Thursday in the Octave of Easter

 Lectionary: 264

Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have."

Yes, Virginia, there are stupid questions. When a parent tells the child a bedtime story, the child sometimes asks questions like, "Did that really happen?" or "Isn't that impossible?" And the parent replies something like, "Be quiet and go to sleep." We're not here to discuss scientific scenarios. We're going to sleep.

Often, when modern readers study the scriptures, the writings of the Patristic Fathers, or the lives of the saints, they're distracted by details and miss the point altogether. Can a man survive in the belly of a whale for three days? How could the sound of trumpets knock down earthen walls? How long did Lazarus live after Jesus raised him up? Is he the Wandering Jew? What did Jesus look like when he rose from the dead? But Luke says one of the crucified men was kind to Jesus! 

In today's gospel, the Evangelist doesn't say the incredulous disciples were finally satisfied when they touched his hands or looked at his feet. When they saw the Risen Lord eat their supper's leftover fish, they didn't say, "Okay, I got it. It's great to see you again! So tell us what happened after you died! Where've you been?"  

There are a million questions we might ask the Lord and I've heard some say they intend to ask him face to face when (and if) they get the chance on the Last Day. We are curious by nature and that's not a bad thing; but like any other emotion -- mad, sad, or glad -- it shouldn't get in the way of our mission. The child is in bed to sleep; we're in church to worship the Lord and find our place in his work of building the Kingdom. 

There are not many resurrection appearances in the four gospels, nor does the Lord appear to his disciples after Pentecost. But there is his Holy Spirit which both guides and impels the Lord's disciples. What Jesus looked like and why the disciples did not recognize him until he showed them certain familiar characteristics like his hands and feet, are not important. What is important is our mission: 

"...that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."

So let's get on with it.