Jesus opens our minds to open our mouths

Luke 24:36-49 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." ³⁷ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. ³⁸ He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? ³⁹ Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." ⁴⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. ⁴¹ And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?" ⁴² They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³ and he took it and ate it in their presence. ⁴⁴ He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." ⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. ⁴⁶ He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷ and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

A few months ago, the administrators of Vanderbilt University placed four Christian student groups on “provisional status” because they are not in compliance with the school’s policy of nondiscrimination. The truth is, the organizations are probably guilty as charged. You see, they believe a leader of a Christian organization ought to be a Christian. That makes sense to you, doesn’t it?

Not to Vanderbilt University. They believe that these Christian groups should be more open-minded to other religious viewpoints, more tolerant of other faiths. They believe, at least in theory, that an atheist or an agnostic, a Jew, Muslim or Buddhist should be able to lead these Christian groups.

Sadly, there are probably many in America that would agree with the administrators at Vanderbilt. Being open-minded is seen as a very good thing. Being tolerant of other people and other lifestyles and other truths appears to be a positive thing.

But look at what happens when we open our minds. Everything can rush in and fill us with wrong, harmful and disastrous ideas and lies.

The setting of our sermon text from Luke 24 is Easter evening. The disciples are gathered together behind locked doors. Suddenly, Jesus is standing among them. He begins by moving them from disbelief out of doubt to disbelief out of joy. “Peace be with you,” He says. Then He does a Bible study with them. He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

Then what did He do? Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. Jesus speaks of being open-minded. But what Jesus means by being open-minded is the exact opposite of what the world means by being open-minded! For to Jesus, being open-minded doesn’t mean that we open our minds to anything and everything that can rush in and fill them. No, to Jesus it means that He is the One who opens our minds, so that He can then fill our minds – not with all kinds of thought and ideas – but with His Word and His Truth and His Peace. The very Word and Truth and Peace that He gave His scared disciples in the room that evening. The very Word and Truth and Peace that our world calls us Christians closed-minded for believing in. And once Jesus opens our minds, He then opens our mouths so that we may be witnesses for Him.

When Jesus appeared to the disciples on Easter evening, Luke tells us that the disciples were “startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?’” The Greek word Luke uses to describe their doubts is translated “rise up” or literally, that their minds were “stirred up.” I think of the WLS teachers serving cheesy broccoli soup for our Lenten supper. I told one of the teachers, “Don’t stir it up. I’ll take just the cheese on top. If you stir it, the broccoli that’s sitting on the bottom might get in there.” Or maybe you think of muddy water that gets stirred up and all the silt and slime at the bottom gets stirred up in the water and clouds it, so that things aren’t clear anymore.

That’s how the disciples were. Things were not clear for them anymore. Jesus told them He would die, but they thought He was the Messiah. He told them He would rise on the third day, but the religious leaders spread the rumor the disciples had stolen the body. Many among them had encountered the open tomb or even the risen Jesus, but it seemed too good to be true. It wasn’t normal. Nothing seemed to make sense. They were confused and frightened … as many in our world are today.

Far too often, I have seen parents wishing to be lenient and friendly with their children, so they allow them to watch all kinds of inappropriate shows and movies. Personally, it always irritates me when my own family members ask my daughters which boy they like or which boy likes them. My girls, even the oldest one at 14, are too young to date and think about boys. But the TV and mp3 player and social media you use as babysitters, screams that these children need to grow up fast and get into a relationship. So don’t be surprised that our middle school and high school children are struggling with relationships.

Family members may disagree that their child, sibling, cousin or grandchild are living with someone outside of marriage. But we tolerate it because we want to be seen as tolerant. We don’t want to push our loved one away. So don’t be upset with God when your loved one totally rejects God and the Christian values you’ve tried to instill in them.

We want to fit in with our friends and co-workers who have different beliefs than we do. We want to be seen as open-minded and diverse to various opinions and ideas. Honestly, I have my own opinions and ideas on cauliflower and brussel sprouts – all vegetables, really. And it’s fine to have a diversity of food tastes. It is O.K. to have a difference of opinion about what you eat. But when it comes to matters of faith, differences do most certainly matter! All steeples (and minarets) do not all point to heaven. All ways are not equally good. Infant Baptism, the Real Presence in the Lord’s Supper, Jesus Christ paying for all sins, the resurrection of the dead, heaven reserved for believers in Christ and hell being the destination for all those who have rejected Christ – these are essential teachings of the Bible. To remain silent so that you appear sophisticated and sympathetic will only lead to destruction. I hope you cultivate a very tolerant and accepting worldview when it comes to food, music and art. But I hope you will never be ashamed to urge your family and friends to faith in the One true crucified and risen Lord.

