Sermon text: Luke 24
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
This is the third week in the Easter season. And this morning’s gospel records the third appearance of the resurrected Lord on Easter day. Now, all four gospels contain some record and measure of Christ’s resurrection in their written accounts. The one that sort of begins the day is Matthew 28:4-6. There we read, “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb, and an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.” And the angel said to the woman, “Do not be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for he is risen just as he said.” Mark adds this detail, that the angel went on to say, “Go and tell the disciples and Peter that he’s going to Galilee, and there you will see him just as he told you.” In Luke’s resurrection account, he records the angel saying, “He is not here, but he is risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” Each announcement contains the obvious and most attention-getting details. Jesus is not to be found in the tomb. He is not dead. He has risen. He is no longer in the tomb. He was dead, but now he’s alive. But there’s a second detail that the angels also include in their proclamation to you. Each account makes it clear that the angels’ message of Jesus’ resurrection came with a reminder: namely, that before the crucifixion of Jesus had occurred, Jesus himself had been preparing them and telling them that he would be crucified and that he would, in fact, die.
In this morning’s gospel, two of Jesus’ disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It was still Easter Sunday. Verse 13: And on the way, two of them were going to the village named Emmaus, which was about 60 stadia, about seven miles, from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. And while they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Two disciples were walking back to Emmaus. They were talking about the events of the week and the weekend when a stranger, or so they thought, approached them and joined them. We’re told that their eyes were kept from recognizing him. We know one of the names: one of the disciples, Cleopas, who was one of the two. The other is unnamed, and there are several various church traditions offering suggestions, but the only one we’re aware of is Cleopas, and we know him only because he was among the Seventy-Two that were sent out on those first missionary journeys. And in regards to Jesus’ resurrection, both of them were unconvinced and confused about the morning events. When they looked at Jesus, all they saw was a fellow traveler who himself must have come from Jerusalem. And if he came from Jerusalem, he certainly would have known what was going on in Jerusalem, or so they thought.
For Jesus’ part, instead of saying, “Hey, behold, it’s me. I’m the great I AM,” and revealing himself to the two men, he simply eavesdrops on the conversation and eventually asks this question: “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” The two travelers stopped and looked at Jesus. As they turned to face Jesus, the biblical text notes that they’re filled with sadness. One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” Now, Jerusalem was a very large city, especially in the ancient world. Yet, Jesus had now become the most well-known and celebrated man at the feast. His arrival on Palm Sunday got everybody’s attention. His conflicts with the religious elite in the temple, his arrest, his trial, his crucifixion: the news of all of that had spread throughout Jerusalem. It was ablaze with rumors and reports of the activities of Jesus and the rulers of the day. It was reasonable for the two disciples to assume that anybody who was walking from Jerusalem that week to Emmaus would know at least a little bit about what happened in Jerusalem for that week. But Jesus plays dumb. He asks, “What things?” And they say to him, “Those about Jesus the Nazarene, who proved to be a prophet mighty in deed and word and in the sight of God and all the people. And how the chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and crucified. But we were hoping that he was going to redeem Israel.”
Now, they went on to summarize the basic details of the Easter morning encounters that the ladies in the group had reported to the men. They even told the stranger that Jesus was the redeemer of Israel. But like most everybody else, including today in our world, people simply misunderstand what it means to redeem Israel. Look at what Jesus does and does not do here. He doesn’t say, “Surprise, it’s me.” He doesn’t point them to his hands, his feet, and his side. Instead, he chides them for not believing what the prophets and Moses had written and recorded about the coming of the promised Messiah. “O foolish ones,” he says, “and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. So, he begins to teach them what Moses has written compared in regard to the prophets and to the coming Messiah. He tells them what the prophets were really writing about in the Old Testament. He makes it clear that the Old Testament is a cradle for the coming promised Messiah.
Jesus gave the two disciples essentially a survey course from the Old Testament on the promised Messiah, his person, his work. He showed them in the books of Moses, he showed them Christ; he showed them Christ in the writings of the prophets. He taught them what would happen and had happened to the Christ, and that all Christians would enter into eternal glory. He taught the two disciples what so many Christians today have not learned: the entire Old Testament is fundamentally about the purpose of pointing to Christ — to his suffering, his death on the cross, his resurrection, and his ascension — and that all of these things were necessary if sinners were going to be redeemed, that is, Israel, the church, would be saved. Jesus teaches them the lessons that he himself learned as a child: namely, that the word of God given through Moses and the prophets is true and trustworthy and reliable and is fundamentally about the promised Messiah — not a political entity, not a nation called Israel, rather the church and the Savior of the church, Jesus Christ. He revealed all these things from the scripture, the word. As for Jesus, he learned and used the Old Testament the way it was meant to be used and understood. He showed the disciples that it was necessary for Christ to be rejected and despised by his own people. He showed them the purpose for which Christ came into the world was to be delivered up by the chief priests and the rulers of the age, to be lifted up on the cross to be the atoning sacrifice of the world.
