Stay on the Road — 3rd Sunday of Easter

Luke 24:13–35. Two disciples walking away from everything they'd hoped for — and Jesus gets on the road with them. Father Aaron preaches on the burning Word, the breaking of the bread, and what it means to stay on the road when you can't see who's beside you. 

Transcript

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Good evening indeed. This is the third Sunday in Easter, and we're in Luke chapter 24, The Road to Emmaus. Two disciples walking away from Jerusalem. Walking away from hope. When a stranger falls and steps beside them. This week, I preached on what it means when the word burns and the bread opens, and why we stay on the road even when we can't see who's walking with us. So here's my doctor. By the way, we're we're continuing on where we left off last week. So we had this discussion on faith. We were looking at uh doubting Thomas and his need for this evidence and how faith is not something that we just take a leap into. Faith is based in evidence. Christians are people of evidence. And so this morning's story from the Gospel of Luke is another one of these situations where these disciples or these apostles have yet to see Christ, they've heard that He is risen, and they have yet to experience it, and they have now started to doubt. And so what we said last week, what the consensus last week was, is that faith is not a feeling, it is evidence. God said and God did, and we looked at the pattern from Abraham to Moses, we looked at the patterns from Moses to David, and from then from David to the empty tomb to see how God's track record holds. He said it would happen, and it happened. And so this morning we're going to go more into depth what happens, though, when the evidence that we have seems to fall away. So this week we meet these two men, uh Cleopus and the other disciple. And it's it's amusing because whoever wrote the gospel, maybe it was the other disciple, but clearly he didn't want to embarrass the other disciple for not believing because he only names one of the two. So there's a big debate as who the other disciple is, but it's Cleopas and the other disciple. And this week they're they're they're walking on this road. They have all this evidence before them. They have this faith built on the experience of Jesus. They've met Jesus, they've experienced him, and then they watch every piece of evidence. I mean, it looks good. Jesus gets into Jerusalem, right on Palm Sunday. Everything's looking great on Palm Sunday. It's the Messiah is gonna come rescue the Jews, rescue the people of Israel. Everything looks fantastic. And then all of their evidence, as in everything that they thought was gonna happen based on the evidence, gets nailed to the cross on Friday, on Good Friday. And this morning, they have the opportunity, though, to end up meeting the actual evidence that they need. So Cleopas and his companion, this unknown companion, they've seen the crucifixion. That part they know. They've heard about the empty tomb. They weren't at the empty tomb, but they've heard about the empty tomb, and they haven't seen the risen Jesus. They only know that the risen Jesus exists from the stories of the other disciples. And so now, three days later, they're getting out of Jerusalem. They're on this seven-mile journey to Emmaus, and most likely they're fleeing the persecution that was going to be happening to the Christians because, of course, the followers of Christ, after this experience, are being persecuted for going around telling people that Jesus is risen. And that's not really, you know, they crucified Christ to deal with this problem, and now the followers are still being problematic, and so they are fleeing as followers of Jesus from the persecution. And they're on the seven-mile journey to a place called Emmaus. And they meet this stranger on the road, and we know who it is because the gospel tells us who it is. But we but they don't know, they meet a stranger, and the stranger asks them, why are you so uh why are you so upset? You guys seem a little seem a little depressed. I don't understand, like what's going on? And so they're they're shocked. I mean, are you the only person who doesn't know what happened? Like, I mean, this is it all Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, this whole this whole thing happened last weekend, and like where have you been? And and they they tell them everything. You know, the death of Jesus, the empty tomb. They say, well, you know, the tomb was empty. Uh they some people said they saw Jesus, but it's been three days, we haven't seen anything. Verse 21 in this morning's gospel, very at the end of this story that they tell Jesus, but we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. So, past tense. We had hoped he was the one, meaning they don't longer have any hope. They had hoped Jesus was the one. He didn't do, though, what we thought he was gonna do. And now it's the third day. We heard something about an empty tomb, but nothing has happened, so we're getting the heck out of Jerusalem. We're out of here, we're gone. And Jesus, in the form of the stranger, gets on the road with them. Now, Luke tells us something very important. The phrasing is very important in