We, who the world has influenced into being open-minded, need to close our minds to the world and let Jesus open our minds. We need Jesus to do for us what He did for His disciples in the upper room. “Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” And whenever the Scriptures use the word “open” like that, it is always the work – not of man – but of God. Opening the eyes of the blind, opening the ears of the deaf, opening the mouth of the mute, opening the wombs of the barren, opening heaven to fallen creation. And so after Jesus rises from the dead, Jesus comes to open the minds of His disciples and clean out the cesspool of filth and falsehood and fear and all kinds of wrong thinking and ideas. Then He can fill their minds with His Word, and His Truth, and His Peace. He clears things up for us so they aren’t so muddy and confusing any longer.

We train our children, not by putting them in front of the TV or letting them run around the athletic field, but by bringing them into God’s House for worship. We teach our straying family members that God hates their sinful lifestyle and their rejection of everything He has instilled in them, but that He also loves His straying sheep and His prodigal children, and will accept them as they repent and return to Him. We guide our friends to the true God, not be saying all gods and faiths are equal, but by sharing God’s Word with them that Jesus alone is the Rock of our salvation and the Savior of sinners.

But before we can do any of that, we must first come to God’s House, open our Bibles, sing His praises and apply His teachings to our lives. Worship is not about meeting our obligations to God. It is an opportunity to sit down with the risen Savior and hear His voice speak to us like He did with His disciples. We come, not as a rich person who goes to church to sacrifice a little bit of our time to God to satisfy Him. But we come as beggars, poor, miserable sinners who ask God to satisfy us with His heavenly Manna. We come, not because we are free to do whatever we want and so we are doing a favor to God by showing up once in a while and even supporting His ministries. But we come, because like Peter in Acts 12, we have been freed from our prison – a prison of sin and death of our own making – and we are grateful to once again be in God’s presence. We come to church, not because we are healthy, but because we are sick and dying, scared and despairing, and yet, here in God’s House, He is giving away the medicine that we need – giving it away for free!

We come because, no matter your age, we have been made children of God. Children of God are taught to speak God’s Word by having God’s Word spoken to them. Children of God learn to act toward others by seeing how God has acted toward them – in love and forgiveness. Children of God learn what is important by seeing what God considers important – by receiving His gifts of forgiveness, life, faith and salvation through His Holy Word, His Holy Baptism and His Holy Communion. Children of God are given a new life and an opened mind –opened by Christ.

Having had their minds opened by Jesus, He then filled the disciples’ open minds with His Word and Truth and Peace. And then He sent them out. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised.” With those first century disciples, first God acted, then they received from Him and learned, and now they were to act.

Jesus does exactly the same with us, His twenty-first century disciples. First God acts upon us, then we receive from Him and learn from Him, and now we act. We speak as we have been spoken to. We love as we have been loved. We forgive as we have been forgiven. Jesus opens our minds and opens our mouths. He shares Himself with us so that we can then share Him with others.

During their three-year training period, Jesus’ disciples were not particularly good ambassadors for Him. But the Lord stuck with them. He sent His Spirit upon them and transformed them from cowards into champions of the faith. Even when threatened with imprisonment, physical abuse, and death, they knew that silence was not an option: “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

The more we let God speak to us in His Word; the more we let Him use us in His agenda; the more our minds are closed to this world and its thinking and open to God and filled with His teaching; the more our confidence will grow; and the more we will agree that silence is not an option. We have been blessed with the knowledge and understanding of the outcome of the Great War between good and evil, Christ and Satan, life and death. We are a part of the triumphal procession in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14). How can we not help but speak about what we have seen and heard?

I wonder if the administrators at Vanderbilt will apply their same policy of open-mindedness to themselves. For example, aren’t they being discriminatory in accepting only the best high school students and athletes; isn’t a teacher being discriminatory when he says two plus two must equal four? Shouldn’t any number be equally acceptable? Here’s one: isn’t the school being close-minded by demanding these groups be open-minded?

The truth is this: Christianity is not an open-minded religion. Rather, it is a religion that opens minds. It replaces the tolerance for abortion and assisted suicide for respect for life; it replaces the acceptance of adultery and pornography with chastity and commitment. It replaces the evolutionary thinking of survival of the fittest with helping and serving your neighbor.

Let Christ open your mind. And as you do, the Spirit of Christ will open your mouth so that you can share Christ with others. First God acts. Then you learn. Then you act. Amen.