folks would have had a hard time accepting that Jesus was fully human. They could accept the divinity of Jesus but the humanity of Jesus was unacceptable.
[6] John Patton, “Pastoral Implications,” Lectionary Homiletics, April-May 2003, p. 38.
[7] John C. Holbert, “Exegesis,” Lectionary Homiletics, April-May 2003, p. 37.
[8] Craig A. Satterlee, “Living By The Word,” The Christian Century, April 18, 2006, p. 21.
[9] William H. Willimon, “Believing In Easter,” Pulpit Resource, April 30, 2006, p. 27.