Truth
Easter Sunday / Day of Resurrection
Luke 24:1-12; Luke 24:24-27, 33-49
Being the youngest sibling of four, it was often hard to believe whether or not my older siblings were telling the truth. For instance, there were times they told me I had been adopted, which my parents assured me was not the case.
If they really wanted to convince me, they would often bring my cousins into the game, and the doubt would creep back in…am I adopted? And back to my parents I would go for reassurance that this was not the case.
This was just one of the many schemes my older siblings enjoyed in their attempts to trick me into believing something that wasn’t true. It was all just an idle tale.
I’m sure all of you have experienced moments in your lives when someone approached you with something that was so unbelievable that you had your doubts as to whether it was truth or an idle tale. Like the fish that got away that was how big?!
Some stories we are not able to fact check; however, there are many facts leading up to the women’s story of Jesus’ tomb being empty.
Fact 1: The dazzling men at the entry way of the tomb tell the women that Jesus is not there.
Fact 2: The dazzling men remind the women, “Remember Jesus told you he must be handed over, crucified, and rise on the third day.
But are these facts enough to confirm that Jesus has actually risen?
Jesus is definitely not there as they have eye-witness to this fact. Yet, is it possible that someone or a group has taken him from the tomb, and moved his body to another location?
When the women report to the eleven apostles, and all the rest that surely were gathered together in mourning to contemplate their next steps, it seems to them an unbelievable idle tale.
I’m sure there were questions like, “What do you mean he is not there?” “Are you sure you went to the right tomb?” “Dazzling men?” “Surely, they took his body and know where it is?”
Now, as we sit here today, and hear these things, we might roll our eyes. We might ask, “How could they not know already that Jesus was speaking the truth?”
It’s easy for us to draw our own conclusions on how it could be possible that these eleven and followers of Jesus could not understand the truth that was before them. However, we stand on this side of the truth with years of writings and stories that have been compiled that tell a story that leads to a resurrection.
The women and the eleven have none of this written down and compiled for them to go back and scan the pages, to do a deep dive into what the Old Testament prophets said. All they have to refer back to are verbal stories that have been told to them over the years, and the words and actions of Jesus who has been with them for a few short years. Perhaps there were scrolls in the temple to which they probably had no access to read.
Additionally, if we put ourselves in their place, they have been traumatized, literally. They have just witnessed a brutal death of someone they loved, and they fear for their own safety. While they are processing all their own facts and trying to make sense of all that has happened, in walk these ladies with what they believe is an idle tale.
Peter, at least, leaves the group and runs to the tomb to garner our Fact 3. He stoops down to get a good eye-witness account to the fact that Jesus’ body is definitely not in the tomb.
Then we have the walk to Emmaus, “while they are walking and talking about all the things that have happened, reasoning among themselves, Jesus came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”
This is that “fly on the wall moment” we have all wanted at some point to know what is happening or what someone is saying when we can’t be present. So I do find myself chuckling a bit here as Jesus has dropped himself into their conversation.
Jesus asks them what they are discussing, and they amazingly tell all to this stranger. They recount every detail of what has led up to their discussion and confusion about what has happened from Jesus being a great prophet that was going to save them, to his crucifixion, to the idle tale of his missing body in the tomb.
Fact 4. Jesus scolds them in their disbelief. He scolds them in their own discount of what they know of the words and declarations of the prophets of old, and he gives them the final Jeopardy question, “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into glory?”
Fact 5. Jesus recounts to them all the stories of the prophets, and interprets the things about himself that are in the scriptures.
Jesus walks on with them, and they invite him to stay with them in the evening. As he breaks bread with them, their eyes are opened and they recognize him in the breaking of the bread. Then he vanished from their sight, but not before they have a clear awareness. Fact 6: New eye-witnesses.
They travel back to Jerusalem and report to the eleven and those gathered with them, and while they are reporting, Jesus appears to all of them. Fact 7.
The gathered crowd stands in shock and awe at WHO is before them? Their eyes do not deceive them, but they cannot believe what they are seeing. They are terrified!
Fact 8. Jesus speaks, “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. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
They become joyous, yet are still in disbelief. Wouldn’t any of us be ourselves?
Fact 9. He eats with them.
Fact 10. He speaks these words, “These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you – that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and continues with Fact 11, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
So are we discussing here today a truth or an idle tale?
When I was in elementary school, it was determined that I had asthma, and I was assigned to work in the library because I couldn’t go to P.E. Part of my job was to replace the books to the shelves, and I had to learn the difference between fiction and nonfiction.
I never really liked those words as I found them very confusing. Why couldn’t the books just be labeled True or False?
What we have today is nonfiction or what I would label “True”.
Nonfiction is not an idle tale.
Nonfiction is explained as ‘an account told in good faith to convey information about the real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. It is a story that presents topics based on historical facts.’ It is truth.
We have come full circle in the season of Lent from walking in the wilderness to walking in glory. We have walked out of the darkness into the light of Jesus. It is truth.
So where do we walk now? Do we walk in what seems like an idle tale, or do we walk in the truth?