April 23, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "The Road to Emmaus"
Scripture: Luke 24:13-35
(Other lectionary choices include Acts 2:14a and 36-41, Psalm 116:1-4 and 12-19, and I Peter 1:17-23.)
Luke 24:13-35
The Walk to Emmaus
13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. 18Then 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 these days?" 19He 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, 20and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21But 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. 22Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23and 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. 24Some 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." 25Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" 27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29But 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. 30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32They 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?" 33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" 35Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Let me open this sermon with a little confession: I had heard that there is a link on the computer through which ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE will actually write a sermon on any topic you want. I DID try to check out that link, wondering how good the sermon would be - and I had been told that you can get as shallow or as deep a sermon as you want! But you have to sign in with a password and maybe PAY something, and I didn't want to do either of those! Also, had I done so, I would have told you, so maybe I don't really need to confess anything. I also "googled" "The Road to Emmaus", and I found over TEN beginnings of sermons.....but you have to pay for those, too, and I didn't want to! I am not immune to paying for stuff: you have heard me quote various Lutheran ministers, mostly in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and I paid for a subscription service some years ago to get their ideas. And you will also recall that often I quote the Scottish scholar William Barclay and N. T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham in England. And I had to PAY to get their books. So, I am not a total hypocrite: I WILL PAY when I have to, or when I think it's fair!
In one of the beginnings of sermons titled "On the Road to Emmaus" one preacher started out with these words: "My name is Cleopas. My last name doesn't really matter, but let me tell you what happened to me and my wife Mary one day on that road to Emmaus." There are ALL SORTS of ways to get into this subject: what happened to a couple of Jesus's followers on the road to that little village which is some seven miles away from Jerusalem!
This story of the Risen Christ appearing on the road to Emmaus appears only in the Gospel of Luke - but it has become a favorite among believers from the beginning. Even today I'm sure you've seen churches named the Emmaus Baptist Church or the Emmaus Methodist Church. The WALK with CHRIST, the Risen Lord, is so meaningful and so personal to so many people. First of all, this story has it all. To quote N. T. Wright, whose book, "Luke for Everyone", I BOUGHT (!), we have "The slow, sad dismay at the failure of human hopes; the turning to someone who might or might not help; the discovery that in scripture, all unexpected, there lay keys which might unlock the central mysteries and enable us to find the truth; the sudden realization of Jesus himself, present with us, warming our hearts with his truth, showing us himself as bread is broken."
I think it's neat, by the way, that the Disciples of Christ have as their central point in the worship service the Lord's Supper or the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Did our founders decide the importance of the Lord's Table because of what we heard in today's scripture lesson? Maybe so. As you know, I grew up in the Presbyterian church in Southern Indiana, and I got ordained in the United Church of Christ. Both of those denominations do not hold the Lord's Supper in as high regard as we do, and perhaps that's a shame. How does our passage end today? "Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread."
Let's not play, "My denomination is better than YOUR denomination". But let's do note that as the Lord has invited us to his Table, the meal with him sort of undoes what happened at the FIRST story of eating in the Bible: Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, verses 6 and 7. (Last week I said I learned something in writing that sermon. I learned something new again THIS week!) I have to quote N. T. Wright again and give him the credit! "Think of the first meal in the Bible. The moment is heavy with significance. 'The woman took some of the fruit, and ate it; she gave it to her husband, and he ate it; then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.' The tale was told, over and over, as the beginning of the woes that had come upon the human race. Death itself was traced to that moment of rebellion. The whole creation was subjected to decay, futility and sorrow."
Professor Wright is saying that Luke is echoing that story, and what is happening here is "the first meal of the new creation". What Wright says is that the author of Luke is saying that those two on the road to Emmaus "discover that the long curse has been broken. Death itself has been defeated. God's new creation, brimming with life and joy and new possibility, has burst in upon the world of decay and sorrow."
Wow! That is some insight! I never made the connection with Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit and Jesus being at the table as a sort of restoration of how things ought to be. Interesting, isn't it, how we talk about the shedding of Christ's blood that makes things right? Because Luke - if N. T. Wright is correct - is saying that the breaking of the bread with Christ is also what has saved us! Or it's a SIGN of the MANY ways God has restored us to Himself!
You have heard me say before that the Gospel writers are brilliant or even geniuses. Let me tell you one more connection that Luke sees which I had not seen until today. Remember that by the time Luke is written, there is already a believing community, a group of Jesus Followers, maybe a church, but at least a community that thought that Jesus had risen from the dead and was God's Messiah. So, Luke uses the story of the breaking of the bread "which quickly became the central symbolic action of Jesus' people. (I am quoting Wright again.) Though Jesus was no longer physically present, they were to discover him living with and in them through this meal. Scripture and sacrament, word and meal, are joined tightly together....Take scripture away, and the sacrament becomes a piece of magic. Take the sacrament away, and scripture becomes an intellectual or emotional exercise, detached from real life. Put them together, and you have the centre of Christian living as Luke understood it." See? Luke himself probably participated in some kind of ritual that involved the breaking of the bread. He was a believer, and he wants whoever reads his Gospel to become a believer, too!
Finally, that connection or link that I mentioned a moment ago.... Remember how earlier in Luke's Gospel (Chapter 2, verses 41-52) Joseph and Mary travel a day's journey after visiting Jerusalem, assuming that the young Jesus was with them and he WASN'T? If you read that passage (I just did while I was writing this sermon!) you'll see that Joseph and Mary looked for Jesus for THREE DAYS before they found him! Well, looky here: Cleopas and his companion tell the Risen Christ that it has been THREE DAYS since these things happened! Is this a coincidence? I DON'T THINK SO! The author of Luke is connecting the 3-day disappearance of the young boy Jesus with the three days that have passed since the Crucifixion. The young Jesus told his parents, "Didn't you know I had to be about my father's business?" For Luke, it's as if the Risen Christ is saying, "Didn't you know all this had to happen? Didn't you know I had to be about my father's business?" The young Jesus tells a couple, his earthly parents, that he must be about his Father's business. Now the Risen Christ tells a DIFFERENT couple, Cleopas and his companion, pretty much the same thing!
Finally.....I know I already said that, but FINALLY, FINALLY, I'll close with - of course! - the words of N. T. Wright: "The whole gospel story is framed between these very human scenes. Luke has invited us to accompany him on a journey of faith, faith that will take us through anxiety and sorrow to meet the Jesus who has accomplished his Father's work, and longs to share the secret of it - and the gift of his own presence - with us, his followers." Isn't that beautiful? N. T. Wright isn't only a scholar. He's a preacher, too, and a pretty darn good evangelist, too! Just like Luke! Amen.
Pastor Skip