Luke. Their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Not they fail to recognize him, but their eyes were kept. It is God's doing that they cannot recognize Christ. He is present in their life before they can perceive him. Jesus is present in their life before they can perceive him. He is walking with people who have given up on him. We had hoped he would be, and now we're leaving because nothing has happened. So Jesus is getting on the road with those who had hoped, those who are fleeing the situation because they no longer hope. He's getting on the road, and he's not revealing himself. He's not going to reveal himself, and that's God's grace happening before we even recognize it. Before we even perceive it. We are receiving God's grace. They had hoped and they left, and God shows up, not in the form of a miracle. This is a stranger walking with them, and that's his grace. And in life, we have that sometimes. We have uh seven days, we have seven miles, seven years, seven months. It seems God is not present. It seems that God is not part of our journey, but this does not mean he has left our side, it means that he is working, and you have just yet to see him. He has yet to have opened your eyes to his working in your life. And here's what's remarkable they get to the end of this of the seven-mile journey, they get to Emmaus, and Jesus opens up the scriptures to them and says, you know, it was nice chatting with you guys. I'm gonna keep going. They don't know it's Jesus, I still don't know what Jesus is. He's gonna keep going. And they hold on to him. For some reason, they ask Jesus, oh, why don't you just stay with us? It's almost nighttime. Why don't you just be with us? They want Jesus to stay with them. They don't even know who they're asking us. It's a stranger. But there's something calling them, pulling them, burning inside of them to ask him to stay with them. See, it's not their wisdom because they don't know it's Jesus. It's not like, hey, you know, just that uh that tick he has there with his hand looks just a little bit like Jesus. No, no, no. They have no idea it's Jesus, it's a stranger. But the work of the Spirit is calling them to ask him to stay with them. When we hold on to something, because we feel it deep down, even though we don't know why. Even though sometimes in life every reason tells us to stop holding on to something, everything is pointing to letting go. It is the reasonable option, is letting go. Somehow deep down we know to hold on. Somehow deep down there's a calling on our life that says don't let go just yet. That's the Spirit's working. And that when we hold on, is when the great reveal begins. When we hold on, even though we don't know why, especially in that moment, is when God starts to reveal himself in our lives. And here's how they know, though, here's how those two men know, looking back, that he had been there the whole time, because in verse 32, at the very end, they say, Did not our hearts burn with us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? Our hearts burned within us while he talked to us on the road. The burning was there the whole time. This burning in their heart on the road, before the recognition, before Jesus comes into the room with them at the end of the night and breaks bread, before they understand anything, there's this burning within them. And that burning is the Holy Spirit working in our lives. That is the third person of the Trinity, the breath of God, the one that Jesus said would lead us, the one that Jesus promised would lead us into the way of truth. It is the Spirit who moves in us before we have words for what is happening in our life. It is the Spirit that begins the movement of our heart. That burning you have felt when something in you reached out at that very bad moment, not because your faith was strong, but because something deeper than your doubt was still holding on. When you came to church today and you weren't entirely sure why you came to church this morning. I mean, we all have those days, but you came anyways. That was the Holy Spirit. You know, I talk to these people, they don't they don't believe. They say they don't believe. But then something goes wrong and they pray, and we like to make fun of people for that. Only need God when something's wrong. No, no, no. That's the Holy Spirit still working in their lives. That person who doesn't believe, but they hit that patch of blizzard suddenly, and they start slowing down and they start praying suddenly. Because the Holy Spirit is still present in their lives. That burning, that calling, it's not some coincidence, it's not some warm, fuzzy feeling in your stomach, it's not some nice sentiment. It's Jesus on the road already there, on your road already there, before you recognize him. The spirit is moving in you before you have language to describe it. And now you may be Cleopas in the middle of it, walking uncertain without understanding why. You may be very much at the beginning of your journey, but the key, the message, is to stay on the road. And Cleopas, he stayed on the road not through better theology, but through one small act. When Jesus made as if he was gonna go further, when Jesus said, I'm gonna go further, Cleopas says, No, no, stay with us. At