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This world of ours eats prophets! It doesn't even matter
whether they are biblical or modern. Perhaps the most poignant
example is Jeremiah, not because he was any more persecuted than most,
but because he protested so eloquently. "I was like a gentle lamb"
he said ... "led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against
me they devised schemes, saying 'let us destroy the tree with its
fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be
remembered no more." [11:19] Jeremiah’s life was threatened more than
once, and his torment was such that he even came to regret his very
birth at times: "Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of
strife and contention to the whole land." [15:10]
Over and over again throughout the history of the
chosen people we see individuals selected by God to confront God’s
chosen people with their wrongdoing and challenge them to repent.
There are all sorts of reactions possible to one who confronts and
challenges us. In the first lesson for this Sunday we witness
Peter confronting the people of Jerusalem with responsibility for the
crucifixion of Jesus. How do they react? To their great
credit "They were cut to the heart" and cried out in remorse to Peter
and the other apostles "Brothers, what should we do?" This is a
very unusual reaction to such intense criticism.
Fortunately we humans generally do recognize the
integrity of a true prophet on some level of our consciousness. At
least a portion of our being accepts the truth and cries out in remorse
"What shall we do?" Unfortunately, this is not the whole
story. Other portions of our being are more intent on denial,
self-justification, and preservation of our precious comfort
level. So, true prophets bring into being an unbearable tension
within ourselves and our society. Faced with this tension we have
a choice. Either we accept the truth, admit we have chosen
unrighteousness as our norm and change our ways. Or more often, we
simply get rid of the prophet. This is not just biblical, as the
lives and deaths of Martin Luther king, Jr.; Ghandi, and a host of
others testify. The world eats prophets!
According to two followers of Jesus who journeyed
west towards the village of Emmaus on that first Easter day, this was
certainly what had happened to their wonderful rabbi, Jesus of
Nazareth. They had known him well enough to recognize that he was
unmistakably a true prophet ... "a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people". This they affirmed to a stranger
who had joined them on their journey. In fact, they said, he was
such a mighty prophet that they had actually "hoped he was the one to
redeem Israel". In other words, they had dared to hope that he was
the Messiah. But, the world does eat its prophets and he had
proved to be no exception. He had persisted too long, pushed his
fragile luck too far, until his drastic fate became inevitable.
Though they had thought him more than a prophet, his
ignominious death abruptly put an end to such speculation. A
crucified messiah was a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron such as
"military intelligence". He had blown it. He was a
failure. God had not preserved him. His messianic career had
ended in confrontation with the government and in death. Even the
law of Israel itself proclaimed that a hanged man is accursed by God.
But the stranger walking with them raised an
interesting question: "Was it not necessary that the Messiah
should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" Then
the stranger took them on a tour of Israel's scriptures, what we call
the Old Testament, demonstrating that it was so. From our
hindsight we can see this clearly in places like Isaiah's songs of the
suffering servant and all through the psalms. We can see that
Israel itself had not been a nation miraculously protected from
suffering. As God's people, Israel had experienced intense
suffering. But it was a suffering endowed with meaning, a
suffering that paved the way to the rescue and redemption of the entire
world!
In our lessons these past few weeks we have gone
from the miserable scene of the upper room where the disciples huddled
in abject terror, to the time just 50 days later when Peter as their
spokesperson boldly stood before the same crowd which had crucified his
master and proclaimed to them the truth about Jesus. What happened
in such a short time to cause this remarkable journey from fear to
faith?
We know that his disciples regarded him as a prophet
from the lesson for today. But notice that there is no evidence
whatsoever that any of his followers drew any comfort or consolation or
courage just from remembering his teachings! The Christian faith
is not based on the remembered words and deeds of Jesus! As mighty
in deed and word as he had been, those things by themselves did not
have the power to transform terror to courageous faith. What did?
It is absolutely clear that the reconstitution and
empowering of the circle of disciples was the personal work of the risen
Jesus himself! Just as he had personally called them from their
previous lives, their fishing and tax gathering and so forth, and had
endowed them with a mission during the time of his ministry, so also,
after his death, he personally re-called them from their grief, terror,
and disappointment and re-endowed them with mission. The Gospel
of John recalls that he stood among them and said "as the Father has
sent me, so I send you!" [20:21] Matthew put it slightly
differently: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded
you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
[28:19-20]
When was it that the two disciples on the road to
Emmaus finally recognized Jesus? Though he spent considerable time
walking and talking with them, teaching them about the true meaning of
the scriptures, it was not through the power of his teaching that they
recognized him. "When he was at table with them he took bread,
blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were
opened, and they recognized him ..." It was in the breaking of
bread that the fellowship broken by the sin of the disciples and indeed
of the world was dramatically and personally restored by Christ
himself. His presence in the meal brought the disciples from
despair and fear to faith, not just his words. That is why the chief
form of worship we Lutherans use today is entitled "Holy Communion".
Are we a community based solely on the remembered
words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth? If so, then we rightly honor
a magnificent prophet, mighty in deed and word. But we have
little power! Are we a community which is in living fellowship
with the risen and present Jesus? I claim we are! He is
present in the breaking of bread we call Eucharist. He is present
in the breaking of bread we call a potluck or a coffee hour. He is
present wherever "two or three are gathered in his name" [Matthew
18:20]. We do not simply honor a murdered prophet, not even the
best of the prophets. We are in communion with a living
Lord. He is the one who appeared to Simon, even though Simon Peter
had denied him three times. He is the Lord who accepts us and
raises us up when we have denied him. Just as he empowered Peter
to stand strong in Jerusalem, so he empowers us to stand strong and
faithfully in the context of our lives. May we do so, fearlessly
and faithfully. Amen.
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