“Then he opened their minds…”

On the night of the resurrection, Jesus dropped in on the cloistered, quaking disciples (Luke 24:36-48) and Luke says, They were fearful. Talk about an understatement! Of course they were. Their whole world had been shattered and with Jesus dead, they expected the next knock on the door would be the Roman soldiers coming to drag them off to their deaths as well. Other translations make it even stronger– They were startled and terrified, thinking he was a ghost.

If you know the rest of the story, he shows them his wounds, hoping solid, physical evidence will convince them he wasn’t an apparition, but the real thing, touchable, feel-able…and hungry, asking, Ya got something to feed a guy who’s been to hell and back?

But perhaps the word we need to hear today comes in the little phrase we often overlook…“Then he opened their minds…”

Diane Butler Bass writes, He didn’t insist that they believe what he wanted them to believe. He didn’t give them a doctrine test. He opened their minds. The stone rolled away. They were no longer closed to the possibility the women had told the truth — something they had never before imagined. When their minds opened, their fears receded. They opened to creativity, imagination, and transformation. (Diane Butler Bass, Sunday Musings, April 14, 2024)

Today we deal with so many closed minds. Political positions solidly entrenched, often based on rock hard religious convictions leaving little room for nuance, alternative understandings, mystery and new ideas. In my world, the breakaway denomination which has poached the United Methodist Church of about a 1/4 of its congregations prides itself on being like-minded with clear, solid doctrines which must be shared by all. And in all fairness, there are some central truths of the Christian faith and characteristics of historic Methodism which should be shared by those who call themselves Methodist Christians.

But the Risen Christ invites us to new possibilities, new insights, new experiences we have never had before. Out of the cold death of the tomb, the Risen Christ breaks open the future and calls us to a new adventure.

So with Diane Butler Bass, I love the United Methodist motto, Open minds, open hearts, open doors. As those who prefer a more legalistic, doctrinaire approach to faith form their own denomination, I hope the on-going United Methodist Church will claim and celebrate a faith which is open to new ideas, hearts filled with the wideness of grace, minds which are willing to be creative, doors that open to all persons seeking a relationship with Jesus Christ.

I hope we will allow the Risen Christ to open our minds.