Ghosts

While the two were telling them this, suddenly the Lord himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’

They were terrified, thinking that they were seeing a ghost. But he said to them, ‘Why are you alarmed? Why are these doubts coming up in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet, and see that it really is me. Feel me, and you will know, for a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you can see I have.’ (verses 36-39)

Read Luke 24:36-53

Have you ever seen a ghost? Every year Hollywood makes at least one movie about ghosts. There has been Casper the Friendly Ghost, Ghostbusters, The Sixth Sense and many others. Many of these movies are about love and redemption. They explore the bewilderment and the deep grief we all feel when someone we love dies, especially when that person died young. The movies also explore the need we have to make amends for the wrongs we have done. There is the hope that maybe in the after life we can have a second chance.

But as real as these movies can seem, as real as the hope they try to bring, in the end they leave us with a sense of futility. As much as we might hope for it, they can’t still the restlessness of our souls.

Only Jesus can do that. In Christ we can find hope in the face of death, love in the place of loss. And in him we don’t need a second chance.

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your life, your love and your light. Amen.

by Greg Graham, in ‘Guidance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2002)

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