3rd Sunday of Easter /
The Road to Emmaus / Luke 24: 13 – 35
Pastor Carol Kniseley
–
On the Road Again
‘On the road again’…used to be one of my favorite Country music songs. That is, until I started spending so much time on the road meeting with the Virginia Synod Candidacy Committee. As one of 13 members on the committee, my job is to help people discern whether or not they are being called into full time ministry within the life of the ELCA. For the most part, I can tell you that probably as many as 50% of all applicants never make it to the front door of the seminary. And yet, they continue to come. People of all ages come: males and females alike, people from every walk of life imaginable, some with graduate degrees stacked one on top of the other, and some with no degree at all. All come professing to have a love for Christ and the church. And all come believing that they have in some sense…”seen” the Risen Lord.
Amazing,
isn’t it? After Jesus’
resurrection…even those who saw him
in the flesh had a hard time convincing anyone else it was true. The disciple Thomas didn’t
buy it, that is until he had seen for himself and placed his own finger into
the wound in Jesus’ side. But the
truth is…that is our situation here today.
None of us was there for the real death or the rumored
resurrection. And so now all of us
have been left with a decision to make about the truth of what we have seen and
heard for ourselves. And the decision
gets even harder when the road we’re on…is called Emmaus.
Emmaus
is a road that every single one of us will walk at some point in our life at
one time or another. It is the road
of deep disappointment, when nothing turns out the way it was suppose to
be. At least that’s the way it was for
the two disciples described in Luke’s Gospel…as the first day of Easter was
drawing to a close. It took two hours to
make the 7 mile walk from
They
were talking it all over when “a stranger” comes up behind them and asks them
what they are talking about. And so they begin to tell him everything they
know. They told him how everything in
the beginning had been so promising.
Jesus had captured the attention of everyone…not just with his ministry
of healing and teaching…but by the way he related to the people. He treated each one as if they were the
most important person in the entire world.
But then…things began to go horribly wrong. The same people he had cured turned their
backs on him in his hour of need. And
now there was nothing left to do but return home. “We had hoped he was the one,” they all
said, “but…we were wrong.”
Have
you ever wondered how it was that people who were with Jesus day in and day out
still…didn’t know him? It’s almost as if they saw him on one
hand…but on the other…never really saw
him at all. Throughout his entire
ministry, they couldn’t see that his goal was not to win at all costs…but
instead to lose everything in order to build up the Kingdom. He was not to be the undefeated champ of
the world, but instead the suffering servant whose wounds would remain visible
for all the world to see. Why?
Simple.
His
wounds are the proof that he is who he says he is. Because the way you recognize the risen
Christ is not by the color of his eyes or the texture of his hair. The way one recognizes
Jesus…is by His scars. And so
when they arrive at their village and it’s time to say goodbye…something about
him compels them to invite him to stay.
And he does. But the thing
is…he makes a very odd guest. It is their house, their food, their table,
but when the three of them do get together…it is Jesus who acts as the
host.
Taking the bread…he blesses it (gives thanks), breaks
it, and gives it to them individually.
They had seen him do this exact
same act many times before.
Once on a hillside with 5 loaves and 2 fish and then again in an upper
room with unleavened bread and passover
wine. He takes….blesses….breaks….and
gives….and somehow through the torn edges of the loaf he holds out to
them, they look
at him…and they know who he
is.
What
is so amazing to see in this story…is that the “blindness” of the two disciples
does not keep Jesus from coming to them.
He comes to the disappointed, the doubtful, the
disenchanted. He comes to those who do
not know their Bibles and who don’t even recognize him when he’s walking right
beside them. He comes to those who
have given up and are even on their way back home…even on the road to Emmaus
once again.
The
point is…Jesus seems to prefer working with broken people, with broken lives,
living in a broken world. And if
someone were to hand him a whole loaf of bread…he would take it, bless it,
break it, and then give it the same way he gave his own body and blood , because that is the way God showed him to show the
rest of us: to take what we have been
given (whether we like it or not), and to bless it (which means to say thank
you to God). Then we are to break it…(because that is the only way it can be shared) and then
given to someone who will eat it with us.
In doing so, it is the broken loaf that draws all of us broken ones
together into one body…where we may recognize the risen Christ in our very
midst.
Drawing
all of the broken pieces together…for me…is like being in the very presence of
God. One moment your eyes are opened
and you recognize him for who he truly is…and the next, he vanishes into thin
air. But rest assured. This is the place where he has promised to
be and where he promises to meet each one of us on the road to Emmaus…wherever
that turns out to be. Amen