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April 6,
2008 Scripture: Luke 24:13-35 Sermon: “Meet Jesus Here” Last week, as was appropriate for the Sunday following Easter, we looked at a story in Matthew’s gospel that came directly after the discovery of the empty tomb. It was a resurrection appearance of Jesus to his disciples in which he gave what we know as the Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…” The four gospels contain a total of five accounts of Jesus appearing to his disciples after his death. There are other references to appearances in the rest of the New Testament, notably Paul’s encounter on the road to Damascus. And Mark’s two stories really seem to be abbreviations of those found in Matthew and Luke. We will look at another of those resurrection appearances this morning. Turn with me to Luke, chapter 24, verses 13 through 35. You may recognize this one as the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It is easily found on page 121 of the New Testament in the pew Bible. The village of Emmaus, as the scripture says, was about 7 miles from the city of Jerusalem. So it is well within walking distance for folks who are used to hoofing it. Where exactly that was isn’t known for certain, but some believe it was north and a bit to the west of the city—maybe like Corydon is from here. One thing is certain from all of these resurrection stories…Jesus is raised from the dead, but the disciples did not experience him in the fully natural sense of things. He was somehow different. He appeared and vanished. Some folks didn’t even recognize him at first. But, he was not just an apparition, a ghost, a vision. They could touch him and he could do things such as eating. This does, perhaps, correspond to the understanding of some ancient Jews that a resurrection would occur to a person’s body in a way that was not simply a physical return to life. Maybe you’ve heard folks talk about a glorified body. The stories of Jesus after his death seem to point to this. Listen for the word of the Lord…
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village
called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with
each other about all these things that had happened.
While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came
near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing
him. And he said to
them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk
along?” They stood
still, looking sad.
Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the
only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have
taken place there in those days?”
He asked them, “What things?”
They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a
prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and
how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to
death and crucified him.
But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since
these things took place.
Moreover, some women of our group astounded us.
They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did
not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had
indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it
just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”
The he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!
Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these
things and then enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he
interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. You get the feeling that these two guys were just getting away to get away? Like they’d had as much as they could take and they were just getting out on the first bus going north? They’d followed this man, Jesus, all the way to the cross. But, that’s not where they thought their trip was going to end. “We’d thought he was the one to redeem us.” So, these two guys were just getting away. There’s a Presbyterian preacher I know of, Frederick Buechner, who puts it this way: [Emmaus is] the pace we go in order to escape—a bar, a movie, wherever it is we throw up our hands and say, “Let the whole [darned] go hang. It makes no difference anyway”…Emmaus may be buying a new suit or a new car or smoking more cigarettes than you really want… Emmaus may be going to church on Sunday. Do you have a place like that? Do you have something you do when you just have to leave the world behind for a while? On my better days I can get on my bike and sweat the world away. I don’t always choose a healthy option, though. But, that’s Emmaus. You have one of those? Buechner kind of sums it up like this: Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred: that even the wisest and bravest and loveliest decay and die; that even the noblest ideas that men have had—ideas about love and freedom and justice—have always in time been twisted out of shape by selfish men for selfish ends. These two disciples had just been crushed by the sight of that cross in the twilight. So, they’re heading out of town to put some distance between themselves and the cruelty of the world that would do such a thing. And on the road to Emmaus…on the road to Emmaus…they meet the risen Jesus. The story is curious, isn’t it? I mean these two have been talking back and forth about all that had just happened back in Jerusalem. They were talking about Jesus, for crying out loud. And when Jesus appears on the road and starts to walk along with them and speak to them, they don’t recognize him. Curious, isn’t it? Actually, what the Bible says is that they were kept from recognizing him. It’s not like they were just too depressed to lift up their eyes and look at the man. The suggestion is that God prevented them from recognizing Jesus for God’s own reasons. We’ll get back to that in a moment. The ancient Greeks used to write their plays with this sort of suspense and mystery. Characters were often unaware of who they really were or what they were really doing. Maybe you read Oedipus Rex in high school. Oedipus was told a prophecy that he would kill his own father and marry his own mother. Remember? And because of that he ran away from home. Years later, Oedipus killed a stranger on the road in self defense. Little did he know that it was his father. And years after that he married a wealthy widow. And she turned out to be his mother. The further he ran away from his fate, the more certain it was that he would actually fulfill it. The old Greek dramas always had these moments of recognition. It was the moment when the truth was revealed. And that was the climax of the production. The anagnorisis. Oedipus discovers the truth of who he is and what