the end of the road, what seems to be the end of the road, Cleopas says, No, stay with us. And as we journey throughout this gospel, through the story in the gospel, there's four things that Luke shows us Cleopas doing. Four simple practices for walking on that road. And I broke them down really simple this morning. I tried to bring them down a way you can remember them. A little uh three, four letters, C C R T constant contemplation, reaction, and testing. Constant. They kept walking seven miles of not knowing, not resolved, just moving. They kept going for seven miles. That's our calling to keep going, to open the word daily, today, whether it feels alive or you feel nothing. We don't open the word because we feel the spirit moving so strongly, but we open the word because we trust that God is already there working in us. C. Second C contemplation. Jesus opened the scriptures slowly over seven miles. So I I calculated if they were walking fast, they could do seven miles in 2.5 hours. Assuming it's April, May, but outside of Jerusalem, there's not much tree coverage, it's kind of sandy, dusty, hot weather. Probably not going at their top speed. And probably have to do some water breaks in between. So let's say it's 3.5 to 4 hours long, and Jesus opened scripture the whole way, the whole seven months. Something burned in them that whole way. He was working in them the whole way through the scriptures. We read the scripture, then we stop, and we sit in that scripture, and we ask, what's burning in our hearts right now? And then we react. Reaction, we place ourselves in the text. The gospels are not just historic, not just a story we read, or a theology we understand. The gospels are a present reality. We have to place ourselves into the gospel today. They are a present reality in our lives. Place yourself into the gospel and ask that question where am I in this story? Who am I in this story? How do I relate to this story? And then the last part, testing. They rose the same hour, it says, and brought the road experience back to the eleven. So that means the same hour. So they've walked seven miles in this heat, they get to the house, Jesus breaks bread, he's revealed to them, he disappears, and at the same hour they get up, they turn around and walk seven miles back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples what happened. To bring that back to the community to be confirmed. We contemplate the word, we see how the word speaks to us, and then we bring it back to the church as our witness. We say, here is what I read in the scriptures, here's what I feel like it's calling me to do in my life. Do you see the same thing? Can you pray with me about what I'm reading to make sure that I'm actually reading the text right? That this is actually the calling on my life. So we are constantly in the scriptures, we're contemplating the scriptures, we are reacting to the stories in the scriptures, we're placing ourselves into them, and then we are testing the scriptures. And so that's the first part we have. We have the text, like we just did. We read the text. The next part is the table. The road was seven miles of presence. They couldn't name Jesus, they couldn't name what was happening until Jesus breaks the bread. It says he took bread, he blessed it, he broke it. And in that breaking of the common bread, not in some big thunder, some big miracle, not in some fancy theological argument, their eyes were opened to who Jesus was. This is what the church has always taught us. The church historically has always taught us this. The word prepares us in our hearts, and the table reveals Jesus. The scripture burned on the road, the sacrament opened their eyes at the table. These are not two things, they are one movement. The same Christ giving himself first as word, then as bread, until there is nothing left that he has not given to us. Luke 24, verse 35, he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. This same table is the table we have here. The bread is the same bread, and the hands that break it are the same hands. You don't need to have your life figured out, the road figured out, everything figured out to have Jesus revealed to you at the altar. Because he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. And so after he is known to them, they go back to Jerusalem. Not because they had figured it out, not because the road was easier, because the word had burned and the bread had opened their eyes. And that is enough, that is always enough. The Father sends the Son onto the road with us, the Son walks it with us, and the Spirit burns in our heart throughout it. One God, three persons, one road. The road started out as a retreat, and grace transformed it. He is on your road right now, he is traveling with you right now, he is walking with you, even if you do not see him. The only reason you are here this morning is because he is on the road with you. The burning is him, the bread is him, and so to experience his grace fully, stay on the road with him. Amen. Thank you for being here today. If this message met you, share it with someone who needs it and find all our episodes and links at linktree.e slash the northword. That's linktr.ee slash the northword. Until tomorrow, God be with you.