Luke 24:36b-48
“With Our Own Eyes”
April 18, 2021
We are all going to start with a little exercise.
First, I would ask that you to close your left eye and stare ahead with your right eye. It is okay if you have to use your left hand to cover your left eye.
Next, hold up one finger from your right hand as far from your face as you can – yes way out in front of you.
Now, slowly move that finger through your field of vision while constantly staring straight ahead. Keep moving that finger slowly.
At some point that finger will disappear.
Congratulations! You just discovered your blind spot.
And it is a lot bigger than just a spot.
It is completely normal not to experience our blind spot because our brains fill in that empty space for us.
There is even a name for it as one of my favorite writers and observers of life, Bill Bryson, points out.
It’s called “perceptual interpolation. He highlights how remarkable it is “that a significant part of everything you “see” is actually imagined.” (The Body: A Guide for Occupants, p. 84)
The disciples could not have imagined ever seeing Jesus again.
They are terrified by the one who was so brutally killed and entombed suddenly standing right in front of them.
Are they just imagining him?
But there he is, bearing a message of peace, and willing to let them poke his body as proof. And still for them, seeing is not believing.
So, Jesus tries a new approach by asking them for something to eat and chows down on some fish right there, chewing and swallowing just like they do.
In doing that most basic of human activities – eating – Jesus is trying to convince these disciples that he has been resurrected and he wants them to understand what that means.
The disciples have been baffled in Luke’s Gospel whenever Jesus warned them that he would be betrayed and killed and that he would rise again on the third day.
They did not understand when he explained it earlier because “its meaning was hidden from them so they couldn’t grasp it” and they were afraid to ask him to explain what he meant. (Luke 9:45, 18:34).
He finally had to open their minds and this blind spot of theirs was eliminated but this in no way let them off the hook.
Once they understood, once they saw Jesus for all that he was and all he represented, he enlists them to carry out his mission.
When they got a good hard look at Jesus and his message, they had no choice but to spread the word.
They are witnesses and they now have a story to tell.
Combining both his divine and human nature, Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances are all about his physical presence.
He does not come back as a disembodied voice from the clouds waxing philosophical.
No, Jesus shows up with his body scarred and wounded. He holds out his hands and feet so they can see that he has skin and bones.
He gets his feet dirty on the road to Emmaus.
He gets hungry and he eats a piece of fish.
He builds a fire on the beach and has a cookout with his friends.
The physical is what Jesus shares with his disciples and what he shares with each of us. He says, “Touch me and see.”
What will we do with what we see of Jesus?
Where are we looking and who will we tell – not just with words – but with how we move through the world?
Will we see Jesus in the smile of the baby in front of us in line at the drug store?
Could we spot Jesus in the person who gently and carefully gives us our COVID vaccine?
Maybe that person we see waiting patiently with their own bag outside of the Food Shelf is that day’s view of Jesus.
We might catch a glimpse of Jesus in that awkward teen waiting self-consciously for the school bus.
Those once-confused disciples who ultimately got it because of Jesus’ act of, as one writer put it, “turning trauma into communion” (Debie Thomas, Journey with Jesus, 4/11/21) were commissioned by that very human act of chewing and swallowing to be witnesses.
We latter-day disciples are also called to share what we know and see that speaks to the power of God at work in the world that Jesus was all about.
We cannot un-see Jesus.
Once seen, we are to love as he loved.
Broadly, generously, and without reservation.
Let us then lift this prayer from the Rev. Laura Stephens-Reed:
Why are we so slow to recognize you, God?
Sure, you come in many guises,
but you give us an awful lot of clues.
Wherever there is beauty, there you are.
However, our bodies and souls are nourished, there you are.
Whenever there is delight, there you are.
Whomever offers us connection and belonging, there you are.
Whatever progress is made toward a more just world, there you are.
Somehow, though, not only is it hard to see you around us,
it’s also often difficult to see you in us.
We don’t like what’s reflected in the mirror,
what we hear in our recorded voices,
what bubbles up in us in our most unkind or vulnerable moments,
what we feel like we lack in talent or recognition or worth.
And yet, we are made in your image,
just like everyone else around us.
Clear away all that keeps us from recognizing you.
Grow our awareness of your presence within.
Join us at the heart with your beloved ones around us.
And in so doing, reveal to us your presence