Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Well, fortunately, after all of that, I’ve managed to get the need to relate everything to Star Wars out of my system for today. After all, a reading from Acts involving a person who has ruthlessly persecuted the protagonists, leading to people dying, is definitely not something you’d find in any of the Star Wars stories – especially not an unexpected reversal leading to a new hope for our conventionally outmatched heroes.
But there’s something to be said about the circumstances that Saul finds himself in our reading from Acts today. Imagine – you’ve dedicated your life to your faith, to the point that almost every other aspect of who you are pales in comparison to your zeal for your faith. You’re convinced that you understand your faith better than most, and these cultists who claim that Jesus – who was crucified – is actually alive? They’re beyond contempt. They are claiming the inconceivable. Jesus was just a man, and he was dead. His followers needed to be silenced before others fell under this spell. And so Saul goes to Damascus, where there were reports of an active Christian community developing. And as he approaches Damascus, he finds that everything he thought he knew was wrong. He needed to unlearn what he had learned.
And being blinded through a vision of the resurrected Jesus, Saul enters Damascus a broken man. His certainty is gone. What was once absolute is now turned upside down by his encounter with Jesus. And so we’re told that he fasts for three days and nights, until God speaks to Ananias, who is sent to lay hands on Saul. Imagine – you’ve become known for being an adversary against these people who follow the way of Jesus, and now one of them is sent to restore your sight. Now you see – not just in the physical sense but also now you’re able to see the things your certainty had previously prevented you from seeing. You see the compassion and mercy shown by these followers of Jesus. You see the way God is blessing their community, despite the persecutions they have suffered. And now, a new certainty is present. There is no doubt. Jesus is the Son of God. And he is alive.
And the fact that Jesus is truly alive is something that Jesus’ followers also had a hard time grappling with. It’s for this reason that we have Jesus’ encounter with the disciples after his resurrection recorded in the gospel of John. It’s written in this way to make a very specific point – Jesus is really truly physically alive. Jesus isn’t a Force ghost. His spirit isn’t being conjured up like the witch of Endor conjured the spirit of the prophet Samuel in the Old Testament. Jesus comes and eats with the disciples, who experience in Christ’s presence blessings and bounty far beyond measure. But even for them, the amazing news that is proclaimed, that – alleluia! Christ is risen!
— Is full of challenges. What does it mean that the dead are alive again? What does it mean that Jesus is physically alive and ascends to heaven fully human and yet divine? What amazing hope does it offer those who are hopeless?
This amazing news contains also the potential for sorrow, because as life changing as this news is, as incredible as this news is, there will always be those who are powerful in this world who will oppose any challenge to their earthly might. There will always be those who are threatened by changes to the status quo. There are always those who benefit from keeping the low even lower. But the gospel message of Christ crucified and risen is a message that offers new hope to people who have been without hope for so long. The abstract hope of a God in heaven who seemed far off has been transformed by the Son of God – the chosen Messiah – who is near to God’s people, near enough that he shares a meal with his followers. And this is a paradigm shifting reality. This transforms the imaginations of the poor and the hearts of the zealots. The fact that Jesus lives changes everything. And even the hardest of hearts can be transformed by the God who comes near to us, who shares his bounty with us, and who uses the unlikeliest of people to provide the good news.
This is the story of redemption found in Christ – that our very selves, so sure of our own justification – can be given new life in this resurrection promise. It doesn’t matter who you are. God can use you. God can call you. And when Christ calls you by name, something new is being revealed. This is what Saul experiences today. It is what the disciples witnessed on the water and on the shore. And it is what we experience again today. So as we come together and share this meal, know that Christ calls you by name. Christ calls you to witness to the amazing news that – Alleluia! Christ is risen!
And know the good news – living as transformed witnesses of God’s love and grace, your past does not define you. It is the future lived in Christ that is your true self. And nothing can ever change the fact that you are called and beloved. In you, Christ is working something new. And that new thing is hope and love meant to be proclaimed to all creation.