Acts 10:34-43
Luke 24:1-9, 36-40, 50-53

             I think it’s interesting to see the portrait of the 12 apostles that the Gospels give us.  I mean, you’d think that Jesus would select the best of the best, dependable and faithful people, for the foundation of the Christian church.  Yet we see time and again that, before Jesus’ resurrection and the later coming of the Holy Spirit, the apostles really didn’t get it.  Some critics think that the apostles intentionally made things up or changed things in the Gospels, but there’s no way that’s true.  If they had done so, we’d have a more impressive depiction of them.  Aside from things like their bickering over who was the greatest and being harshly rebuked by Jesus, today’s Gospel shows us that these first Christians in history at first didn’t even believe the Gospel message of Christ’s resurrection!  Jesus warned them several times that He would have to be handed over and die, then raise from the dead in three days.  He told them several times exactly how it was going to happen.  However, when Mary and the other women came running to tell the apostles about the empty tomb, do they say “Woohoo! It really happened!” or even “Ah, yes, it’s happening like Jesus told us”?  No, Luke 24:11 says that it “seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.”  It’s not until Jesus appears to them, reminds them of what the Scriptures say concerning His death and resurrection, and allows them to touch His hands and feet that they believe.  Really, Jesus has a lot of patience…  If it were me, I would probably say, “I told you so!”  We probably shouldn’t be too hard on the apostles though, because Jesus did often speak in somewhat confusing parables, so I think that half the time the apostles really had no idea what He was talking about.  Plus their shortcomings help us remember that none of us is perfect, and that’s OK.  But anyway, my point is that to believe and have faith, the apostles had to encounter the risen Christ.  They had to encounter Him in Scripture, and they had to see His body; they had to touch His hands and His feet.

 Encountering Christ Today

             So what does this mean for us today?  Surely we can encounter Jesus in scripture.  We can see the predictions of Jesus in the Old Testament, we can see the fulfillment of those prophecies in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, and we can see the New Testament descriptions of Jesus’ work: forgiving all our sins, removing our guilt and shame, and redeeming us to a new life of intimacy with God.  But what about seeing His body, touching His hands and feet, encountering Him personally in our lives?  Well, 1 Corinthians 12:27 says “You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”  We are Christ’s hands and feet.  For the world to touch His hands and feet, they must encounter Christ through us.  Quite a challenge, isn’t it?  So, how do we it?

            First is the obvious and most talked about: people can encounter Christ through us if the way we treat them is Christ-like.  Of course, this is not easy, and it is a sad truth that a significant number of Christians seriously fail in this area.  When Gandhi tells us “I like your Christ, but not your Christians” and Friedrich Nietchze says “If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, then you’ve got to look a lot more redeemed”, we must take this as a serious challenge.  If we put all our energies toward talking about what Jesus’ death and resurrection mean, going to church, and participating in Bible studies, without taking seriously Jesus’ teachings about turning the other cheek, putting others before ourselves, storing up treasures in heaven not on earth, feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and housing the homeless, then we have missed a significant part of what our new life in Christ is, what being part of His body means.  Whether it’s smiling at others, biting your tongue and forgiving your friend, or giving food to the man on the corner who is holding a sign asking for help, Jesus calls us to be the instruments of His love, so that others may know His love.  Of course, we’re not perfect, so we won’t be able to do this 100%.  However, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we should at least be able to “look more redeemed.”

 How Do We Take the Next Step?

             This isn’t all there is to it, though.  How do we help people actually encounter Christ, not just a kind person?  Well, it depends on how open someone is to encountering Christ.  Sometimes it’s best to just let people know we are Christian through wearing a cross, slipping a reference to our Christianity into a conversation, or offering to pray for them – something simple and not threatening – so they know that our love for them is really from Christ, and leave at it that.  After all, our greatest fear is to be the dreaded “Bible thumper”, right?  No one wants to be a “Bible thumper”; we can be evangelical, progressive, orthodox, anything but a “Bible thumper”!  It’s a well-grounded fear, though, because if someone is not open to hearing about Christ, then trying to force Christ upon them will simply build up their resistance.  However, a lot of people are truly curious and interested to learn about Christ and Christianity, whether or not they would admit it.

