Pastor Mary Gilthvedt
Easter 3B
April 14, 2024
He Opened Their Minds to Understand the Scriptures
Luke 24:36b-48
P: Christ is risen!
C: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!
We have come to the end of Luke’s Easter story. Jesus has been raised from the dead. Now the evangelist Luke has recorded for us how Jesus initiated two encounters in the first hours of his new life. His first encounter was with two travelers on the Road to Emmaus. He walked, talked, ate, and explained to them the scriptures.
The second encounter is that which we have just read and heard. Jesus appeared, somewhat mysteriously, amidst his disciples. He again ate food, practical proof that he was a real and living person. But then a strange thing happens yet once more. He opened their minds to understand the scriptures.
Why, in the only two episodes of contact with people after his death and resurrection (recorded by Luke), is Bible study part of Jesus’ priority and mission program?
“Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”
· He opened their minds because their minds were closed.
· He opened their minds to understand the scriptures because they had not grasped those words of life.
· He opened their minds to understand the scriptures that said the Messiah would suffer; because he had, and so, likely, would they.
· He opened their minds to understand the scriptures that said the Messiah would rise, and here he was in the midst of them.
· He opened their minds to understand the scriptures that said his followers would repent, would have forgiveness of sins, would be sent as witnesses to his truth, and that these things would begin with them, right there, that very day.
· He opened their minds to understand the scriptures in order to build a bridge from where they were, to where they needed to be.
The Danish writer, Soren Kierkegaard, said, “When you read God’s word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, ‘It is talking to me and about me.’”
Could this be why Jesus did what he did with his disciples immediately after his resurrection from the dead? Of all the things he could have said, of all the things he could have done, he chose to direct them to the scriptures, to open locked minds to new realities, give them a keener, stronger, more forceful sense of God’s presence. He built a kind of bridge for them, so that they could move from where they had been, to where he wanted, and wants, his church to be.
They had been stuck, you see, in ways of life that were entirely self-defeating. Luke is clear about this as he describes for us the shaky frame of mind and poverty of spirit in which they were transfixed: startled, terrified, frightened, doubting, disbelieving, wondering. We would have to say, defeated! That is where Jesus found them. But where did he want them to be? Again, Luke puts it very simply and with few words: repentance, forgiveness, sent, witnesses, clothed with power, blessed. How to get from there to here, from stuck to freedom, from cowardice to responsibility?
In the scriptures God speaks, takes hold of human life, makes known his will for each and all of us, and transforms us to Christ-likeness. For all of that, he will first “open our minds to understand the scriptures.”
Let us take a few moments of silent prayer and reflection.
P: Christ is risen!
C: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia!
