ROUGHLY EDITED COPY CUENet AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION DOGMATICS 2 LESSON 40 Captioning Provided By: Caption First, Inc. 10 E. 22nd Street Suite 304 Lombard, IL 60148 800-825-5234 *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. *** >> Any of us who have worked in congregations during the Easter season has probably noticed that each Gospel has slightly different stories to tell about the resurrection. Why? >> DR. DAVID SCAER: You know, for years the traditional Gospel for Easter was taken from the Gospel of Mark. As mentioned, it has no reference to the appearances of Jesus. It simply concludes by saying, "They went from the tomb and they were afraid." The message of that particular Gospel is that we will have to contend ourselves with the proclamation of the Gospel for our faith. But let's just compare the accounts, the other accounts. Matthew is very rigid and structured. He has two appearances -- he has only two episodes in Jerusalem. One, the angel informs the woman that Jesus has been raised from the dead and that Jesus has gone to Galilee. And then Jesus himself appears to the women and tells them that he is there to tell the disciples that they are to go to Galilee. And then there's a section which we have just referred to about the Jewish authorities trying to cover up the fact that Jesus rose from the dead by paying off the soldiers. And then all of a sudden Jesus appears in Galilee. And do you know there is no conversation between Jesus and the disciples in Matthew? It says, "When they saw him," the translations say they doubted. That's the wrong translations. They didn't doubt in the sense that it had happened. They had not yet put things together. Anyone who has been a teacher knows that people know facts. But somehow they can't put it together. They didn't put it together. And then Jesus gives them what we call the Great Commission. "Go and make disciples out of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever commanded." You would expect that if Jesus had been raised from the dead -- if anybody had been raised from the dead, you would all gather around him to find out what it was like. Last year my wife and I were at an occasion for our neighborhood's society up in the Poconos. And sure enough, a woman literally dies. And my wife is a nurse and I'm a clergy person. They called us out I guess one, to see if she could be revived and two, for me to give last rights. Her heart stopped beating. She had no pulse. And she came back to life. She was gray. It looked like we were visiting a funeral home. I wasn't upset. I kind of -- that's it. And then they sent for the medics. And no, she didn't want to be taken home in an ambulance. So we drove her home. And I had the nerve to ask her whether she had experienced anything. Really. I mean, I wasn't going to miss this opportunity. So you would have the same feeling with Jesus: What was it like? You know what he does? He refers them back to everything which he had taught them before he was crucified. Teaching them to observe all things "whatsoever I have commanded." This is not law. Because -- this is what comes out of the mouth of God. That's what they are to look at. They are not to look -- they are not to go out and say extravagant things about what happens in the next world. They are to know the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the poor in Spirit" and the Lord's Prayer and the. Parables, that's what he points them back to. Luke is a little different. Luke has a long section of Jesus strolling along on the road to Emmaus. It almost looks like something taken out of Pilato. He asks them a question. It's really a beautiful story. Perhaps the two most beautiful stories are the Christmas story from Luke. The decree from Cesar Augustus. The angels coming to the shepherds and bringing the gifts. And the story of Emmaus. Walking along. "Why are you guys so upset? Oh, don't you know?" "No, I don't know." "Didn't you know about Jesus of Nazareth? He was a great man. Some people say he's been raised from the dead. It was probably just a vision of angels." And then it says beginning with Moses and the prophets he began to speak about the Christ. But he didn't speak about himself. He didn't say, "Oh, I'm the Christ." He let them come to the wrong conclusion. Then he went in and celebrated the Lord's Supper with them. And then it says, you know, "When he had supper with us, he was known to us in the breaking of the bread." An entirely different situation than you have in Matthew and in Mark. And in John, the episodes are they recognize who Jesus is and they don't recognize who Jesus is. He's out there fishing -- they are out there fishing. And Jesus is on the shore. And he says, "Hey, guys, if you fish over here, you'll get fish." All of a sudden, they knew it was the Lord. And John uses the post resurrection account to put Peter into a very significant place in the church. "Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep." None of the episodes of the reports of the resurrection are the same, which I think points to its authenticity. Because if we are going to contrive something which is not true, we are going to get our acts together before we go into the courtroom. We are going to speak together so we all say the same. They all say the same thing, that Jesus has been raised from the dead. But they present it in a different way. *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***