Sermon April 18, 1999 On The Road With Jesus based on Luke 24:13-35
Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The walk of Jesus with the disciples to Emmaus is one of my favorite of the post-resurrection appearances of our Lord. I have a picture portraying the scene on my study wall. There Jesus stands pointing His finger up into the sky. The artist was most likely trying to indicate a reference Jesus made to God. It is my prayer that during this message, your attention will also be directed "upward" to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
These two disciples were making a return journey to a village about 7 miles away. They were walking, as that would have been the main means of transportation. As they went along, they could not help but talk about the events of the day. They probably recalled how Jesus' tomb was found open, with the stone rolled up and away. They would have discussed the appearance of the angels to the women. Suddenly, a stranger catches up to them and begins listening to their conversation. This stranger asks the kind of questions that show He doesn't seem to know anything about what they are discussing.
As a result of His apparent ignorance, these two disciples explain that this "Jesus of Nazareth…was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel." We note the indication of discouragement in the description the disciples provide. The hoped Jesus would be the redeemer, yet His crucifixion seems to be the end of it.
Now these disciples report the signs of the resurrection of Jesus, but they never seem to consider the possibility that Jesus is alive. They report the empty tomb and the appearance of the angels. Now, Jesus, whom they still did not recognize, begins His lesson. He proclaims that the Christ, the messiah, had to suffer and come into His glory. In other words, His death was necessary.
Jesus proves His point by referring to God's Word which has authority and power. He starts from what is written in the Scriptures, referred to here as Moses and all the prophets. This would be what we refer to today as the Old Testament. The New Testament would not begin to be written until some 20 years after Jesus ascended to heaven. So, Jesus demonstrated how the Old Testament writings showed that He must be killed and then rise again.
Jesus accepts the offer from these disciples to spend the night with them. As they are eating, Jesus takes bread, blesses it, and breaks it. In these words, we have the same phrase used to describe the institution of the Lord's Supper. There Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it. It is very likely that Jesus celebrated the Lord's Supper with these two disciples in Emmaus. In this "breaking of bread" the eyes of the disciples are opened so that they now recognize Jesus. He immediately becomes invisible, however, adding further mystery to these events. The two disciples run off back to Jerusalem to report to the ten disciples gathered there. They returned in the dark, which would have been a dangerous trip.
The two disciples on the road did not recognize Jesus when He was walking with them. The original language of the Bible says their eyes were literally held shut. The way it is worded indicates that it was not that they were holding their own eyes shut, but rather that some other force was holding them shut. This type of description is figurative language such as we use all the time. We may say that a person has an "open mind," for example, but we don't mean that there is a hole in their head. Here, the language suggests that what was right in front of the disciples did not really get through to their eyes. They did not recognize Jesus.
We may think of ridiculing these disciples, imaging that it was their own actions which resulted in not recognizing Jesus. We understand it differently when we see that it was not their own doing, but probably Jesus' own divine action to keep them from recognizing Him for a time. Perhaps He wanted some quiet time to instruct them and lead them to see Him in the Scriptures. If they would have recognized Jesus immediately, they would have gotten excited and focussed their attention on His presence, rather than on what He had to teach. In any case, these disciples' eyes are held shut for a time.
Though the disciples did not deliberately close their eyes to Jesus, we should examine our own lives to see if we are guilty of such a thing. Do we have our eyes open to see Jesus? Are we listening to Him with our ears? We know that we are not always taking advantage of the opportunities before us to hear God's Word. We know that we are not always attentive to it.
Perhaps we could focus more today on those things that interfere with us seeing, hearing, and thinking of Jesus. Various things compete with Jesus for our attention. We are to gladly hear our Lord's Word. It ought to be the highlight of our week, yet other things interfere. Money, jobs, family, recreation and entertainment are among those things which interfere.
This week on Thursday begins the National TV-Turnoff Week. This event runs April 22 through the 28 and encourages individuals and families to spend a week with the TV turned off. Instead of filling time with TV, many other activities to lift us up, enlighten us, and strengthen our families should be substituted for TV. As Christians, we have the perfect opportunity to open our eyes to Jesus when we don't have TV competing.
To see the influence of TV in our lives, consider these statistics. The average American youth spends 1500 hours per year watching TV and 900 hours in school. How much time do they spend with Jesus in a year? There are 6 million videos rented in the US each day but only 3 million items checked out of public libraries. In how many homes is a Bible opened in a day? If TV is crowding out Jesus, then perhaps you need to turn it off. So, turn off your TV from April 22 through the 28th and fill up your extra time by listening to Jesus.
Maybe TV is not a big influence in your life. There are those other competing forces which seek all our time and energy. They compete with our Lord, and try to drive Him out of our lives.
The sin of allowing other things to crowd Jesus out of our lives required a response. Our sins of not seeing Jesus, or not listening to His Word demanded a response. Jesus explained on the way to Emmaus that it was necessary that the Christ, the chosen one of God, would suffer and then enter His glory. It was necessary that one would die for our sins. It was necessary that a sacrifice be made to free us from our sins and the punishment they deserved.
Jesus had finished up His mission at this time which He spoke to these disciples. He had died on the cross and then entered His glory by rising again. He was in His glory on the other side of death. A real, physical resurrection, in His body, now glorified to never die again. This was our Lord's generous solution to our sins and our death.
Our Lord demonstrates His generosity in other ways too. For those two disciples on the road, Jesus was generous in coming to them and walking and talking with them. They were without any real hope. They were discouraged. Their expectations were shattered. Yet, the Lord comes to them and He walks with them and teaches them. His generosity is shown in that He comes to them.
In our lives too, the Lord comes to us. When things might seem without hope He walks with us. When discouragements abound, He teaches us. When guilt and sins burden us, He explains how He did what was necessary to take those sins away.
Our Lord demonstrates generosity by coming to us in His Supper also. He comes to be physically present with us so He might feed and nourish us. Just as the disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of bread, so we too recognize our Lord and Savior in His Supper. That meal opens our eyes to see that the One who was sacrificed on the cross is now feeding us. He opens our eyes through the reception of the body and blood.
Our Lord generously comes to us through His Word and through preaching and teaching of that Word. He teaches us about Himself through the words of the entire Scriptures. Jesus speaks to us through His Word, which warms our hearts. We are blessed by our Lord who teaches us, and feeds us and walks with us. May you be blessed on your walk with Jesus Christ. Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.