I like what Joel Green (Witnesses of His Resurrection: Resurrection, Salvation, Discipleship, and Mission in the Acts of the Apostles) does in tying the resurrection of Jesus to mission. He starts with the community of believers in Acts 4 who were taking care of all the needy persons among them. He builds on this theme by tying the motive of taking care of needs (hunger, clothing, shelter) as a testimony to the resurrection, showing the correlation throughout Luke/Acts between resurrection and hunger/nourishment. He cites Luke 8:49-56 when Jesus raises a girl and tells those who witness the event to give her something to eat. He cites the story of the Prodigal Son which ends up with a feast after his father declares, “this son of mine was dead and has come back to life.” Jesus shares food with the two in Emmaus and later that same day with his disciples. He points out that the eschaton is a banquet. Jesus resurrection is tied to Luke’s motif of table fellowship. The implications of this theological aspect should motivate us to a mission of taking care of the ‘least of these’, the oppressed, the hungry, works of mercy and justice, all as a way to testify to the power of the resurrection of Jesus and his plan to ultimately restore all things.
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