Third Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2015 - Luke. 24:36b-48

Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255-1319)

Jesus' Appearance While the Apostles are at Table

Easter Meals

He asks for food, they give him fish,
And then remember every dish
They ate with him along the way.
It is as if they hear him say,
"The loaves and fishes that you passed,
To feed a multitude, surpassed
What anybody would have guessed;
But that was just an alpha test
Which you, my friends, can now repeat.
You're witnesses none can defeat
The love for which I lived and died,
Though crucifying me, they tried.
Go out to all the world to show
Forgiveness that will overflow
As through you, everyone rethinks
How love is now your food, your drink."

Scott L. Barton

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “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.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my 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 he said to them, “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.