"Exhibiting Resurrection After Easter:"

Christ's first appearance after the resurrection is to a small group of the disciples just as the angle had predicted but Thomas is not there. On his second appearance in the upper room, the doubter is there. Thomas finally has his eyes opened to the fact that Jesus has accomplished the final act of his mission on earth. Jesus himself seals this fact with these three words just before his death, It Is Finished. The resurrected Christ then appears to two more of the disciples on the road to Emanues. They do not recognize who this person is until he brakes bread with them in their home, it is then that they feel the presence of Jesus' divine spirit being with them. As strangely as he appeared on the road that day, Christ then seemingly vanishes from their sight. But, they remember when their hearts burned with passion and their spirits were lifted as He walked and talked with them on the road that day.

In the reading from Act 2 today, we find all the believers gathered together in one place. Suddenly a great wind fills the house, and tongues of fire appear above the head of and every person assembled. The promised gift has arrived and everyone there is filled with the Holy Spirit. They can see and feel that something amazing is happening to them, but onlookers accuse them of being drunk. In today's reading, Peter stands up and speaks into the excitement and confusion of that moment. He proclaims the core of our faith, as followers of Christ, saying that Jesus crucified, is in fact, the risen Christ, the Messiah, the annotated one. Christ is the entity that was with God from very the beginning of creation itself. I want you to read it for yourselves, it is in the very first chapter of Genesis, you will find it in verse 26. The Gospel of John confirms this truth for us in his fist chapter starting at verses 1 we read: In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and was the same as God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life,and that life was the light of all mankind and The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Peter in Acts 2 today highlights for us some of the reasons for Jesus' crucifixion. Jesus is a disrupter. Especially to those who want to maintain the status quo, to those who resist change he is a troublemaker. He was a threat to people who were more interested in personal power rather than in God’s kingdom and He was crucified because of it, a threat to both Church and state. It can be very easy for us to reflect upon those ancient rulers and their need for power and how it led them to crucify Jesus, but shouldn't we as Christians begin to examine our own reluctance to give ourselves over to Christ. Our resistance to turn from our worldly ways and to forgive those who have trespassed against us leads us to withhold parts of our own lives from Christ? We must begin to realize this truth. Whatever I withhold from Jesus, I also withhold from my own Resurrection. Why would I say that? Because we know from scripture that if I withhold forgiveness from anyone, even my worth enemy, I will be withholding from myself. This is scriptural my friends.

According to Peter and the other Apostles, to accept Jesus crucified is to welcome disruption in all parts of our lives, to let our own need for control to be crucified with him, so that we can make room for the gifts of the Holy Spirit and live as people who exhibit resurrection. To accept Jesus crucified is to grapple with The Christ who was crucified with Him, but it is the Christ who defeats death, only to rises again, and sends the Holy Spirit to be with us. I say this because I believe that Jesus' true divinity was not present in His human form, but was within his resurrected spirit “The Christ” as Paul and the Apostles now claim him to be. Lord help me not to shy away from you. Show me how to die to anything that holds me back from you and make real to me the resurrection that comes from giving my life to you. Amen