Last week’s gospel: Jesus appeared to the disciples behind locked doors. When Thomas saw Jesus with his own eyes and heard Jesus with his own ears, Thomas said, “My Lord and my God.” And Jesus replied, “Because you have seen me, you have now believed. Blessed are those who do not see yet believe.” Now, remember: the identity of the stranger is hidden from the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They are not believing that they are seeing the Messiah in the moment. Jesus relies solely on the word of God through Moses and the prophets to persuade the disciples that Jesus the Nazarene, the Christ of God, was the redeemer of Israel, the Savior of the world. When Jesus first joined the two, they had the facts wrong. To them, the facts were depressing. All they saw in those facts was suffering, death, and loss. All they could see now was life without Jesus. The facts depressed them because they did not interpret the facts in light of the Bible and the promise of the coming Christ. They did not know how rejection, suffering, death fit into God’s plan. And they certainly weren’t really prepared for a declaration of a resurrection of a dead man. They had hoped that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel, but they did not understand that crucifixion was the way by which the Christ did the redeeming. It was only because he opened their minds to scripture, to the words, that they began to understand that in the crucifixion, Jesus was redeeming the entire world.
We are in the same trouble, right? In our own life. We know our facts. We’re faced with facts of all kinds throughout our life, good ones and bad ones. We see facts, and very often they produce brokenheartedness and depression. We don’t see those facts of our life in light of the gospel and the doctrines of the word of God. We don’t see them in the light of God’s promise to work all things together for good to them who love the Lord. We forget what the prophets and the apostles were given to write, verses like Romans 8:28 that I just quoted: We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. We forget Bible verses like Jesus’ quote, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither labor nor spin. Now, if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith?” Jesus opened up the Old Testament scriptures in the minds of the two travelers to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now, having been taught the gospel from the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit and the words of God create faith in those two travelers. They become examples of those who have not seen, but yet have now believed.
Now, it was a custom of the day: as travelers would end the day and their journey, those who had to go further acted as though they would continue on their journey. And at that point, it was customary for the travelers who had reached their destination to insist that their traveling companions stay with them and enjoy their hospitality. That brings us to verse 28: They approached the village where they were going, and Jesus gave the impression he was going farther. And so they strongly urged him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. Once the guest accepts the invitation to stay with the other travelers, a meal would be prepared. They would bless the food and serve it to the guests, but Jesus turns the tables on his hosts. He becomes the host, and they the servants. And it came about: when he had reclined at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it. And he broke it and began giving it to them. And then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.
This pattern of teaching, then eating, is commonplace in the Old and New Testament scripture. The gospels record many meals Jesus had with a variety of people, where he taught first and ate second. The gospels record the meals consistently: every account, there’s teaching before eating, a doctrine lesson. Then there’d be the meal with Jesus. Sound familiar? It should start to look like the liturgy of the church, and it does. This meal in Emmaus has some differences, though. The meal was taking place after Jesus rose from the dead. He had served as the rabbi teaching them on the road as they walked to the town. And even though they were prevented from recognizing him, he served as host at the meal, even though he himself did not partake of the meal. It was not until the breaking of the bread that they came to see who the stranger was — and he was no stranger at all.
This pattern of hearing God’s word, then eating the meal, has made its way into the liturgy of the church. That’s really one of the advantages to the printout that we get now each week in service. It has the service divided into three parts: confession and absolution, for when you come into the presence of God. The sinner’s proper disposition is to confess and to receive holy absolution for our sins. Then we move to the word. That starts at the readings of the word of God, wherein then the sermon at least gives an attempt to explain and to teach and to proclaim and to apply that which was in the texts. And then after that, the service of the sacrament. After the readings, after the learning, comes the eating of the body and blood given in, with, and under the bread and wine for the remission of sin. That’s what the liturgy, the historic liturgy, is for. We ought not to jettison such holy traditions so easily, but we’ve done it for 35, 40 years now. The pattern of God’s word, then eating the meal, made its way into the liturgy of the church very early on. But we here still follow the pattern Jesus used. As we first have the service of the word, the confession, and then partake of the sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Even though we cannot see Jesus, he has promised to be here with us. He promised, “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” In Deuteronomy 31:8, the Lord promised to be with you, too: the Lord is going ahead of you, and he will be with you, and he will not desert you or abandon you. Or 1 Peter 1:25: “The word of the Lord endures forever.” The Bible is filled with the promise that the Lord God is with us and will not forsake us. Even though you may not see Jesus in your circumstances and those sad facts of life, let there be no mistake: he is traveling with you on this road in this life. He’s not dead. He’s alive. Christ is your fellow traveler. His body and blood did not stay in the tomb. He rose just as he said. He’s with you in good times and bad. He’s where he promised to be: in the word and sacrament ministry of the church, doing what he promised to do — forgiving your sins, providing you with daily bread, and working all things that happen in your life for your own good, chiefly in the forgiveness of your sins. So travel the road with your Savior, for your sins are forgiven. Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.