Text:  Luke 24:13-35                                                              U Misericordias Domini (3^rd Sunday of Easter)

Walking With the Risen Lord

            In the name of him who was dead, and now lives and reigns forever, dear friends in Christ: In this morning’s Gospel reading, we join two disciples of Jesus on their afternoon walk from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus – a journey of about six an a half miles.  It is the first Easter; but these two are, as yet, unaware ... or rather, uncertain of the Lord’s resurrection.  They do not belong to the group of Jesus’ chosen twelve disciples; but are instead part of the larger circle of followers who had been captivated by Jesus’ powerful teaching and healing ministry.  They had made a point of going to hear him every time he was in Jerusalem, and they listened with rapt attention to the reports of his work in Galilee.

            They had been surprised a little more than a week before when they heard that Jesus was going to be back in Jerusalem for the Passover.  The last time he was in the city before that, he had a major confrontation with the religious leaders.  It was no secret that they wanted him out of the way.  That’s why his recent return was so important.  If he were the Messiah, and these two believed that he was, then this was going to be the big show down. Something really big was going to happen – and what they expected was that Jesus was going to set up the long promised Messianic kingdom.

            So exactly one week before they had made this same trek in the opposite direction, from their homes in Emmaus to Jerusalem.  They weren’t disappointed when they arrived.  The whole city was astir with excitement. The two disciples helped welcome Jesus in the procession on Palm Sunday.  They sang psalms and proclaimed him their king.  They cheered him and admired his audacity as he marched right into the temple and drove out the coin exchangers and sellers of merchandise. And then for several days they heard him teach about the coming Kingdom of God.  They were ready and full of expectation.  They felt that they were on the cusp of something huge and wonderful...

            But in just one day the whole thing fell apart. Early on Friday they got the word that during the night Jesus had been arrested and had already been condemned by the Sanhedrin.  When they got the Praetorium, where he was standing trial before Pilate, they couldn’t believe what they saw.  There was Jesus, his hands bound, his face bruised and bleeding, standing silently before the governor while a mob headed up by an angry group of priests shouted accusations.  Everything happened so fast in the next couple of hours that they still had a hard time understanding it; but by mid morning, Jesus was being crucified.  They had been so certain about him.  And even as he hung there on the cross, they really believed that at any moment he might come down and turn it all around.  You see, they had witnessed the miracles.  They had seen the impossible happen.  They had been transformed by the power of his message.  Something just had to happen.

            And then when he died, the earth trembled violently, and they thought:  “At last, here it comes!”  But then there was nothing.  Only the silence of death, and the twisted body hanging limp.  They were crushed with disappointment and disillusionment – and now they were afraid, so they went into hiding.  Later, they heard that his body had been buried, and that there were soldiers guarding the tomb.

            What went wrong?  How could this have happened?  “We were so sure about him ... could we have been so deceived? Or worse ... had we been right and just stood there uselessly while the Messiah of God was killed?”  Nothing made sense.  All that Sabbath day they argued and debated.  They relived the events over and over again, they interpreted and reinterpreted, until they were sick from worry and exhausted from trying to figure it all out.

            Then, early this morning, the women had come back from the tomb with their amazing story of angels.  Peter and John had confirmed that his body was gone ... but they hadn’t seen any celestial beings.  And, well, no one else had the courage to go see for themselves. The testimony of the women wasn’t given much credit.  They must have been hallucinating.  So, our two Emmaus disciples laid low until a little after midday, and then decided it might be safe to try to head for home.  Getting out of the city was easier than they expected; they had thought that maybe they would be detained because they were known to be followers of Jesus, but no one seemed to pay them any attention.  And at that point there were happy not to be among the well-known and recognizable twelve.

            Just as soon as Jerusalem was out of sight and safely behind them, they could breathe a sigh of relief.  They resumed their discussion almost immediately.  And soon they are so absorbed in their talk that they barely notice that another traveler is walking along with them.  Strange, he hadn’t been either before or behind them ... where did he come from?  They suppose that he had joined their trail from a converging route.  He walks along with them in silence for a while, but he can hardly help overhearing their animated discussion.  After a while he asks,  “You guys seem pretty upset about something.  What is it you’re talking about as you’re going along?”

            They stop suddenly and stare at him in astonishment. Surely this stranger has heard enough of what they were saying to know they were talking about Jesus and what had happened to him ... or maybe not.  Perhaps he really didn’t know what had happened.  Well, how do you explain it all to someone who knows nothing about it? The question makes them relive all the events in their minds.  It brings them all back at once, and so they feel the pain and disappointment all over again.  For a few moments neither of them can speak.  Finally Cleopas manages to reply, “Where did you come from that you don’t know what’s been going on around here the past few days?”

            “What’s been going on?  Tell me.”

            Out it pours, both of them speaking now.  All of the details of Jesus’ ministry.  The healings, the miracles, the teaching.  “Surely you’ve heard of him.  But they condemned him, they crucified him.  Oh, and we had such great hopes that he would be the one to redeem Israel!   And now we can’t even find his body.  Oh, there’re rumors, the crazy things people come up with ... but they only make things worse.  Right now we’re confused, disappointed, heartbroken, and afraid.”

