Living With Easter Hands - Luke 24:36-49

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Easter Hands
Luke 24:36-49

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

“Why are you troubled?” The disciples were afraid – it was Easter and they were not yet comprehending what had all happened. They could remember Jesus’ arrest late Maundy Thursday; they lived through the terror of Jesus’ trial and crucifixion on Good Friday; they saw His burial late that evening. Their Lord, their Savior, their Master – He was dead, killed at the hands of jealous religious, civil and political leaders. This was the Man whom they left everything behind so they could follow Him. What was going to happen to them? That was reason enough to be afraid – I doubt that listing “Disciple of Jesus” on a resume would get them very far in the world. For that matter, perhaps the same people who put Jesus to death were now conspiring to capture the disciples – pick them off one by one – and nip these Christ followers in the bud before they go much further.

How about you - “Why are you troubled?” Your troubles can be ridiculously complicated or terrifyingly simple. What troubles you can be tangible where you can literally touch it, or it can be nebulous, as difficult to nail down as morning fog. For some, it’s our children and grandchildren as we see the struggles they face every day as kids tease them or they deal with the stress of school. For others, it’s that our spouse works at a job they don’t like or where co-workers are unpleasant and difficult to work with. There’s financial troubles, trying to stretch the dollar as far as possible until payday. It’s tax week for those of us who are retirees or self-employed – is your 1040 filed, yet? There’s the enigmatic message from the doctor about blood tests being slightly off and wanting to re-test in a few days, and there’s that odd spot on your shoulder that you noticed in the shower.  The car needs new brakes, the insurance company seems so slow with hurricane damages, your neighbor saw a copperhead in her flowerbed, your boss wants the reports tomorrow morning and you know he won’t be happy with the numbers, the arthritis in your knees is terrible this morning, things are getting pretty dry already, gas is up, corn is down, and your blood pressure is all over the place. Oh, yes friends, there’s trouble here in River City.

It’s enough to make anyone, even the most faithful Christian, feel like the weight of the world is weighing us down. Our troubles burden our minds and hearts, traveling down our shoulders and arms to our hands. I’m a hand-wringer and a chin-rubber;  we work our hands in angst and fear and worry as we grab at straws to try to ease our trouble. And, try as we might, our hands are incapable of untying the knots that reside in our stomachs. The straws we grasp for break as we try to hold on tightly to those things that we think might provide comfort. No matter how we pull, prod, poke, or push the trouble just won’t go away. If anything, they seem to grow even more burdensome, more troublesome.

“Why are you troubled?” Jesus asked His disciples. “Why do doubts arise in your hearts?” It’s a call to repentance for the eleven. He shows them His nail marked hands. It’s as if He is saying, I have taken all of your troubles and worries to the cross so you no longer have to carry them yourself. Your sins, your fears, your worries – they have all been taken from your hands and placed into mine. And so you know that they are no longer yours to worry about, look at my hands…look at my feet. I paid the release-price for your troublesome burdens; why would you want to take them up again? I buried the burdens and troubles of your body, soul and mind with me in the grave and when I rose, I did not bring them back to life with me.

Ah, yes – the resurrection. Spirits don’t eat fish; people – living people - eat fish. Flesh and blood needs to eat. Where the Lord’s Supper is in declaration of His death, Jesus’s eating is a demonstration of His resurrection. Where does the resurrection lead? Back to the Word. “Thus it is written,” Jesus declares, and turning the disciples back to the Law and Prophets and Psalms – the Hebrew Bible; what we call the Old Testament – He reminds them of what He taught them during the past three years: “that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations.”

Let me ask you again: “Why are you troubled?” Look at your hands. What weight were you carrying in your hands when you came to the Lord’s House this morning? I’ll bet most of you are holding your hands like this, palm up. That’s a position of carrying, isn’t it? Stop trying to carry it all. Turn your hands over. Dump the load out here at the foot of the cross. Stop looking at your own hands, and instead turn your eyes to the hands of the One who carried all of your troubles and burdens. Over here is the stained glass window showing the Resurrected Jesus with His hands held out in blessing – those hands that were nailed to the cross because He refused to turn loose of your burdens. He held on to all of your troubles, saying to each of you, “You get this back over my dead body.” Why would you want to pick it up again?

When you are troubled, repent – confess your troubles – and turn back to the Word. “Thus says the Lord,” remember? Open your Bibles and place them in your hands. Read the promises of God for you when you feel worried and burdened. If you need a place to start, use the Psalms. The book of Psalms is called the prayer book of the Bible. You’ll be amazed at the prayers of God’s people of old, struggling with their own troubles, and responding to the Word of the Lord spoken to them – and to you. “Thus says the Lord:”

Psalm 34: 15-18 - The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry… ¹⁷ When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. ¹⁸ The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psalm 50:15 – “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me.”

Psalm 139: 9-10 - If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, ¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

The troubles are still there – God does not magically make them disappear. What He does do, though, is help you see these things through the lens of the cross so that you no longer focus on them but on Him.

And - here is the remarkable thing – when you stop focusing on your hands and see the hands of Jesus instead, in Christ, your hands are now free to help your neighbor carry his or her burdens. Yesterday, twenty of us were trained as a Lutheran Early Response Team, that in a time of crisis, like a hurricane or tornado, we might be able to use our hands to help others in their time of need. But none of us needs specialized training or a FEMA approved badge or a bright yellow vest to help a neighbor.  Your neighbor whose flowerbeds are overgrown with weeds? Check for copperheads first, and then go weed a flowerbed. Your co-worker whose husband is fighting cancer? Make dinner for them, and – if they are up to it – visit a little bit so they know they’re not alone in the struggle. The kid at school who gets picked on? Bring a friend with you and eat your lunches with that kid. The widow or widower who rarely leaves the house? Invite him or her over for coffee. Christ’s Kitchen, VCAM, Ladles of Love, tacking quilts – the list is almost endless of ways you can use your hands to share the love of Christ with others.

And, what you discover, as you show the love of Christ by helping with someone else’s troubles, the Lord works in your service to help release your own troubles.