The Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day

Easter  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  1:14:34
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At our house we have a plate - it’s been empty for over a year. “Let these gifts to us be blest” It’s been a plate that witnessed a lot of Joy. This year it has sat unused. A reminder that without fellowship, life is meaningless.

The Resurrection Scene

A few days before our gospel lesson occurs, the disciples and Jesus ate a meal. Soon, two of them would die. Judas, betrays Jesus and then takes his own life. Jesus is betrayed by Judas, the crowds, sinners all and then dies for them.
A few days later this group of 11 is hiding in the city of Jerusalem out of fear that they too might be betrayed by the crowds and crucified. It is in the midst of them that Jesus appears and announces peace. The disciples think He’s a ghost so they touch Him and discover that He is indeed, flesh and bone.
Then I love this verse:
Luke 24:41 ESV
And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
Church - ghosts don’t eat! It says they thought they saw a spirit- they disbelieved for Joy. The risen Lord cuts the tension by breaking bread.
Eating a shared meal is a shared, sacred, act. It is beyond death. Listen to Isaiahs portrayal of salvation:
Isaiah 25:6 ESV
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
Isaiah 25:9 ESV
It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Eating is our little act of defiance against death. Not only does eating stave off death but sharing a meal is an act of salvation. Eating together is an act of community, life together.
Let us be glad, This is OUR God.
These last months we have been alive but we have withheld living. Every person I know has bent the rules just a bit because they knew that they had to see another person. (Repairman, Friend)
In a way we have experienced a voluntary death. We gave up fellowship.
Jesus gave up fellowship with the father and volunteered His life unto death at the hands of community. He knew full well that He isn’t just a victim but also a King over death. He did this that we may have fellowship with Him and all who come to Him.
Isaiah 25:8 ESV
He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
According to Isaiah 25:8 how is death and sadness conquered by our King? By EATING.

The Eternal Table

Think about how you used to invite people to your big festive meals. The expensive ones. It was kind of choosy. There was a lot of well, reasons to NOT invite someone… they’re busy or I know they don’t like beef. - I think they’re a pescaterian (then you have to look up pescaterian)
The last year has exacerbated that. “Well I know they hung out with so and so, or they wear masks or they DON’T wear masks” A new virtue has been added - either following or breaking rules has made a person more palatable.
Again, in this new meal where God Himself presides as our server who is it for?
Luke 24:47 ESV
and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Worthiness to dine is not based upon masks or merit, social status, gender or nationality, but upon faith. If we want true equality and equity it is only found here. Everything is far secondary compared to the surpassing greatness of Jesus.
Admitting we don’t deserve a spot at the table means we GET A SPOT AT THE TABLE.
Who is Jesus proclaiming this to? The disciples who deserted and denied him. They are invited back into the meal.
In our Epistle Paul lists the reasons HE should not be a member of the church.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is that you and I are welcomed into the presence of God and His people because Jesus has done the work to make you worthy.
Then, Jesus says this :
Luke 24:48 ESV
You are witnesses of these things.
Church he says this to you. You. You are witnesses of these things. The power of resurrection, of eating for life.
We’ve put together a little cookbook with meals from our table to yours because in food there is life and culture.
You have recently witnessed a world that does not gather. A world that does not partake of one food. What happens?
A world that riots for every reason
A world that values the fleeting entertainment of a tiger King over the eternal Lord.
A world that criticizes the values of our neighbors while simultaneously purporting that truth is relative.
Ultimately, we end up with a culture that questions every gathering. Isolation in all of life is praised as the highest virtue because it is true to self.
Gathering, even entirely safely, is subject to derision by all sides.
Christ commands us to eat because in eating together there is living. I know most of you have had to make tough choices these last months and we cast no aspersions. Yet- this passage calls us to some bold, seemingly dangerous moves.
Christ commanded the disciples to stay in the city. The city where their leader had just been murdered. They were to intentionally put themselves in harms way. Why?
Because there was work to do. Life to be lived in the proximity of others. We no longer live under the tyranny of death.
Fear and shame have been swallowed already.
Now we work with on building life through feeding the world.
I’ve realized that when we pray ‘let these gifts to us be blest’ it is just as much about the bodies around the plate as it is the food on the plate.
The resurrection of Jesus grants us new purpose. Bodies, people, and food all matter. Because by the work of Jesus - we will be in our bodies eating food, together- for a very long time.
So, From the man who once declared that everything is meaningless, he encourages us to live a life beyond death beyond, self righteousness, and in the peace of God’s grace:
Ecclesiastes 9:7 ESV
Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
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