Third Sunday of Easter - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation for the Easter season

Today’s Reading and Feast

Peter and Luke both evoke the theme of life as a journey. For the first three Sundays of Easter, the Gospel will focus on the resurrection and then the other three Sundays the Gospel speak to our participation in the ongoing mission activity of the church. The Emmaus Road story acts as a sort of hinge: the disciples experience the resurrected Jesus in a way that makes them want to share the good news. We, too, are journeying in the light of the resurrection to share the good news.

Acts 2:14, 22-33

Acts 1:8 lays out the program for this book: you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses 1. in Jerusalem, and 2. in all Judea and Samaria, 3. and to the ends of the earth.
Chps 2-7 mission in Jerusalem 2:14-8:3
Chp 8-9 Judea and Samaria 8:4-9:45
The rest of the book 10:1ff Gentile mission

Acts 2 covers the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter’s Pentecost sermon and an idealized picture of the communal life. This whole chapter gets chopped up in the lectionary! We read v1-11 on Pentecost Sunday, which ends the season of Easter. V12-13 don’t make it into the lectionary at all and neither do v 15-21. V22-41 are split over the 3rd and 4th Sundays of Easter. And we heard v42-47 last week on the 2nd Sunday of Easter. It’s worth reading this chapter in its entirety to get a sense of the overall narrative.

Today’s reading is the beginning of Peter’s Pentecost sermon in which Peter will accuse the Jews of killing Christ – a theme that surfaces often in the Jewish mission. Parallel with that, though, is the message that this was God’s plan all along.

Verse 22 speaks of “mighty deeds, wonders and signs.” In the Old Testament, these were common expressions for God’s activity in the world.

Verses 25-28 quote Psalm 16:8-11.

Verses 32-36 are a summary of the kerygma – the gospel, the good news.

I recently had the honor of preaching, of being able to share the good news with a Christian community. In preparing for that, I was grateful for a lifetime of sitting under the instruction of some great preachers, people who shared a message of love and hope from the depths of their experiences of God. What strikes me most about Peter’s sermon is how new that was for him and for his audience. No one had ever before preached a message about Jesus’ death and resurrection. No one in the audience outside the disciples had heard such a message.

We are all called to share this good news in some way. In what ways do you “preach” the good news; how do you share the message about who Jesus is and what he has done out of your own life experience?

1 Peter 1:17-21

Read the background and overview of this book in the Second Sunday of Easter.

V13-25 are an exhortation to holiness.

Verse 17 encourages us to “conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning.” What practices bring reverence into your daily life? How do you make room for moments of quiet that allow you to see the holy in your midst?

Luke 24:13-35

This story is unique to Luke, although it is hinted at in the ending of Mark’s gospel Mark 16:12-13. That chapter is commonly believed to be a much later addition. Mark was written about 70AD while Luke was written at least 15 years later.

This story is full of little details. We can feel the sadness and confusion of the two disciples. We can feel Jesus’ presence, willing them to understand while he knows their eyes have been closed for the moment. And we feel the joy in the moment they put it all together in the breaking of the bread.

The disciples on the road to Emmaus have very particular expectations about who the Messiah is and what he should do. These expectations get in the way of recognizing who Jesus actually is. The recognition comes not in Jesus’ conveyance of the facts (they themselves correctly recite a bunch of facts to Jesus and Jesus does give them intellectual knowledge) – although certainly this warmed and prepared their hearts. The recognition comes in a personal encounter with Jesus himself.

Once the disciples recognize Jesus, they hurry back to the place of fear and death, bearing good news. Richard Rohr speaks of the wisdom pattern of order, disorder, and reorder. The disciples’ ordered world is disrupted by Jesus’ arrest and death. They stumble through the resulting disorder in confusion and fear. The two disciples in today’s story are walking away from Jerusalem, abandoning their following of Jesus as they try to make sense of the disorder. I love that this story has Jesus pursuing these lost sheep, seeking them out where they are! He comes to them and puts their world back into a new order.

In verse 25, Jesus seems to get off to a less than stellar pastoral start. Can you imagine the response to a homily that started off “you stupid people! I’ve been telling you this for years and you still don’t get it?? You are slow and dumb. Wake up and pay attention!” I imagine that what Jesus actually said to those two on the road to Emmaus was filled with far more grace, mercy and love. What actually got recorded in the story was a community’s later reflection on their own blindness

Then in verse 26 Jesus says “Was it not necessary…?” Except that the Jewish scriptures don’t really support this explanation! No educated rabbi of the time would argue that the Messiah would be subject to anyone, let alone suffer and die. Jesus was challenging them to tell a new story of God. Even today we’re challenged to reinterpret who we are and how we carry the gospel to the world. It’s a new story, emerging out of shattered hopes. Will we as a church be content to tell old stories or will we allow the Spirit space to enable us to speak timeless truths in new ways?

I’ve often wondered why someone didn’t record Jesus’ explanations in this passage! All we get is verse 27: he explained thoroughly to them the scriptures about himself. Jesus’ ultimate goal was not to educate or inform them. It was to open their eyes to who he was. Luke doesn’t let us get bogged down in dogma and rules. Rather, he challenges us to pay attention to the burning within and to recognize Jesus in the everyday, mundane actions like sharing a meal with someone.

I think we see this tension play out in the Catholic church all the time. Many people want to remain in the safe, ordered world of rules where everything is clearly spelled out in black and white. The Emmaus disciples’ experience of Jesus showed that Jesus rarely allows holy people to stay in such a world. Always he disrupts and disorders by revealing himself: a God of love that transcends rules and regulations.

Recall the times when you have perceived Jesus walking alongside you, when you have recognized him in some way. How can you take this story back to places of darkness and fear and tell the good news in your own words?

How has the pattern of order, disorder and reorder played out in your own life? Remember that these patterns play out in many areas of our lives at any given time. Think about a particular situation and where that falls in the pattern for you If you’re in a time of disorder, what can help you hold on to hope? If you’re in a time of reorder, how can you share the good news? And if you’re in a time of order, how can you prepare for the inevitable disorder so that it will not cause you to lose hope?

Questions to ponder

In what ways do you “preach” the good news; how do you share the message about who Jesus is and what he has done out of your own life experience?

What practices bring reverence into your daily life? How do you make room for moments of quiet that allow you to see the holy in your midst?

How has the pattern of order, disorder and reorder played out in your own life? Remember that these patterns play out in many areas of our lives at any given time. Think about a particular situation and where that falls in the pattern for you. If you’re in a time of disorder, what can help you hold on to hope? If you’re in a time of reorder, how can you share the good news? And if you’re in a time of order, how can you prepare for the inevitable disorder so that it will not cause you to lose hope?

Jesus and the two disciples On the Road to Emmaus, by Duccio, 1308–1311, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Siena

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.