The din within

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 24:13-49

If I could have plugged his soul into a sound system and then played his inner sounds, the resulting noise would have been deafening. He was so churned up within, overwhelmed by warring emotions and thoughts, that he felt he might explode. The din within—and no room for any healing word to break through.

This is how the disciples are. They are battered by the experiences of the past days. Terrified by a ghost. Flooded with alarm and doubt. Not even Jesus’ word of ‘Peace’ can touch them.

Such times are horrible, aren’t they? Your internal noise, the pain in your soul, can be so all-consuming that you feel isolated and alone.

That’s when I need Jesus to be real for me, to touch me. It may be in the form of another person, or in his word, or in the body and blood given for me. Then, maybe then, I will hear again his gracious word of ‘Peace’, and will experience the stilling of the din within and the calming silence of being in the presence of Jesus.

Lord Jesus, be peace for me in noisy times. Amen.

by Bob Kempe, in ‘God’s Promises for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1999)

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