The Road to Emmaus

GS020 - The Road to Emmaus

(Lk. 24.13-35)

After Jesus had risen from the dead, he appeared to his disciples over a period of about forty days. Each of the gospel writers give us different snap-shots of the sort of things that happened during this period.

St. Luke gives us three snap-shots, by describing three events which took place on Easter day itself.

The first is in the early morning, when of a group of women went to the tomb, and found that it was empty.

The second is later that afternoon, when two of the disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus, and the get into conversation with a stranger.

And the third is later that night, when Jesus appeared to several of the disciples in Jerusalem.

It was an action packed day.

But there again, it had been an action packed week. I guess the disciples didn't know whether they were coming or going... they must have faced every emotion under the sun. From the triumphant excitement of Palm Sunday, ...through to the depth of despair on Good Friday.

The whole of Jerusalem was buzzing with the news of these events (v18).

Yet they had hardly begun to come to terms with all that had happened when they hear rumours of another twist to these events. ...Some women rush in with some nonsense about Jesus' tomb being empty, and some angels saying that Jesus was alive.

It was no wonder that the disciples didn't believe the women (v11) ...it was all just too much to take in.

Nevertheless, Peter goes to check out the story, ...and he too finds the tomb empty, ...but he doesn't find Jesus. ...So what on earth were they to make of it all?

In our Gospel reading we heard about two of these disciples. One of them was called Cleopas, he wasn't one of the twelve apostles, but was part of a larger group of Jesus' disciples. We don't know who the other one was, but it could well have been his wife.

Anyway, I guess that these two disciples had simply had enough, ...they needed some space, and they decided to leave Jerusalem. They headed off on the road to Emmaus, a small village just seven miles away, which presumably is where they both lived.

Not surprisingly the two of them were talking about everything that had happened, ...they were trying to make sense of it all. But they weren't at all excited by the news, ...quite the opposite, they were totally confused, and their faces were downcast.

And as they are walking and talking, a stranger catches them up. The stranger asks them what's up, and the two disciples are amazed that he seemingly knows nothing of what has happened in Jerusalem during the past week.

Anyway they fill him in with all the news... And then the stranger replied, "How foolish you are, ...And how slow of heart to believe all that thee prophets have spoken."

Now it is easier for us with hindsight to understand why Jesus died, ...but at the time it took the disciples by total surprise. Before his crucifixion Jesus had repeatedly told his followers that he would be rejected and killed, but they just couldn't understand what he was going on about.

That is why the stranger said that they were "slow of heart", ...but then the stranger uses the Old Testament scriptures to explain why the Christ had to suffer and die.

Now the Jews had divided the Old Testament into three parts. The Law, (which is the first 5 books of the Old Testament, sometimes also known as the books of Moses), ...the Prophets, (which were the writings of prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos) ...and the Writings (which was everything else, including books like Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Psalms).

And so beginning with the Law, and then all the prophets, the stranger explained in all the scriptures the things concerning the Christ.

We have no record of what the stranger said, but the fact that he used all the scriptures suggests that he wasn't simply picking out a verse here, and a verse there. Instead, I think he was drawing upon some of the great themes which we find in all the Old Testament.

One of the themes in the Old Testament is the awfulness of sin. It leaves us with no doubt that sin has ruined our world, and is deeply ingrained in each one of us. The Old Testament is full of terrible atrocities, which come about through greed and selfish ambition. Even the people of Israel, God's own chosen people, repeatedly go their own way, and do the very things that God has warned them not to do. The Old Testament leaves us in no doubt of the awfulness of human sin.

But a second great theme in the Old Testament is the deep, deep, love of God. A God who keeps on loving his people, despite the fact that they keep rebelling against him. A God who is willing to forgive and forget. A God who is full of compassion and mercy. The Old Testament leaves us in no doubt about the deep, deep love of God.

But when you take these two great theme's, and put them together, we can begin to see why this powerful combination made the death of Jesus almost inevitable.

Let me illustrate this by telling you about some friends of ours who live in another part of the country. They're a Christian couple, who adopted a boy, (who I'll call John). I'm not too sure of the age at which they adopted him, but I would guess he was about 8. His adopted parents loved him very much, but John grew up to be a most rebellious lad.

He refused to recognise the authority of his parents. As a teenager I've seen him kicking and punching his dad in public. He was expelled from various schools, ...and he soon got into repeated trouble with the police.

