The Daily Word
Hear the Daily Word on
Get the Daily Word in Your Inbox!
Reaction to Christ
After Jesus had risen from the dead, He appeared numerous of times to His disciples. One of these appearances was on the shore where Jesus prepares a fire and breakfast. He asked the disciples who were out on the boat if they had caught anything — a sure flashback to when the Lord first called Peter. They said no and so Jesus instructed them to put the net on the right side of the boat. Surely after doing so, they caught many fish. At this John told Peter that “It is the Lord,” and Peter jumps into the water and swims eagerly and anticipatingly to the shore to meet His Lord.
“So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter,
‘It is the Lord.’
When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord,
he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad,
and jumped into the sea.”John 21:7
After Jesus had risen from the dead, He appeared numerous of times to His disciples. One of these appearances was on the shore where Jesus prepares a fire and breakfast. He asked the disciples who were out on the boat if they had caught anything — a sure flashback to when the Lord first called Peter. They said no and so Jesus instructed them to put the net on the right side of the boat. Surely after doing so, they caught many fish. At this John told Peter that “It is the Lord,” and Peter jumps into the water and swims eagerly and anticipatingly to the shore to meet His Lord.
Some of the disciples were still a bit taken aback but believed that the man standing before them was indeed the Risen Lord. They were quiet. Peter jumped and swam. What was the underlying factor contributing to this difference of reactions? There are many videos on the internet capturing the reaction of friends and family members who were surprised by a loved one who had been away from some time, mostly those in our armed forces and recently those who have been separated because of the pandemic. In all of those videos there are elements of shock, surprise, embrace, and an overwhelming of emotions. There is always one who has returned and one who stayed. Even in these videos we see a varying degree of reactions, some jumping onto the person, screaming, and crying, and others more subdued, standing in the background shocked and stunned. What was the difference? Perhaps the individual’s personality. Perhaps the level of intimacy of the relationship. Those closest and those with whom the one had shared the most gave the greater reaction. Peter walked with the Lord for three years, and He was the one given a special place among the Apostles, and the one who vowed to lay down his life for the Lord, but he was also the one who denied Him, not once, but three times. Perhaps it was this intense mixture of love, remorse, regret, and gratitude that made Peter jump into the water to swim to Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, what is our reaction to the Resurrected Christ? How deep is our relationship with Him? How would we respond if someone says to us, “It is the Lord?” How would you respond if I pointed to the tabernacle and say to you, “It is the Lord!” How would you respond if I pointed to the person next to you and say, “It is the Lord!” The Lord is risen and He is truly among us. Do we recognize Christ’s presence today? If so, how will we choose to respond?
For an additional reflection on this Gospel, see my entry from last year focusing on the actions of Peter and the Lord’s call to him, “Going Back.”
Choosing to Believe
Have you ever heard or saw something and then question its authenticity or validity? Or maybe witnessed or experienced something that you did not think possible? Maybe a unexpected recovery from illness or a miraculous survival from an accident? Something that just caused you to take a step back, pause and ask, “What?” The Apostles were the same way when they saw their LORD who hung upon the Cross and was laid in the tomb stand before them, alive and speaking to them. They thought He was a ghost.
“Then he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.’”Luke 24:38-39
Have you ever heard or saw something and then question its authenticity or validity? Or maybe witnessed or experienced something that you did not think possible? Maybe a unexpected recovery from illness or a miraculous survival from an accident? Something that just caused you to take a step back, pause and ask, “What?” The Apostles were the same way when they saw their LORD who hung upon the Cross and was laid in the tomb stand before them, alive and speaking to them. They thought He was a ghost.
The disciples were “terrified and startled” we are told, but why? Why were they afraid to see the LORD? Maybe they did not know He was the LORD or maybe because their brains were not able to process how the LORD could be dead in the tomb and also alive before them at the same time. Or maybe because they have all abandoned Him as He was being arrested, and now they are afraid of what He might say to them. They were terrified because they had not yet understood the meaning of the “resurrection from the dead.” They were seeing the Lord with their brains and not with their hearts. In trying to reason out logically what and who was before them and how it was possible, the disciples failed to truly see who was before them. Just as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus ran back to Jerusalem after recognizing the LORD in the breaking of the bread, the disciples in the upper room needed to make that journey back to the Jerusalem in their hearts, back to the place of faith. And that is why the LORD came to them; so that they might not remained terrified but rather come to believe.
When the LORD comes to us brothers and sisters, let us not be afraid and think Him a ghost, but rather invite Him into our journey back to the place of faith in our hearts. Say to the LORD, “Bring me back to Jerusalem, Lord!” He comes not to scold us for our disbelief but rather to comfort us and console us and assure us of His never failing presence. He asks “Why are you troubled?” not because He is disappointed but because He wants to cast out those troubles within us. He asks “Why do questions arise in your hearts?” not because He is angry at our disbelief but because He wants to answer our questions and to fill our hearts with the peace and joy that will cast out all those things that cause fear to dwell within us. He comes to us so that we might choose to believe. Brothers and sisters, where are we in our journey to Jerusalem? Have we chosen to believe?
Receiving the Unexpected
When Peter and John saw the crippled man who was begging for money by the gate of the Temple, they approached him. Although they had no money to give to him they went to him. The crippled man fully expected to receive something from them, at least a few small coins, but they gave him no money. What the two Apostles offered to that crippled man was something greater, not silver or gold, but rather an invitation to encounter the Risen Lord. So, what happened?
“He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
Peter said, ‘I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.’”Acts 3:5-6
When Peter and John saw the crippled man who was begging for money by the gate of the Temple, they approached him. Although they had no money to give to him they went to him. The crippled man fully expected to receive something from them, at least a few small coins, but they gave him no money. What the two Apostles offered to that crippled man was something greater, not silver or gold, but rather an invitation to encounter the Risen Lord.
The two Apostles implored the name of Jesus Christ and told the crippled man (who has been so from birth) to rise and walk. With the help of Peter’s hand, the man slowly got up with strength restored to his legs, and he went off to praise and worship God in the Temple. While the man hoped for alms, the Apostles offered him something that would actually help him; not enough to just feed him for a day, but something that would transform his life and change the trajectory of all his days. Jesus, through the Apostles, wished to feed not just the man’s stomach but also his soul. He knew the man needed something more. It was not only his crippled condition that caused this man to be downcast. There was also a crippling of the heart and soul, and Jesus wanted to breathe life back into those areas.
Oftentimes we may ask for something because we really think we need them. But in life we have probably come to experience that we do not always get what we want or even what we think we need, but whatever it is that we received was exactly what we needed at that moment. Although we may not have been able to see it then, when looking back, it becomes more evident. When asking the Lord, we will always receive the unexpected. We will always receive that which we really desire, deep down in our hearts and souls. When we ask, and if we are open, God will always fulfill our deepest desires and needs. What are those crippled parts of our bodies and hearts? Let us invite the Lord to breathe life into them. May we come to encounter the Risen Lord who knows all that we need so that in knowing Him, we may come to receive that which really is most unexpected — a share in the life of God and the status of sons and daughters of such a loving God.
The Gospel reading for today is the beautiful passage on the Two Disciples on the Road to Emmaus. For a reflection on this, see last year’s entry on this, “Obstacles to the Heart.”
