Recognize your risen Lord!

Learning to put your shoes on the correct feet is part of growing up. You can limp through the first few months or years with your shoes on the wrong feet, but eventually learning to recognize which shoe goes on which foot makes life far more comfortable.

Saul worked hard at doing things correctly. Saul was an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin who grew up in the city of Tarsus in modern Turkey just off the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. He was a tentmaker by trade and a Pharisee in the Jewish religion. Saul enjoyed the respect of many for the way he lived his life, but for all his hard work, he was wrong about life. Saul’s wake-up call that he was not running, but limping along came from Jesus. In our Old Testament reading from Acts 9, Saul was traveling to the city of Damascus to arrest followers of Jesus who believed he was the Messiah who had died for the forgiveness of sins and was raised from the dead. When Jesus appeared to Saul, Saul asked,

5 “Who are you, Lord?”… “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Saul had to be led by hand into Damascus after the appearance because Jesus blinded him. After three days, he received his sight back, but the correction God made in his heart remained as we hear in Acts 9,

19…Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus turned Saul from walking the wrong path against him, to being a faithful witness to the risen Lord.

Saul was not the only faithful witness to the risen Jesus. In the weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, he made several appearances to his disciples to assure them he had been raised from the dead. The third time Jesus appeared to them is recorded in our Gospel reading for today from John 21. As Jesus’ disciples went about life in the weeks after the resurrection, some of them returned to their previous occupations. Most of them were fisherman, so we find Peter and six others had spent a night fishing without anything to show for it. In the morning, they heard someone yell from the shore to try again by casting their nets on the right side of their boat. To their amazement, they caught so many fish that the net was too heavy to pull into the boat. When this happened, we read in John 21,

7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.

This miracle transported John back to the other time Jesus allowed Peter, his brother Andrew and their fishing partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee, to catch a huge number of fish after a night of empty nets. Once Peter and the other disciples arrived on the shore, Jesus gave them fish and bread to eat for breakfast. As they sat eating, the disciples were assured that the same Jesus who showed his power over the elements and animals, sickness and death, who knew what people were thinking and what would happen in the future was with them resurrected.

While we do our work, Jesus remains the one who was raised from the dead. As with the disciples who went back to work after the resurrection and before Pentecost, we go to work in the afterglow of Jesus’ resurrection. Work for us may be academic, earning a paycheck, raising the next generation or making the most of each day. Whatever boat you are in, there are times when the net is empty and times when it is full. And there are times when you would sail around the world with those in your boat and times when you would like to jump ship because of at least one of the other crew members. In John 21, we know Jesus had a miracle planned when the seven disciples did not catch anything, and then caught 153 fish that filled the net. Today, yesterday or tomorrow, we do not always know the narrow reasons why God allows things to happen, but the details of whatever we do day to day often blind us to Jesus who was raised from the dead. We want to live life correctly, but we head down a wrong path because we do not recognize Jesus in our lives. If all the disciples had at the end of their night was an empty net, they would have nothing. At the same time, if the disciples had a full net at the end of the night, even that would eventually run out. In our lives, hard work or laziness, bear or bull markets, A’s or F’s, healthy or sick, harmony or hatred, all come to the same place without Jesus. Without Jesus we are wrong and empty.

Jesus appeared to the disciples to assure them the work was done to save the world. So much of our lives is uncertain. We cannot know all the reasons, variables, circumstances, etc. that cause things to go well or poorly, or that cause people to act or say things good or bad. We do not hold onto uncertainty though. Jesus is the risen Savior. In every situation, the scene John saw of Jesus in heaven decades after the first Easter in Revelation 5 still remains true,

12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” 13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”

Jesus is the Lamb who was slain. The Old Testament Scriptures Saul who became Paul and the disciples who became the apostles grew up with recognizing as the Word of God recounted taking the life of a lamb to spare the lives of sinful people. Those lambs did not save, but pointed to Jesus whose work was to walk with us on earth and die for us on the cross. When you are overwhelmed, uncertain, working, searching, waiting and stubborn recognize those as the sinful world and your own sin, both wrong and empty. Jesus raised from the dead assures us that his work for us is done and we will walk with him the risen Lord full of life in heaven.

God opens our eyes to recognize Jesus as our Savior. Whatever we work at in life, the work has been done to save us. God wants us to know Jesus, and to know he controls what can or cannot happen while we work. There are times when work disappoints and frustrates, and the people you work with let you down or make work a hostile environment. In those moments recognize that Jesus is still the risen Lord. In those moments, you control your response. God opened your eyes to recognize Jesus, and you get to show others Jesus in your response. You get to show his love and patience, his perspective and truth, his firm stance against what is wrong, and his approval of good things done for the right reason, not just good outcomes. God wants you to see Jesus clearly as the one who died for your sins, was raised to life, will bring you to heaven, who saved you and who set you apart to work at all kinds of things with all kinds of people all the while sure he is with you.

Learning to put your shoes on the right feet is part of growing up. You can limp with your shoes on the wrong feet for a short time, but eventually putting shoes on correctly feels so much better. Saul thought he was on the correct path persecuting Christians, until the risen Jesus appeared to him, humbled him and opened his eyes to see him as the risen Lord, his Savior. Jesus appeared several times to his disciples to assure them that he had been raised from the dead to save the world. Jesus did the work to save you, so whatever you work at in life recognize your risen Lord. Amen.