Gospel: Luke 24:36-49 (Easter 3: Series B)

Ernest Hemingway wrote, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then, wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” That is what Easter is too, a moveable feast. Wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Easter is a moveable feast.

Easter is also a moveable feast because it is a festival that moves around the calendar. Here is how Easter moves. Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon following the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox. So now you know.

Actually, it is kind of significant. In the first centuries of Christianity, the Church recognized the importance of keeping Easter connected to the Jewish Passover meal. They knew this special day did not stand alone; it was not isolated from everything else God was doing. It was the fulfillment of the plan. It was connected to the larger story.

In particular, Easter was connected to the Jewish Passover meal. But the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar based on the cycles of the moon, unlike our standard Gregorian civil calendar. Basically, our standard calendar is different from the Jewish calendar, so Easter moves around in order to stay close to Passover, the feast from earlier in God’s unfolding plan of salvation which celebrates God working in time, space, and in history to rescue His people.

Easter is a moveable feast. The date moves, but it is always a feast. Like most important occasions, we celebrate with food. For Easter, it might be jellybeans, Peeps, Cadbury eggs, hardboiled eggs, baked ham, Grandma’s mashed potatoes, and/or fresh rolls, but it is a feast. Easter is a moveable feast.

And it is most fitting that we feast when we celebrate, especially when we celebrate Easter. Because feasting and eating is something which is uniquely done by living things. Living bodies need fuel and energy. Living things eat. So, every meal, every morsel, every feast, great or small, every sip and every bite, every meal is a celebration of life. Non-living things do not eat. Formerly living things do not eat. Dead things do not eat. Only living things eat. Therefore, eating itself is a sign and a celebration of life.

During the week after the full moon following the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox around the year 33 AD, Jesus ate a meal with his friends. But after Thursday’s dinner, He was betrayed and arrested. On Friday, He was tried, convicted, stripped, beaten, and executed. He died hungry and thirsty. But death took care of His hunger. His aching stomach and cracking lips were dealt with by death because dead people do not get hungry. Dead people do not get thirsty. Dead people do not eat.

But then Sunday comes around, and it is time to feast! Easter is a feast. It is a celebration of life because Jesus eats, not “Jesus ate,” and not “Jesus used to eat.” No, Jesus eats, because He lives, flesh and blood alive, and living things eat. Here, in Luke 24:41, the confused and doubting disciples ask, “Have you anything here to eat?” And they give Him a piece of fish... and He eats it! Peter looks back on this episode in Acts 10:41, “We ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.” Dead people do not eat. Jesus eats. Jesus is not dead. He is alive!

Jesus eats, because He lives, flesh and blood alive, and living things eat.

He lives. He eats. Maybe our new formal greeting on Easter should be: “Alleluia, Christ is eating! He is eating indeed, Alleluia!”

Easter is a moveable feast. The date moves but the message stays the same. Jesus rose from the dead, He is living and eating. Eating is a celebration of life. Your Easter meal, your every meal... every morsel is a celebration of life. Jesus rose and, through faith in the resurrected Jesus, you will rise.

This feast moves around the calendar in March or April. But sometimes, the Easter feast shows up at an unexpected time. I remember one year: Easter broke into the first week of January.

My wife’s grandma died. We went down for the memorial service. The worship space for their congregation is very multi-purpose. Everything is moveable. Basically, it is a gymnasium with nice moveable chairs and an altar area which is very flexible.

We remembered Grandma’s life of faith. We celebrated Jesus’ faithfulness to her. We heard the message of Christ’s victory over the grave. And we sang songs that gave expression to our grief even as they pointed us to God’s promises in hope.

When the service was over, the family rose and walked out of that worship space, down the corridor, and out the front door. We walked across the parking lot, to a small memorial garden, where Grandma’s ashes were laid to rest, to rest until Jesus calls her name, and she will rise.

After we had interred her ashes, we turned around and walked right back into that worship space. But while we were burying Grandma’s mortal remains in the garden, back inside the church everything was moved. We stepped into the same space, but now it was a feast. The chairs were all rearranged and tables were brought out. A buffet line was set up with juice, water, coffee, salads, main courses, and desserts. It was a feast. That place of mourning from moments before was transformed into an Easter celebration, a feast a victory. It was a meal celebrating life because every meal is a celebration of life. Living things eat. Every meal, great or small, is a celebration of life.

Easter is a moveable feast. The festival of Easter will not officially show up until next Spring, but the feast of victory comes among us week after week, Sunday after Sunday, meal after meal.

Eating is a blessing of creation, an experiential joy of created life. Every sip and bite are a celebration of life because Jesus lives, and Jesus eats!

Easter is a moveable feast. Wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you. May the hope of a new resurrected reality move you, carry you, and sustain you, until that day when all will be transformed and we will eat together in the heavenly banquet hall, as dinner guests of the living King.

Alleluia, Christ is eating! He is eating indeed, Alleluia!

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Additional Resources:

Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Luke 24:36-49.

Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Luke 24:36-49.

Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Luke 24:36-49.

Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!

Lectionary Podcast-Dr. Arthur Just of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN walks us through Luke 24:36-49.