It Starts Here – Luke 24:36-48

It all starts here.

What a massive story Luke is telling here! It is bursting out of the pages of his Gospel! All of scripture – yes ALL of scripture, the Law, and Prophets and the Psalms – is being brought into a new focus through Jesus. What is the lens that reveals this whole new interpretation? The understanding that the Messiah must suffer, and then rise on the third day.

And if that wasn’t enough – this new take on the old story is to be taken out to all nations. Yes, ALL nations. Get ready for some serious adventures!

But let’s not miss the fact that it is all to start in Jerusalem – the ‘here and now’ for those first apostles.   After all, it is no good preaching a message of repentance and forgiveness to the world unless we have first examined ourselves and have been on the receiving end of this tremendous gift of grace.

I don’t know how big your ambitions are to take the Gospel out into the world. It is scary stuff, after all.   Don’t let me discourage you at all! But let’s remind ourselves that it all starts here, with our own transformational encounter with the crucified and risen Lord in our own time and place.

Luke 24:36-48

36 While the two were telling them this, suddenly the Lord himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” [2]

37 They were terrified, thinking that they were seeing a ghost. 38 But he said to them, “Why are you alarmed? Why are these doubts coming up in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet, and see that it is I myself. Feel me, and you will know, for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you can see I have.”
40 He said this and showed them his hands and his feet.[3] 41 They still could not believe, they were so full of joy and wonder; so he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of cooked fish, 43 which he took and ate in their presence.
44 Then he said to them, “These are the very things I told you about while I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms had to come true.”
45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “This is what is written: the Messiah must suffer and must rise from death three days later, 47 and in his name the message about repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.