And here again you have that same combination of love and rebellion. A defiant teenager who is set on a course of rebellion, and two parents who are equally determined to keep on loving him.

And what has been the result of this combination?

Well it has brought a tremendous amount of suffering and pain for his parents. Among other things they've been involved in bitter disputes with Social Services, ...it significantly effected his dad's career, ...and they've been emotionally and spiritually churned up.

It would have been so much easier for them if they had simply cut him off. If they had said, "Enough is enough, ...we want nothing more to do with him". But they didn't do that, John kept on rebelling ...and they kept on loving him, ...and consequently they kept on suffering.

Now in the Old Testament we see a similar thing happening with God and his people, ...but God so loved the world that he sent his only Son into the world, ...and when that happened it forced things to come to a head.

Jesus was the ultimate sign that God loved the world, ...and the world did it's utmost to demonstrate its rebellion. ...and the result? ...God faced the ultimate suffering, by seeing his Son being killed on a cross.

It's because of the combination of the awfulness of sin, and the deep, deep love of God, that stranger said to the two disciples "Did not the Christ have to suffer these things?". (v26)

Now these disciples on the road to Emmaus may well have been "slow of heart" to believe these things, but they weren't the only ones.

In each of the three snap-shots which Luke gives us we find that the other disciples were equally slow off the mark, ...in each case it seems that a major stumbling block was the fact that Jesus had been killed, ...and in each case the disciples are reminded either of the words of Jesus or the words of the prophets.

Later that evening, when Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem, we again read that he "opened their minds so that they could understand the scriptures. ...[and] He told them,

'This is what is written, "The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day"

(Lk. 24.45-46).

And so on the Road to Emmaus, the stranger reveals Jesus to them, by helping them to understand the scriptures. And as he does so, the disciples hearts begin to burn within them.

Several people have compared this experience with that of John Wesley. John Wesley was converted in London on 24 May 1738, and he describes how what happened in his journal. He wrote:

"In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate street, where [someone] was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter [to] nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death".

It was as John Wesley heard the scriptures explained to him, that he felt his heart becoming strangely warmed.

And so the disciples, with burning hearts, eventually reach Emmaus. And they strongly urge the stranger, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over."

The stranger accepts their invitation, and they sit down to eat together. And then the disciples recognise who the stranger really is. Their hearts had been opened along the road, now their eyes are opened also.

It happens as the stranger takes bread, ...gives thanks, ...breaks it, ...and begins to give it to them.

The stranger isn't a stranger at all, ...they can now see that he is none other than Jesus.

Why they hadn't recognized him earlier we just don't know. Perhaps it was because they had seen him die, and so he was the last person they had expected to me along the road.

Why they suddenly recognised him when he gave them bread we again don't know. Perhaps the other disciples had told them about the events of the Last Supper, ...perhaps they remembered the way he had fed the 5000, ...perhaps they noticed the nail prints in His hands for the first time.

But for whatever reason, they recognised him as they shared bread with him. And then Jesus disappeared from their sight.

It's interesting to note how on other occasions the risen Jesus met with the disciples in the context of a meal.

Luke tells us that later that evening, Jesus ate some fish with the disciples in Jerusalem.

St John tells us that a few days later Jesus ate bread and fish with the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, ...and in Acts chapter 10 we read that Jesus was seen by those who "ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead" (Acts 10. 41).

The account of Jesus' appearance on the road to Emmaus is just one snap-shot of the events which took place after the resurrection, ...but it shares a couple of things in common some if the other snap-shots in the gospels.

First, that as Jesus met with his disciples he explained the scriptures to them, ...and secondly he shared a meal with them.

...And I want to finish by simply pointing out the relevance of all this to what we are doing here in church this morning.

You see, Jesus was with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, even though they couldn't see him, ...and in a similar way Jesus is here this morning, even though we can't physically see him.

But as they:

- heard the scriptures, their hearts were warmed; and as they,

- shared a meal, their eyes were opened.

...and they met with the risen Jesus.

And that is what we want to do this morning.

You may have noticed in your Service books that a communion service has two main parts.

- the Ministry of the Word, when we read and think about the scriptures; and,

- the Ministry of the Sacrament, when we share the bread and wine.

Both parts are important, because it is by doing these two things that we follow the example of the early disciples. And we too can meet with the risen Jesus; if we allow God to open our hearts, and open our eyes.