            I don’t think there could be a better description of what is very often the essence of the human condition:  confused, disappointed, heartbroken, afraid.  We walk along the path of our lives with those who are with us, interpreting and reinterpreting the high hopes we had and the bitter disappointments we’ve suffered. And when all is said and done, the conversation comes down to this:  “I don’t understand, I don’t like it, it hurts, and I’m scared of what might happen next.”  And as long as we confine the conversation to what we know and have we ourselves experienced as we walk along, that’s as far as we’re ever going to get.

            But as we go, we have a constant companion who would like nothing more than to enter our conversation.  He wants to hear about what’s bothering us.  He wants to show us how what we think is the end of hope, is in fact the beginning of something of greater than we imagined.  And the way he does that is by taking us into the holy Word and promises of God.

            “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”  This has been God’s plan all along.  If you had understood the Scriptures, you would have known it.  And from the first book of Moses to the last of the prophets, he explains to them and to us that all that has been written in Scripture tells about God’s plan of redemption in Christ Jesus his Son. 

            How I wish I could have been there for that lesson on the road to Emmaus and to hear the Lord Jesus open up the Scriptures.  And while we can’t be sure exactly which stories and examples he used, in one sense it doesn’t make a difference because it’s all about him.  But I think it’s a safe bet that he talked about some of the clearest examples we could name.  Like the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob, his father’s favorite and faithful son, who was betrayed and sold into slavery by his ten brothers, and how he then descended from servitude into prison – accused of a crime he did not commit. But then how he rose in glory to the right hand of the king, saved the world from death by starvation, and then freely forgave his brothers, inviting them to come live in the best part of his kingdom.

            Perhaps Jesus spoke of the Exodus:  how God sent Moses to deliver his people from bitter bondage by the power of his Word.  How Moses left his princely glory behind and became a slave by his own choice, joining his people in their misery.  How he rescued them from the power of their oppressors by the blood of the lamb and the death of the firstborn.  How he led them in the wilderness, gave them God’s word, fed them with the bread of heaven, and brought them to the land God had promised them.

            He might have spoken of Joshua – the Old Testament Jesus – who did what Moses (the Law) could not:  take the people across the deadly flooded river into the Promised Land to give it to them as their inheritance forever.  Maybe he mentioned Samson:  a man filled with God’s Spirit and strength, and who did mighty deeds to rescue the people.  Who, despite his high calling, had an inexplicable love for a woman of doubtful virtue who was always trying to betray him to his enemies.  How his love for her eventually led to his capture, torture, and hard labor and service. And how in his death he destroyed the enemies of God’s people by tearing down the unholy temple of their false god.  He could have talked about Jonah, who rose after three days from a watery grave in the belly of a fish to proclaim a message of repentance that saved many people from destruction.  Maybe he spoke of Daniel, who was falsely accused and sealed in a den full of lions – but who rose from that grave and then persuaded the king to grant a national resurrection to the entire people of Judah.

            I could go on and on with the examples (as I’m sure most of you know).  The point is that Jesus wants us to understand that these stories of victory through suffering are all about himself and what God planned to accomplish for us through him.  Every one of these stories is necessarily filled with tragedy, sadness, and disappointment.  Every story that includes real people must, because we are sinners who live in a fallen world. And so they are really our stories too. But through them we see that it is through suffering that we too will enter with Christ into his glory.  They all reveal part of the plan.

            But when things go wrong, all we can usually see is the disappointment.  Like Cleopas complained, “We had such high hopes”.  But Jesus brings victory from apparent defeat.  It didn’t look like it when the worst thing imaginable happened and he died; but by dying, he redeemed us from sin.  Likewise, the tragedies we suffer in our lives are part of bringing about the salvation we are hoping for.  How is that? It’s because it’s then that we turn our attention away from ourselves and the problems that confound and discourage us, and we turn to the Stranger walking along with us and we listen to him. And as we listen to him we feel our hearts burn as he gives us the words of eternal life:  the good news of salvation and forgiveness in him.  Then it begins to make sense.  Then we are given understanding and the strength and determination to go on.

            And having listened, and having believed by the power of his Spirit, we want nothing more than for him to stay with us.  As we read, “They urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over’.”  “We don’t know what’s going to happen next, and we’re still afraid, but with you here with us we know we will get through the darkness.  We know that you will help us to understand and believe.” 

            And like he did for the two Emmaus disciples, he agrees to stay with us.  It’s what he wanted all along – to stay with us forever.  And one day he will reveal himself to us in all his glory, and we will be with him always.  But for the time being, he continues to walk along side of us explaining God’s wondrous plan of salvation.  He enters with us in this house to continue the conversation week after week.  And here he joins us at the table, gives thanks, and reveals himself to us briefly in the breaking of the bread.  May we, like the Emmaus disciples, be filled with joy in his message and his appearances, and with them be willing to run and tell others:  “It’s true, he’s risen”, and share with them all we have seen and heard.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!