he’s done and he blinds himself out of his anguish. It’s such a brilliant story. No wonder it has been taught, studied, and performed for over 3,000 years. The Bible has several stories of recognition in it. My favorite is when Abraham and Sarah wind up hosting the Lord himself by the oaks of Mamre in Genesis 18. These three travelers appeared and one of them said that Sarah would give birth to a son. You remember? She was, as the scripture says, advanced in age. And she was going to have a son. So, there in her tent, she laughed, not knowing it was the Lord. And when it was revealed to them, Sarah said out of fear, “I did not laugh.” God said while walking away, “Oh yes, you did laugh.” You just never know. You might be in the presence of God. That’s the climax building up on the road to Emmaus. We know who these guys are walking with. They’ve got no idea. God doesn’t want them to know just yet. Must be that there’s a lesson to learn. Cleopas isn’t a major character at all, but at least he’s got a name. The other disciple…that’s all we know about him. He was there. Neither one of them were part of the inner circle of Jesus’ followers. But, they were followers. And that was enough. It wasn’t until Jesus sat down at a table with them, took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them…now doesn’t all of that sound very familiar? It wasn’t until Jesus sat down at a table with them, took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them that God decided to let them see who it was they were with. That was the risen Christ. Now, where are the places that people recognize that Jesus is, indeed, the Lord? Some folks hear the teachings that set about a world gone astray. They hear the oppressed shall be set free, you know. They hear the last shall be first. And this is the kind of man they’d follow. I know that stuff really appeals to me. Tell me, Jesus. Tell me about how God is going to set things right. Some folks hear the teachings of the man. That could be the Christ. But is it enough to last? Can Jesus’ words keep us going? Some folks see the power of God to drive away evil and lift folks out of illness. The blind begin to see. The lame begin to walk. Maybe they are touched themselves with the healing of Jesus. And this is the kind of man they’d follow. A healer. That could be the Christ. But is it enough to last? Can Jesus heal us enough to keep us going? Some folks look up at that man hanging on a cross. They see the crown of thorns and the blood on his face. They see the nails in his hand and feet, the wound in his side. They see this and say “What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul. Some folks see the cross, know that God has forgiven them of their sins, and think that this is the kind of man they’d follow. That could be the Christ. But is it enough to last? Can Jesus sacrifice enough to keep us going? And some folks hear stories about an empty tomb. They say Jesus rose from the dead. And a man too powerful for the grave is the kind of man they’d follow. That could be the Christ. But is it enough to last? Can the empty tomb keep us going? You know, God didn’t let these two disciples recognize the risen Christ until they gathered together around that table and heard those familiar words. Could it be that none of those things about Jesus are enough to keep us nourished in our faith? His teachings, his healings and miracles, his death, and his resurrection—could it be that they cannot sustain us? Could it be that God is calling us to gather together around a table in order to continue to meet Jesus? Didn’t someone say that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them”? I’m going to say something that probably doesn’t make much sense in our highly individualized world. You know we’ve gotten pretty good at placing all kinds of technology and demands on our time between ourselves and the people around us. Jesus did not leave behind a bunch of disconnected individuals who all happened to believe he was the Messiah. No, he left behind a community of people who called themselves disciples and devoted themselves to meeting together, praying, and breaking bread. And I’d venture to say that God didn’t let these two disciples recognize the risen Christ until they were gathered together in something that looked a whole lot like a community of believers sharing the Lord’s Supper. We need one another. We need a community of believers. It’s where Jesus comes to meet us when the bread is broken. You want to meet Jesus? You meet Jesus here. I think that’s what God had in mind. Must be that we need one another. I got this catalog in the mail the other day. We always get catalogs in the mail. This one was for church furniture. Not that we need any, but I thumbed through it. They were selling these seats. They weren’t pews. They weren’t even chairs that linked together. They were seats like you’d find in a movie theater. That’s what was supposed to go in the church. Seats with high backs and big arm rest between everybody. They even had optional cup holders for your latte. And it just looked like you could go into church, sit through the whole thing in your own little comfortable world, and never make a single connection to another Christian soul. I’ll admit that the comfort part of it was appealing. And you hear folks say stuff about they can be a Christian without belonging to a church. But, I don’t know if you can. I don’t know how that kind of faith is going to last. I think God wants us to meet Jesus when we get together and break bread. And we’ve got all kinds of religion on television. It’s got a lot of potential, you know. And some of it’s good stuff. I won’t vouch for most of it. But, some of it’s good stuff. The problem is that we might get stuck on our couch because we can get our preaching and whatnot while we iron the clothes or cook the dinner…whenever it’s convenient. You can’t gather around a table with folks and break bread that way. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that once you start getting folks together that it’s not easy. It’s not perfect. And it’s not always pretty. But, I think God must have been on to something. I see remarkable acts of faith, mercy, charity and compassion exchanged by these broken souls gathered around the table. And I wonder how in the world we’d make it without one another. Yeah, I’d say we meet Jesus all the time around here. And God must’ve know that we’d need a place and a people to do that over and over again.
Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
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