Daily Devotion for Post-Lent - Easter Sunday

Scripture Reading: Luke 24

Why don't angels appear to Pilate or Herod?  It would be nice if some did and said, "Boy, you really screwed up!"

But that's not the way of Jesus even though it might be our way at times.

Rather, the angels appear to the female followers.  They are the first to be witnesses to the empty tomb.  And they are not even believed when they share the message of Easter.  "Oh, that is just the prattling of women."

It is a large reminder of how women were considered second class and always had to defer to the men.  But Jesus has started a revolution of how we see other people.

Let us remember in Luke's Gospel that the angels didn't alert anyone of importance to the birth of Jesus but rather appeared to shepherds.  These were some of the lowest of the blue-collar workers in their social standing.

Do you see what's going on here?  In the Easter revolution, anyone can be a witness.

Jesus also appears to Cleopas and another disciple but remains unknown to them until they break bread together.  This foreshadows the sacrament of Holy Communion being a way in which we continue to share in Jesus Christ as his followers.  The table fellowship we celebrate here at times has been controlled as a means of who can and who can't receive, but I believe that our reading of Luke reminds us that it is a means of grace that we should freely offer everyone.

Eating together is important.  So important that Jesus eats a piece of fish with the disciples to show that resurrection is different than a ghostly appearance.  Ghosts are often about fear and the past.  Jesus is looking to the future and asks us even now, "Why are you frightened?"

Luke ends his Good News with the ascension.  This is fitting for a life that has pointed to God.  And the disciples don't abandon their religion or their rituals.  They remain in the Temple.  But they've been changed by resurrection.  They see differently now.

As we think about this story, Luke already knew the ending when he wrote it down.  As we look back at the Gospel, we can see how Easter colors everything in it.  How can it not?

We are the inheritors of this marvelous witness.  Luke seems to be asking us today, "What are you going to do now?"

Prayer for the day:

Loving God, you give us life at our birth, and we sometimes act as if you have wound us up like an old-fashioned watch - set to run until we don't.  But when we remember the past, we know that these watches had to be wound to work accurately.  Let us see the living Lord as one who works to wind us often so that we can share a more precise picture of the world.  This view is a respecter of all kinds of people because we see them as God sees them - as beloved.  We are thankful that not even death can stop this message.  We are grateful today to be a part of it.  You have raised up Christ today and forevermore!  Alleluia!  Amen.

Photo by Giulio Bernardi via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons License.