Reflection on Luke 24:36-48

 

What does eating and forgiveness have to do with one another?  Apparently, they have a lot to do with one another!  They exist side-by-side in this Easter commissioning from the gospel of Luke where Jesus casts his vision for the future of his people’s ministry.  But, before we get to that, I want to tell you about Amy.

Amy was one of the gang who sat at our school lunch table.  She always sat next to her best friend across the table from me.  Whenever a joke was cracked, Amy would lay her head on her best friend’s shoulder, and the two would share joy in the way that only best friends can do. 

Then came the day when Amy walked into the lunchroom, looked our way in apprehension, saw the scowl exuding from her friend’s face, and turned to sit alone at a table near the end of the lunch room.

“What happened?” I asked the friend.

“I am not talking about it,” she answered, throwing darts with her eyes in my direction. 

Well, I did not want to end up alone at the end of the lunch room, so I let the issue drop. 

But, she obviously did not. 

The next few days were not the same as before.  The laughter was not the same.  The joy was not the same.  With Amy absent, the people at the table were not the same.  A thick wall of tension filled the lunch room every time that Amy entered. 

She had obviously hurt her best friend in some deep way.  She had obviously “missed the mark” in her quest to be a good friend. 

“Missed the mark.”  That is the definition of sin that can be found in the ancient Greek language.  The word, ἁμαρτάνω (ham-ar-tan'-o) is a term from archery that refers to any shot other than a bulls-eye. 

So, to say to your wife that the dress looks great, when she actually hates the dress, is a slight ἁμαρτάνω (ham-ar-tan'-o); it is hitting the target near the bulls eye, but it is not quite there. 

But, when you say to your wife, “I absolutely hate that dress,” when it is her favorite spring outfit which makes her feel cute; that is not even aiming for the target.  That is ἁμαρτάνω (ham-ar-tan'-o) in its greatest sense.

Sin is missing the mark.  Whether it is by a little or by a lot; sin is sin.  It is missing the mark.

Now, if you want to talk about missing the mark, we need not look any further than the betrayal and denial that Jesus endures from his very own followers while on his way to the cross.  One could say that jumping ship on the Messiah and savior of the world just might be considered “missing the mark.”  Heck, it is choosing to jump away from the mark entirely all because you can see arrows flying your way. 

If anyone could have rightly banned his former friends to another table at the end of the lunchroom, it is Jesus.  But, in response to his friends jumping ship, Jesus chooses to do something different.  Jesus chooses to show up.  He shows up! 

The gospel of Luke reports that Jesus first shows up on a walk with a couple of his followers as they journey to Emmaus.  He joins them at the dinner table to break bread. 

And, then again, in today’s story, we see that Jesus chooses to show up with words of peace; “Peace be with you,” and asks to eat in their presence.  Broiled fish was on the menu. 

Do you see?  Eating and forgiveness go hand in hand.  Jesus seeks food and peace from those who have missed the mark.  Jesus chooses to forgive rather than forget.  Eating and forgiveness go hand in hand.

One day at lunch, Amy’s former best friend walked right past her normal spot at our table and sat at the edge of the lunch room, at Amy’s far flung, lonely table.  Amy came into the lunchroom minutes later.  She stood, holding her lunch for a moment, trying to decide what to do.  She finally took a deep breath and walked over, sitting next to her former best friend. 

We watched and listened.  We could not actually hear anything, but, to our relief, we finally saw a laugh, and the best friend laid her head on Amy’s shoulder. 

When you forgive each other, you can eat together.  Or, is it when you eat together, you forgive each other?  Or maybe, the two are so intertwined that they are one in the same. 

It reminds me of the Lord’s table, where the bread and the cup are so intertwined with the forgiveness of God that they cannot possibly be separated.

Do you want to know what being a follower of Jesus Christ looks like?  It looks like eating with people.  It looks like eating with those who need forgiveness.  It looks like eating with sinners and tax collectors.  It looks like giving food to the hungry and water to the thirsty.

And, when we, the followers of Jesus Christ, share in his simple ministry of eating and drinking with others, Jesus will commend us for eating and drinking with him.  And, when we ask Jesus when we ate and drank with him, Jesus will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me’ (Matthew 25:40).

One of the most practical and biblical suggestions that teachers of church growth continually provide is inviting a friend or acquaintance to breakfast and then opening the scriptures to them by going to church, or inviting a neighbor to church to hear the good news of the scriptures, and then paying for their lunch as you have lunch together following the service (or in these days of COVID, having a picnic together along the river walk). 

This suggestion is not just about growing numbers in the pews though.  It is about inviting God to grow faith in more and more people in the same way that Jesus grew the faith during his own ministry. 

This is Jesus’ vision for the people of God.  He envisions that we might open the scriptures together and eat together.  This is all in the hope that, just as Luke 24:47 states, “repentance and forgiveness of sins” can be “proclaimed in his name to all nations.”

So, just to be clear, the gift that Jesus envisions you giving to the world when you eat and open the scriptures is the gift or repentance and forgiveness. 

This gift is so much bigger than many Christians can even imagine.  You see, many Christians assume that preaching repentance and forgiveness means making people feel really, really bad about their sin by pointing out their sin, and then…only after they have been properly prepared through guilt and shame…sharing with them the gift of God’s grace.  That may be an exaggeration, but not by much. 

And, though I, in no way, want to take away from the powerful testimonies of those who have gone from lives of destruction, to lives of guilt, and then to lives that then seek God’s grace and love, the notion of intentionally making people feel really, really bad before they can hear a word of grace is not at all what the Bible preaches to us in Luke. 

If we look at what Jesus actually says, if we look at what the Greek actually says, we find that repentance really means “changing one’s mind.”  So, Luke 24:47 should actually read that Jesus desires you, his followers, to proclaim “the changing of your mind into forgiveness.”  I will say it again, “the changing of your mind into forgiveness.”  This is what the world, including us, needs to hear, according to Jesus.

Jesus does not say that his people are supposed to be about the business of proclaiming guilt and shame.  He does not say that his people are to be about the business of telling people how terrible they are and constantly pointing out the faults of the world.  Jesus does not say that his people are to be about the business of exiling friends to the far reaches of the lunch room, to remain alone until they come back groveling while coming to their senses.  Jesus preaches none of this.

This is what Jesus does say.  Jesus says that he is about the business of showing up in those far reaching places of exile with words of peace.  Jesus is about coming into the lives of those who have crossed him and abandoned him, saying, “Peace be with you.”  “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?  Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.”

In other words, Jesus comes to the table of the exiles and outcasts with forgiveness in his heart.  Like the best friend, he chooses to sit with them, full of forgiveness.

And that, brothers and sisters in Christ, is the business that the people of God are to be about.  We are about having our minds changed toward forgiveness, over and over, and over again.  We are a people who open the scriptures and see forgiveness.  We are a people who open our hearts to the possibility of forgiveness again and again.  And, we are a people who believe in the saving power of Christ’s forgiveness, the saving power of the cross.  We are a people of God’s forgiveness.

But, we should have known that all along.  After-all, we have a baptismal font that is all about the free gift of forgiveness, even for babies who could not have possibly even earned it.  We have preaching each and every week that reminds us that Jesus cares desperately about sharing God’s forgiveness.  We are urged regularly to pray for our enemies, in the hopes that we might share forgiveness even with them.  And, we have a meal in which we partake in Jesus’ body of forgiveness. 

We are a people of eating and forgiveness; all because Jesus first came to us, ate with us, and forgave us. 

After-all, when you choose to eat with someone, it is because you love them.  How can you possibly desire to eat with someone and not forgive?

Eating and forgiveness go hand in hand.