April 15, Easter 3B (Luke 24:36b-48)

Imagine trying to convince someone that you’re alive. I don’t mean trying to look alert to the English teacher after dozing in class. I’m thinking of the challenge of actually having to prove that you’re not physically dead.

Such was the predicament a few years ago for Charles Hubbard of Austin, Texas. This Vietnam vet received a letter from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs informing him that he was dead and that his family needed to return thousands of dollars in benefits. A victim of stolen identity, Hubbard found his checking account closed by the VA. After he made an extensive case for being alive, the VA informed him that it would take eight months for him to be officially brought back to life. That’s when they would restore his pension benefits.

The resurrected Christ has his own problems convincing the disciples that he is alive and well, bodily present to them. Even the sound of his post-grave voice terrifies these followers. Exactly why they believe they are seeing a ghost is unclear. I wonder if a few of them grew up in homes with scary stuff on the walls, similar to the eerie poster that hung in my childhood bedroom: “From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!” I’m still not sure why or where my parents came up with that framed piece, since our family didn’t believe in ghosts. But it’s both poetic and spooky, which may explain how the disciples feel after spending a little too much time frightening each other around a campfire.