Spooky Jesus
THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
Acts 3:12-19 • 1 John 3:1-7 • Luke 24:36b-48
A friend and I once discovered that we’d seen the same rare movie about a decade before. We both loved the movie, but it soon became clear that we remembered the ending very differently. In what I remembered as the final scene, a mother and the child she was determined to accept exactly as they were, triumphantly marched together to some bigger family event. I saw love and brave acceptance get the final word.
But my friend thought the movie ended with a scene that I’d completely edited out of my memory. That scene showed a parent violently rejecting his child. That the scene imprinted itself on my friend’s soul.
We settled things by re-watching the movie together. Technically, the scene I remembered was indeed the last scene of the movie. But, I realized I’d let a Hollywood-influenced desire for a happy ending of love and acceptance to change how I remembered the film as a whole.
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Memories of the life, death, and resurrection appearances of Jesus also differed from person to person, disciple to disciple. Their memories seem to reflect each disciple’s distinct personality, and the way each disciple shaped the events of their life into a story about how Jesus showed up to them. Later Christians shaped these memories into books we call the gospels and gave them different narrative structures. Even later generations copied and recopied these gospels, making accidental mistakes and intentional alterations along the way.
Today’s reading from the gospel of Luke has great examples of things Christians remembered differently. The disputes are these: First, when the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples when they were all together, did he, or did he not, say to them, “Peace be with you”? And second, when the risen Jesus showed up, why were the disciples afraid?
The version of the Bible that we read in church tells us Jesus did say, “Peace bet with you.” As we just heard, “Jesus himself stood among the disciples and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ ” Then, this passage tells us, the disciples “were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.”
But other ancient manuscripts set the scene differently. In these versions, Jesus first stands among the disciples without saying a word. This version makes a much better ghost story. The disciples are together, excitedly talking about recent Jesus sightings. Two disciples tell the others about their walk to Emmaus, when a stranger sidled up to them, chatted for a while, broke bread with them, and vanished the moment they recognized him. The other disciples report that Jesus had recently appeared to Peter.
Unfortunately for us, the full story of Jesus’ appearance to Peter isn’t ever told—not in Luke’s gospel or anywhere else. We miss the story because at just this moment of excited chatter, Jesus silently infiltrates the group. Just imagine the scene: While the dozen or so disciples are buzzing about Jesus, they realize someone else is standing there, not saying a word. Each disciple notices the stranger and falls silent, one by one, until a chill of terror settles over the room.
To me, the initially silent presence of Jesus makes the story much spookier. It also explains much better why the disciples were so surprised and afraid.
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But modern editors of the Bible have to make tough choices. Most modern Christians crave images of Jesus speaking words of peace and reconciliation directly to them. So instead of going with the manuscripts that depict the risen Jesus standing in silence and spooking the disciples, modern editors go with manuscripts that include the risen Jesus saying, “Peace be with you.”
Frankly, I think modern editors of the Bible are just too chicken to set the scene of a good ghost story.
(And while I’m picking on modern Bibles, I’ll also mention that a better translation of “Peace be with you” would be, “Peace to y’all.” But try getting that past the New Revised Standard Version translation committee.)
The Peace-Be-With-You Jesus may have entered some manuscripts of Luke’s gospel because later readers were familiar with—and loved—the resurrection appearances recorded in the gospel of John. As we heard last week, John tells a similar story of Jesus standing among his frightened disciples and saying, “Peace be with you.” In John’s version, Jesus shows them his hands and side, repeats the words “Peace be with you” for a second time, breathes the Holy Spirit on them, and empowers them to forgive sins.
The other big difference between Luke’s and John’s versions of the story is the explanation for why the disciples are afraid. In John’s version, the disciples are afraid that the persecutors of Jesus are going to come after them next. The disciples have locked themselves away in this fear. In the midst of their fear, the risen Jesus shows up and offers them his reassuring, reconciling, emboldening, and all-forgiving presence.
In Luke’s version, the risen Jesus isn’t the answer to fear, but the cause of fear. It’s the creepy, wordless presence of Jesus, infiltrating their excited conversation, that freaks them out.
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The appeal of John’s Peace-Be-With-You Jesus is undeniable. Our second reading today captures the flavor of this John-influenced Jesus so well. John’s type of Christianity infuses Christians with a sense of belovedness and with bold hope that seeing and knowing Jesus makes them virtually incapable of sin. Christians are beloved children right here and now. They also have every reason to expect that they’ll be something even better in the future, beyond what they can imagine now. This sense of belovedness and inconceivable hope builds on the image of the risen Jesus as the one who says “Peace be with you” to people living in fear, and who blows away sin in the same breath.
But some early Christians apparently just loved stories of the risen Christ that gave them the chills. Christ showed up sneakily, frightening his followers before showing them his hands and feet and eating a piece of broiled fish to prove he’s not a ghost after all.
Today, it’s impossible to settle all the disputes in the surviving evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We can’t just watch the tape. But we can pay attention to the Jesus who speaks most directly to our one-of-a-kind hearts and minds. We can look for the Jesus who fits the authentic shape of our own life stories. We also can be witnesses, for each other, of how Jesus shows up in our unique lives. While we chatter and compare notes, Jesus stands in our midst. For some of us, he may show up wordlessly, disconcertingly—wounded, but ready to eat.
© 2024 The Rev. Dr. Lora Walsh
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Fayetteville, Arkansas