Easter 3, 2011 Immanuel Chapel, Luke 24:13-35
I used this stick on Thursday during Day Care chapel and the Prayer service. On the way in to pick up our granddaughter, Abby, from preschool last week grandson Lucas found this stick. “It's an ‘R’ grandma,” he said. Becky, looking at it from the opposite direction said, “It’s a seven.” Lucas turned the stick and ventured, “It’s a ‘V.’” On Thursday; a Day Care student saw even more things in this stick. “It’s an ‘L’,” the student said. Another chimed in, “And an ‘A’.” Thus some preschoolers helped us recognize that a stick can be a way for God’s Holy Spirit to lead us to the Gospel.
The “seven” reminds us of Jesus seven words from the cross. The “R” is for Jesus’ resurrection. The “V” stands for victory over sin and death. “L” is for our life in Christ. And the “A” is for Jesus Ascension which we celebrate on June 2. That’s a lot to see in a stick picked up from a front yard in Collinsville, IL.
Today’s story of two disciples on their way home to Emmaus is about recognizing who is with you, beyond what you think you can see. Our text begins, “That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus.” These two were of the larger group of Jesus followers. A couple of people ventured that the two disciples were a couple, a married couple. Since its Mother’s Day, I invite you, at least for today, to see a married couple on their way home.
They were on their way home, but really they were on their way to nowhere. They had gone to Jerusalem for the Passover with great expectation and hope. Jesus, the prophet from Galilee would be there. He was a man, “mighty in deed and word.” They “had hoped that he was the one to deliver Israel” from the Roman occupation, as Moses had delivered their forefathers from bondage in Egypt. They had hoped that in Jesus God had raised up a horn of salvation. They had hoped that through Jesus, God would stretch out his right hand and overthrow Israel’s adversaries.
But it had all come to naught. They had anticipated redemption but with Jesus crucifixion they lost hope. Jesus had been condemned, died a criminal’s death and was buried. There had been reports that some women had gone to the tomb but did not find his body. Others went to the tomb, but “him they did not see.” Now the couple was on their way home, disappointed and disenfranchised from the kingdom of God. As they walked they discussed, debated, and conjectured.
We have those kinds of experiences, in our journey of our life in Christ. We join a church with great expectation only to discover that things are not quite as we had hoped. Or if we are a long time member, we see changes around us that run counter to our perception of what the church should be. We ask, what about me? We become scared, lost and wonder if these things are of Christ.
As the two disciples continue their way home Jesus joins them while they were talking and questioning. “What are you talking about?” he butts in. But they were kept from recognizing Jesus. Does God do this? Is it their narrow view of Jesus which doesn’t match who Jesus really is? They needed their vision expanded.
Saturday, Becky received cards from all the grandkids. Eight year old Amelia wrote a nice message in her handmade card. Then she added, “I know you’re not my real mom, but my mother said, ‘You don’t just celebrate your mom on Mother’s Day.’” Our daughter-in-law broadened Amelia’s view of Mother’s Day, beyond the literal meaning.
A man by the name of Saul needed his horizons widened also. He had a certain view of how things should be. He knew the scriptures backward and forward, he abided by every rule and regulation that he was certain God wanted him to do. In his view the followers of Jesus threatened everything. He launched a vendetta against the followers of the Way. However, he was blind to what was really going on around him. It wasn’t until Christ knocked him to the ground and blinded him with the bright light of his glory that he began to see who Jesus really was. Jesus asked him, “Why are you fighting me?” God’s intent for Saul was to make him a proclaimer of the good news of Jesus life, death and resurrection that he had been fighting against.
The two Emmaus disciples were also blind to who was walking with them. They almost rebuke Jesus for his ignorance of the events in Jerusalem. Even though they had the report that Jesus body was not in the tomb and there was a rumor he was alive, they didn’t believe the rumor of Life. They knew he was a prophet mighty in deed and word, but did not realize that Jerusalem had a record of killing the prophets. Jesus was a prophet mighty in deed and word. The road to glory would lead through suffering and the cross.
Beginning with Genesis Jesus walked and talked with that couple from Emmaus interpreting the Scriptures in the light of his coming. He opened the scriptures for them. Still, though their hearts were set ablaze; though he had given them a whole new way to reading Scripture, they still didn’t recognize the stranger who walked and talked with them. Sometimes we are so set at looking at things a certain way, that we are “slow in heart” to believe what is at the heart of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.
When they arrived at Emmaus, Jesus acted like he would go on. They insisted that he stay with them since it was already late. When they sat down to supper Jesus, as Jesus always did became the host. He took the bread. He asked the blessing. He gave it to them. “And their eyes were opened and they recognized him.”
Fellowship with God had been broken at another meal when another couple had taken the fruit of the tree of good and evil and ate. Then their eyes were both opened and they saw that they were naked. Now in this meal, in the breaking of the bread Jesus restores the two Emmaus disciples to fellowship with God which had been broken by death. That meal in the Garden of Eden had been eaten away from the presence of God. But this meal in Emmaus was a meal in which God was fully present in Jesus and Jesus was fully present in the breaking of the bread. Then Jesus disappeared.
Notice another thing, having their eyes opened was not a requirement before they could have table fellowship with Jesus. Neither is it a requirement that we have complete knowledge and understanding and insight before coming to the table of the Lord. Because as they reported when they had hurried back to Jerusalem, “they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
Having recognized Jesus presence, they are on the road again heading back to Jerusalem. They turned into witnesses for the resurrection of Jesus. When the angel left Mary after opening her eyes to the fact that she would be the mother of God’s Savior, she arose and went with haste to Elizabeth. When the shepherds received the news of a Savior born in Bethlehem, they did not hesitate to see this thing the Lord had done. Afterward, they made it known to all what had been told them.
May we do likewise as we leave the table of the Lord and journey into our life in Christ. Become witnesses that the Lord is not dead, but alive and is present with us even now and forevermore.
Comments