Easter 3

Easter 3 (Luke 24:36b-48) Why are you frightened?

Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love not only casts out fear, he transforms fear into faith. Perfect love is Jesus Christ.

Fear is a reaction and a distortion.

There is value in caution. There is wisdom in being careful. Fear is a distortion of both. Fear is a reaction to real or imagined threat. Fear activates a section of the brain that floods the body with biochemicals to prepare us for fight, flight or freeze.

It was fear that led the religious authorities to condemn Jesus and demand his execution. Some feared he would use his obvious power to overthrow the established order. Some feared he would start a war. They had no evidence to support their fear. Jesus never practiced violence or authorized violence. Fear does not pay attention to fact. Fear reacts to demand.

The demand the religious authorities brought to Jesus was submit. Submit to our will. Do God’s work our way for our benefit. Pride led the religious authorities to oppose Jesus. Fear led them to condemn Jesus because they recognized Jesus was not theirs to control.

The political authority in Jerusalem ordered Jesus’ execution through fear. Pilate feared the religious authorities would instigate a riot. The Emperor did not reward governors for abstract concepts of justice. The emperor rewarded results. The result Rome wanted from Pilate was control. Civil unrest was a sign of failure. It was better for the security of the Empire to execute an innocent man.

The apostles also feared. Despite the fact that Jesus clearly and explicitly told them that he would be arrested, killed and then on the third day rise from the dead, they did not believe. They rejected what Jesus taught. They imposed their own expectation and demand on Jesus. They wanted him to succeed in the categories of command and control. They could not and would not embrace the categories of sacrificial love and compassion.

From the moment the secret police arrested Jesus, virtually all of the followers of Jesus reacted with fear. They ran. They hid. They abandoned Jesus. Only Jesus’ mother and her two companions and Jesus’ best friend overcame their fear. They stood with Jesus at the foot of the cross. They, too, feared the religious and political authorities. What set them apart was love.

Mary’s maternal love overcame her fear. John’s loyalty to his best friend overcame his fear. Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love transforms fear. Jesus is that perfect love. Mary and John overcame their fear as they expressed their fragile and imperfect love for Jesus. As they turned to Jesus it was the infinite and eternal love of Jesus that transformed their human love into divine love.

Jesus just doesn’t have love. Jesus is love personified. The personal relationship with Jesus reunifies the soul with the divine. The Way to salvation begins with the love we are able to experience. However imperfect and feeble that love may be, it is a type and shadow of divine love. It is the channel for the living waters of divine love.

The apostles had knowledge but they lacked love. Because they lacked love they lived with fear. That fear inhibited their ability to embrace faith.

When they saw the risen Lord Jesus they reacted with surprise and terror. They thought he was a ghost. The Bible clearly teaches that there are no ghosts. According to the superstition of the time a ghost was the shadowy afterimage of a dead human being. Ghosts had unfinished business with the living. Ghosts inspired fear and terror in the living by activating guilt.

The apostles had much to be guilty of. They had abandoned Jesus. They had rejected his teaching. Peter denied Jesus three times. Judas not only betrayed Jesus through pride but committed suicide in his despair. If Jesus had somehow returned as a ghost with unfinished business then the apostles knew very well they were in trouble.

Jesus was not a ghost.. He had risen physically from the dead. Our Heavenly Father filled the dead body with eternal life. That life transformed every organ, every cell, every molecule, every atom, every subatomic particle with life.

Jesus did not have unfinished business. He had a plan, the plan of salvation. And, he had a purpose: steadfast, holy, unconditional love.

We read in the gospel account how Jesus questioned his followers. Why do you fear? When in life did I ever threaten anyone? Why do you doubt? When in life did I never fulfill my word?

Then, Jesus invited them to test his physical reality. I’m here. I’m real. You really do see me. You really do hear me. Go ahead. Touch me.

It still wasn’t enough. The apostles had started to shift into a state of joy but not faith. It seemed too good to be true. Perhaps this was all an illusion. Perhaps it was a dream.

So Jesus asked for something to eat. It was a very understated yet powerful reassurance that he was alive, real and physical.

Then, Jesus reminded them of his teaching. Finally, Jesus led them in Bible study. He explained to them what they thought they already knew. He drew on the words of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms to provide the framework of faith.

Jesus demonstrated how he physically embodies the pattern of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation as revealed by the Holy Spirit to Moses, the prophets and the Psalmist many centuries before. The book sets forth the plan. Jesus is the plan.
Jesus frames his own personal experience in the context of the scriptures. Then he tells the apostles: you are witnesses of these things. You saw, heard and touched the living reality of the Plan of Salvation in your personal relationship with me. Now, your mission is to tell everyone what you experienced.

What the apostles experienced was the amazing, unbelievable yet undeniable truth that God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.

Perfect love casts out fear. Perfect love transforms fear. Perfect love is the Real Presence of the infinite and eternal God in the person of Jesus Christ.

As perfect love Jesus appeared physically to his apostles and asked: why are you frightened? Why do you react with fear? Discern the place of pride that rejects the reality of the living God. That is the false deity you have created for yourself. It is that false deity that keeps you enslaved to fear.

Surrender your demand to be in control and yield your mind, heart and will to love. It doesn’t matter how imperfect or weak that love is for now. It will grow. It will develop. It will transform you and enable you to flourish in love.

Jesus asks us the same question. Why do you fear? Why do you allow yourself to be defined by fear? Why do you cooperate with those who seek to manipulate you and to control you with fear? There is another way. It is the way of Moses, the prophets and the psalmists. It is the way of Holy Mother Mary. It is the way of John, the beloved of the co-eternal Beloved.

Listen to the reading of the scriptures.
Look at the icons and images of the saints.
Smell, touch and taste the sacramental bread and wine.

Jesus is the Real Presence of the Divine in all of the senses. Jesus is the personification of perfect love who casts out fear and transforms fear. Jesus is the personal pattern of our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation revealed to Moses, the prophets and the psalmist.

Why do you fear? God is real, God is personal, God is love, God is Jesus Christ.