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Weekly Devotional

April 20, 2009

God’s Peace be with you all.

Luke 24:36-43   ³⁶ While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."  ³⁷ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.  ³⁸ He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?  ³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."  ⁴⁰ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.  ⁴¹ While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"  ⁴² They gave him a piece of broiled fish,  ⁴³ and he took it and ate in their presence.

            Yesterday during Sunday School, and again after church, I heard the question: “Do we believe that Jesus appeared spiritually to the disciples or bodily?”  The answer to that question is bodily.  The scriptures (both John and Luke) tell us that Jesus appeared to his disciples in bodily form.  In the case of John (see yesterday’s Gospel lesson), Jesus proved he was real by allowing Thomas to put his hands in the holes that were in his hands and in his side.  In the case of Luke, we see a hungry Jesus asking for food.  Now whether he was actually hungry, we don’t know, since the Bible just says he asked them for something to eat.  But regardless, it shows that Jesus was resurrected bodily, and not just spiritually.

            These two examples are what lead to our own understanding of Jesus’ resurrection, as well as our belief in our own eventual resurrection.  Our funeral liturgy starts with a prayer that says this:  “When we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death.  We were buried therefore with him by Baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”  What this means is that if Jesus had a bodily resurrection, so we will have a bodily resurrection.

            This brings us to another point, which is the creed we confess every week.  Whether it is the Athanasian, Apostle’s, or Nicene Creed, we profess that we believe in the resurrection of the body (Apostle’s), resurrection of the dead (Nicene), and both (Athanasian).  Furthermore, we look to this resurrection, when we will be united together along with all the other believers, lifted up to meet Jesus in the sky (1 Thess. 4:14-18).

 In our prayers this week: 

Ann, Tara, Joseph, Norm, Jane and her mom Irene, Doris and her mom, St. John’s Lutheran Church.

God’s Peace

Pastor Judson