Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

This has been a hard and harsh couple of weeks. I think we’ve all heard about the shootings in Virginia, so many lives ambushed. There was trouble in Houston from a lone gun; only one died but how many lives were assaulted? How many families are impacted by the war in Iraq? And there were many more ambushes and massacres that were unreported: how many people and their families were taken hostage by drugs and alcohol? How many women and children were made victims of pornography? (It isn’t a victimless crime.) How many of us were ambushed by disease, under or unemployment or aches and pains of growing older? How many were robbed of hope or opportunity? How many are victims of unforgiveness or indifference?

We shake our heads at sick individuals who shoot innocent people and/or shatter lives, but how often do we fail to realize how many times we have assaulted others and even God with our harsh words and sinful actions? How many times have we too acted as if we have a split personality: saying one thing in here and acting so different out there? St Paul writes, I do not understand what I do. Oh the good I would do I do not do. The evil I would not do this I do. (Rm 7.15b-16) My brothers and sisters the landscape is littered with victims and perpetrators and many of them are us.

Some will say Jesus walked along the ragged and dusty roads of Israel which ultimately led to the cross 2,000 years ago, but how does that really help us today? I believe His life helps a lot, as a matter of fact it means everything, not just for the forgiveness of our sins, but it has real meaning for us in the midst of our day-to-day lives.

Jesus came into the middle of lives impacted by all sorts of disease, unfairness, oppression, devastation, uncertainty and even sin and death. By and through His repeated miracles He provided convincing proof that He was God in flesh appearing to and very much for the people of His creation. He came ministering by and through His touch and His word to those who were hurt, sick and even to those whose lives were dreadfully sinful, having hurt others and offended a holy God.

That Word my friends still ministers to us today. The Bible is the voice of God speaking to us 2,000 years after Christ. It is written that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing we may have life in His name; (John 20.31) that we might have hope in midst of what would be otherwise hopeless, and encouragement from Someone much bigger and wiser than any earthly person could ever hope to be; and that we would have rock solid promises in the midst of a world of often shifting sand.

The words in this Book (holding up the Bible) are God breathed that we might be prepared for living in a sinful world. I must confess that over the last two weeks I needed to hear God, to hear Him whisper to me. When the days at the hospital with my grandson were over, when my chores were done, I’d crawl in bed and read a Psalm (you’ll most likely hear my paraphrase of the 23rd Psalm in the weeks to come) I needed to hear of the power, compassion, and mercy of God. I read parts of Gospels again and again. The words of God, the whispers of God give me real hope.

Of course, Satan would rather I not read the Bible, not listen to God. Many of us, I fear, don’t spend the kind of time we ought to with Jesus’ Word and then when hard times come upon we quickly become frustrated or angry with God. That frustration and anger comes from not really knowing God, from not allowing Him to dwell richly with us and within us. Sometimes we know about Jesus, who is God in flesh appearing, but we fail to see how His birth, life, death, and even His resurrection touch our lives today.

In our Gospel lesson the disciples don’t really understand how it all fits together either. They know Jesus; they’ve been with Him for three years. They’ve seen the awesome power and compassion that He has. Having heard Him speak and teach they’ve seen Him disarm the best of the world’s self-declared truths. They know that He died on a cross and rose again, but how does that really make a difference in their day-to-day lives? How often are we like that? We know the truth but don’t see how it fits into our lives. And so one night they went back to what they knew: they went out to fish. That’s what they used to do; it is how most of them had made their living.

They fished all night and had caught nothing. Early in the morning, they saw a man standing on the shore; they didn’t realize it was Jesus, right there in their lives. Upon hearing that they hadn’t caught any fish this man tells them to let down their nets on the other side of the boat and you may remember that such a large number of fish, big fish, rushed into the nets - they couldn’t haul them in. It is then that it dawns on them, “It is Jesus!” in the middle of our lives, but how could that be.

Just a little side note: look at how the ministry of Jesus is framed by these fishing stories. In Luke’s Gospel, chapter five, Jesus tells Peter and others to let down their nets after having fished all night and catching nothing. And they caught so many fish the boats were in danger of sinking. Now three years later it is the same thing. Let down your nets and let His words and promises rush into the nets of your lives.

As I was studying this text I was reminded of the time I was standing in a long line at one those big box stores. The lady in front of me was a dead-ringer for a lady who I had worked with years before. I must say she hadn’t aged as much as I had. I found myself taking one, two, three long looks at her and to put her at ease from all my staring I explained that she looked like a lady, maybe the daughter of a lady, named Linda whom I had once worked with years ago in a different town. She smiled and said, “Silly you. It is me. I’m Linda.”

The disciples were standing face to face with a risen Jesus - One who has overcome death on a cross and three days dead in tomb, not just raised from the dead in a badly beaten and disfigured body but One who had been raised up gloriously. It was Him right there in the middle of their lives. Even though He didn’t have to, He kept the nail holes in His hands and wounds in His side so that they would know, that we would know, that doubting Thomas would touch and take hold so that we would all know that He is very much alive and in the midst of their and even our lives. With long stares, even though it seemed impossible, they knew it was Jesus.

All this news was great; it was fantastic, but let’s face it in a few days they’d have to go back to work, there would be bills to pay, problems to deal with, and the day-to-dayness of life would crowd in and try to push all of this aside. This is what I think happens to us. We hear with our ears and believe here in church the stories of Jesus and of the prophets; we read the letters of Paul and listen to trials and victories of Psalms but we fail to let them dwell richly here in our hearts.

Over the past two weeks I had an “ah-ah moment”- a let it get from here (head) to here (heart) moment. Allow me to share that moment with you: If Jesus is compassionate enough to live among us, if He is powerful enough to overcome our separation from God caused sin, if He were powerful enough to gloriously raise from the dead, then I believe He is powerful enough, compassionate enough, and wise enough to deal with all that is before me. The empty tomb doesn’t take away all my troubles but it does give me profound and real hope for each day.

Now that empty tomb is there along with a boatload of promises and declarations: If God is for us then who can be against us. (Rms 8.31) The victory is won whether it is over disease or unfairness or sin or death; we may see it here or we may have to wait and see it in heaven, but it is most certainly won. Does it mean that we will not have trouble? I wish it were so, but it is not. Even on this subject Jesus has declared: In this world you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world. (Jn 16.33) We and those that we love and pray for matter enough to the Father – so much that He traded His Son’s life for us. (Jn 3.16) He has given His angels charge to watch over us. Open their eyes that they may see that those who are with us and more than those who are against us. (2Kngs 6.16) Because of the promises of our baptism we can come into the very throne room of God, calling Him, “Abba”( Father), laying our hurts, worries, and confusion before Him knowing that He is and will be at work in our lives acting in the ways that are best, maybe not always easiest for us to understand but in accordance with God’s plans to save us. Yes, I most firmly believe that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection have real impact on our lives today. He is there watching us and encouraging us to let down our nets into the waters of His grace, mercy, and even power - that He might fill the boats of our lives with His gifts. Truly, He is among us by and through His Word and sacraments.

All around us are people who have real hurts and they, like us, need to hear about and from our Jesus. They need as we do someone to live and speak the hope and reality of the empty tomb into their lives.