            On Thursday, I happened to run into my friend Justin from a discipleship group up at UC Irvine and we had lunch together.  The discipleship group ended awhile ago, so I only get to see him occasionally now, but every time I do he’s super excited because he has an awesome story to tell about how God is working in his life.  So I always enjoy talking to him, but this time ended up being one of those particularly awesome “God moments.”  The night before I’d stayed up late trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about today so I could send out the bulletin, and I’d decided I wanted to talk about encountering Christ.  So, lo and behold, as Justin and I had lunch, he proceeded to practically give me a sermon about how God had been using him to talk to people about Christ lately and what he’s been learning works and doesn’t work.  I joked that he should just come down and give the message himself today.  But, since you’re stuck with me, I want to share some of what we talked about.

            The first thing he said was that in the two experiences he’d had in the past week, he first tried to bring people to believe in God through science and rational arguments.  It worked about as well as trying to eat plastic Easter eggs.  It’s funny, because you would think that things like the Big Bang Theory – the widely accepted explanation that the universe began by a spontaneous, massive explosion of matter – would be good evidence for the existence of God.  After all, how could that have possibly come about if it weren’t for God?  Unfortunately, though, such arguments just don’t have much of an impact in bringing people to faith.  Again, it’s like the story of the disciples.  The story of the empty tomb, the factual information that the tomb was empty, wasn’t enough; they had to actually encounter the risen Lord.

 Scripture’s Message of Salvation

             One thing that did work for Justin was Scripture’s explanation of Jesus’ saving ministry.  Though he wasn’t able to explain it well enough himself, he asked his friend if he would read a little bit out of Romans.  When he agreed, Justin had him read some of the foundational chapters in Romans while he prayed that God would speak to his friend.  His friend read about the history of God’s creation, humankind’s sinfulness, God’s just and righteous nature which results in His wrath and judgment against sin, why and how all have sinned so no one may be called good or righteous, and how God saved us from our sinfulness, bringing us righteousness through faith.  When he had finished reading, he actually said that he couldn’t argue with any of it, and he told Justin he was interested in doing some more Bible study with him.  As he realized the powerful truths of Scripture, the Gospel, and Christianity, and why they mattered to his life, he encountered Christ.

            A few weeks ago Brian gave me a CD with a sermon called “Hell’s Best Kept Secret” that talks about this.  It argued that the church for some time has forgotten this power of preaching the salvation message, instead preaching that Christ will simply improve people’s lives.  The analogy it uses is a parachute.  Imagine at the beginning of a flight two different passengers are each given a parachute.  The first one is told simply that the parachute will improve his flight.  But as the flight goes on and he sits there with the parachute, everyone starts to stare at him and he starts to feel embarrassed.  After all, he’s just holding this parachute in the middle of a flight, for no apparent reason – because thus far his flight hasn’t been any better as a result of the parachute.  Then, when a flight attendant trips over another passenger’s legs and spills hot coffee on him, it’s the last straw.  He throws the parachute down, because it hasn’t made his flight better: it made him feel embarrassed, and it didn’t protect him from the worst part of his flight, coffee being spilled on him.  To him, the parachute was worthless and a burden.  Now, another passenger is also given a parachute at the beginning of the flight.  She is told that the plane is headed towards certain destruction, but she will be able to use the parachute to jump out safely.  I guarantee you this passenger will not care about the embarrassing looks others will give her, and though spilled hot coffee will hurt her, she will still cling ever tighter to the parachute, since she knows it will save her from an even worse fate.

            We must cling to Jesus Christ because He will save us from our certain destruction as a result of our sinfulness.  We seek to help others encounter Christ not just because we are told we should, but because they are our friends, neighbors, and family whom we love, and we want them to be saved from destruction as well.  Who among us wants those we love to suffer an eternal death?  We seek to help others encounter Christ because the only sure way we know to be saved from this fate is through Christ: through recognizing that we are in fact sinful and without Him, we will be lost, but through Him, we will be restored to righteousness, forgiven and loved unconditionally by our Creator.  This encounter with the risen Christ must begin with the love of a Christian, and it must continue in a loving way that is not “Bible thumping.”  But this is a task we are well equipped to do, because we have encountered the risen Christ, we know His love, and we are a part of His body, filled with His Holy Spirit which enables us to live for Him and show forth His love.  Though we may feel fear at first, it will fade as we get more practice, and we need not feel embarrassed by talking about our Lord and Savior.  Let us remember then, that we are the body of Christ, we are His hands and feet for the world to see and touch, and so let us boldly proclaim, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!”

Jason Waller, at T.G.I.S.
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church
San Diego, California, USA
© 2/18/07, all rights reserved