Context

• Multiple murders in London linked to poverty and austerity.
• London now has a higher crime rate than New York.
• Russia accuses UK of flouting diplomatic convention, citing biblical teaching. Although, in this context, ‘do unto others as they do unto you’ has connotations of fear and violence rather than of love.
  
  

Reflection

In today’s world ‘spook’ generally means spy – MI5, the KGB, and the fictional worlds of the Mission Impossible films, James Bond and the like. The news continues to report the ongoing investigation into the poisoning of ‘ex-spook’ or spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. In one news story we are told that ‘Suspected Russian nerve gas attack on ex-spy marks 100 years of MI5 countering Russian espionage operations in UK’. 

But in a more ancient time, spook meant ghost – and the ancient world knew all about ghosts, visions and spooks! There are plenty of accounts within ancient writings, plenty of stories, of ghosts, spooks and visions – people found alive when they were thought to be dead, people who believed they had seen a ghost, and so on. At first glance, this week’s Gospel passage might seem to be just one more such story – or even, perhaps, a Mission Impossible script. At first, the disciples say that they thought they had seen Jesus’ ghost. But then, confronted by evidence from Jesus himself, it turns out that he really had come back from the dead and was very much alive. But there is more, Luke takes us into a world where the disciples are clearly dealing with something new, and the story becomes a powerful testimony to this new reality. The language is of ‘resurrection’, not ghosts or spooks; something real and tangible. The plot thickens!

In the world in which we live, finding something real and tangible can be a difficult thing. We have seen in the news this week that London’s murder total is rising and now exceeds that of New York. Is this our reality? Elsewhere, we discover Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Mount – words which would later become the basis of the commandment that we heard on Maundy Thursday – ‘do unto others as they do unto you’, used in a tweet to justify what the Russians state feel has been unfair comments from the UK. Something that’s real, tangible and true can seem very far away.

Yet, in the Gospel reading we see Jesus living both in our space and in God’s space. We see that he is real and solid and very much alive, and yet he is able to appear and disappear at will. He can eat fish, yet he disappears after breaking bread – a moment that resonates deeply with the Last Supper less than a week before (for the disciples), with the Emmaus Road (for two disciples in particular) and with the Eucharist (for us).

In the first Letter of John, the writer says there are no words to describe what we shall be, but when Jesus is revealed we will be like him. We will see him as he is. We will become what we worship. Because of Easter, we will become good humanity, Easter humanity – as opposed to the one which is distorted by sin, decay and death, the one that is always in our news.

Christians speak of their faith as a journey, or pilgrimage, for good reason. The experience of faith and doubt, of moral failure and repentance, of incarnating what that faith means in practice, is a daily challenge. A journey that constantly reminds us to ask ourselves: Are we the two disciples on that road to Emmaus, failing to recognise Christ much of the time?

John’s letter says, ‘Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins’. The tense of ‘abides’ is continuous – sin, though still a possibility, is not now our continual, habitual state. The power that healed the lame man in the reading from Acts, and glorified the God of Israel in the process, is available to heal us today of our immorality. Most of us haven’t been really bad people, but neither have we been particularly good! But if we believe in the resurrected Jesus it will change the way we live. We will become more loving and kind towards each other.

This is something which young people in London and other big cities, and those on the fringes of our society, so desperately need. We all know that Christians are just as good as hating each other as the Russians are in hating the British right now. But if we live a resurrected life, if we take a stand in what we believe in, then we can effect change in the world. The commandment that Jesus left his disciples wasn’t just for the first century people. It was for all time. In the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we can continue work of the first disciples – starting with telling the story. In a world that’s full of murder, hatred, spooks and spies, are we ready to share our faith today?

 

Prayer

Lord Jesus,
help us to share the good news that you are alive and with us.
Help us to share it with those who have forgotten,
with those who have never heard that ‘he is risen’.
Help us with our doubts,
and help those who continue to doubt.
Change us and mould us,
so that we can share our faith with those who have none.
Amen.

In your prayers of intercession remember: 

• Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, and their family; the policeman who aided them;
• those who have been injured in recent acts of terrorism including the recent attack in Germany;
• the people of London and other cities where young people are struggling with gang warfare and knife crime;
• fellow Christians around the world as they celebrate this Easter season, especially those in places where they are not as free as we are to worship;
• those who, for whatever reason, struggle with what they believe in, or who lack hope.

 

Questions

• How might your life be transformed this week – and year – by the Easter story?
• How might you have reacted on the Emmaus road? Do you always recognise Christ in others?
• What must it have felt like for the disciples when Christ appeared? Jesus gave them proof that he was with them, by allowing them to see his wounds and to eat fish with them. What does it take for you to truly believe that Christ is risen and alive today?

 

All-age activity

Using a map to locate current news items (nationally and/or international). Pray that people in those places can believe in the resurrected Jesus, and that the commandment to love one another will be lived out in areas where violence is rife. In groups, discuss how we can be witnesses to the resurrected Jesus this week. What can we do that may change headlines of fear, and hatred and even espionage, to one of peace?

 

Young people

Split into three groups, but ask for one volunteer who will be a spy.

• One group – including the spy – should write a coded message based on this week’s story from Luke’s Gospel. They could devise their own code, or you could give them a ‘code breaker’ sheet – there are plenty of online resources available to help.
• The second group should try to recover the original message with the aid of a code breaker sheet.
• The third group should try to recover the message without a code breaker sheet, but with the help of the spy.

Who recovered the message first?

Discuss with the whole group: Once you know the code, you can begin to understand the message. The disciples spent a lot of time confused because they didn’t realise that the Scriptures whre coming true – they hadn’t cracked the code. At first, they thought Jesus was a ghost, but once they realised who it was the code was cracked – they were able to understand what was going on. Jesus is our code breaker too. How much easier is it to tell the story when we know the facts and what we believe, rather than just some of them? Why is it important to know what we believe, when sharing our faith with others?

 

Laura Leatherbarrow is Acting Team Rector (Church of England priest) in Widnes in the North West of England.

 

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