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Christ is risen. He’s risen indeed. Hallelujah. We continue to celebrate the glorious season of Easter for the next several weeks before we celebrate His ascension into heaven.
Eyes were open, weren’t they? Opened indeed to see something they had never seen before. Adam and Eve, that is. Recall that Adam and Eve’s eyes, prior to partaking of the fruit of that tree, always saw life—and their existence in one another—through the eyes of grace, mercy, and fellowship divine. Never with shame, never with guilt, never with jealousy, never with hatred until their eyes were opened after they partook of the fruit of that tree. Then they no longer saw life the way they had prior to that fall in the garden. Can you imagine what that must be like? In the same way that we cannot imagine what it’s going to be like to view one another and ourselves and our entire reality through the eyes of perfection and holiness, neither could they have ever imagined what it was going to be like before they partook of the fruit of that tree to see life through shame and to see life through guilt and to see life through bitterness.
Indeed, these two disciples ate of a different fruit from a different tree. The fruit from which they ate was Christ. The tree from whence Christ came was, of course, the accursed tree. And the eyes that were opened by these two disciples, by the Holy Spirit working mightily through the Word and through that supper, began to see life now through grace and forgiveness. They began to see life reconciled to God. They began to see one another as redeemed by the same Lord. Their eyes, too, were opened.
Now these two that were discussing what had happened in Jerusalem earlier that day, they had gotten the message; they’d got the memo from Mary, who came back to the disciples in the locked room and said, “‘He lives! He’s risen just as He said!’ The two disciples were completely in a quandary because they couldn’t find the body. And so in depth of discussion were they engaged on this road.” And isn’t it interesting how Jesus comes into their life? In the midst of despair, in the midst of complete confusion, in the midst of uncertainty, does Jesus interject himself into their life because of his great love for them? They’re completely blinded to see the Lord of all life in their midst.
Now, he could have scared them to death, couldn’t he have? But he chose to be very gracious and loving and ask the seemingly ridiculous question of, “What are you discussing?” Knowing full well exactly what they were discussing, wanting to get them where they were at and bring them from where they were at—confusion, chaos, despair, disappointment—to have their eyes opened.
Now, when Jesus does this, there are three things that he does first. He comes into their life uninvited as an outsider, as a guest. He moves from being a guest and an outsider in these two men’s lives to being, “Do you not understand that all of this was necessary according to the Scriptures?” And he becomes a teacher, completely telling them all the passages through the Scriptures of the Old Testament—how Christ had to suffer and die, how he had to be rejected, spurned by the religious establishment, and how he had to rise on the third day.
Now Jesus did not say, according to this passage, and go down this great point-by-point passage list of proof passages. Jesus wove the entire Old Testament scriptures into one tapestry himself. Right? Because all of the Scriptures of the Old Testament are about the Anointed One, the Messiah. It began in the same promise that was given to those two that we mentioned earlier, whose eyes were opened, but not in a positive sense—Adam and Eve. Did not God tell them, “The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent?” And from that point on, did God, through Christ, in other words, weave all of this together?
It’s just like today, brothers and sisters. There are many things in your life where your eyes, like my eyes, were clouded by despair, disappointment, uncertainty—”Why, O Lord?”—and all of the other things that you ask God. So overwhelmed with emotion and with ourself, are our eyes clouded like the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. And God be praised that He loves you so much and me so much, He interjects Himself into the midst of our life where we don’t even think He’s there.
And in fact, we think by our reason and senses and by our emotional barometer, He’s as far away from us as the disciples who Emmaus thought He was when He was standing next to them. And the Holy Spirit comes to us and asks the question, “What are you befuddled about? What is this that has got you down? How is this changing that you are still God’s child and His beloved? How is this going to bring any difference to your eternal salvation and God’s great hand upon you?” And we argue with Him, just like the disciples to Emmaus.
Well, don’t you know? That seems to be the most ridiculous question, O God, you could ask. And just like the disciples to Emmaus, in a sense, argued their reason to the Lord without even knowing it, we do the same, crying out to God in prayer. And then the still, small voice comes, doesn’t it? In the midst of all of our confusion and despair and guilt, in the midst of our shame and jealousy and hatred, of uncertainty, does God teach us through the Scriptures that proclaim to us His promises one after the other, weaving them into a tapestry that says, “I am your Lord and Redeemer. I am the one who has rescued you from Pharaoh’s great grasp of sin. I am the one who brought you through the Red Sea and claimed you as my child when who else would ever have claimed you?”
And then He leads you here. Leading you here to kneel at His feet as His beloved, to be served by Him who is the host of the meal and the sacrifice of the meal. And brothers and sisters, your eyes are opened again. Just as the disciples on their road to Emmaus’ eyes were opened again. And having been served with him who is the host and the very victim and sacrifice, do you return to your seat knowing, not by reason or by senses, but by faith in the one who fed your lips and your soul, he will bring you through this too.
Brothers and sisters, ours is an unreasonable faith. Ours is an unreasonable God. Amen. He chooses to be unreasonable so that we do not see him with our reason or senses, but see him as he has chosen to be seen through faith. But faith must have an object. And he gives us that object in this word being proclaimed here first. And then he leads us to the meal to have our eyes opened.
We are doing here what has been done for thousands of years, beginning on that road to Emmaus, where Christ opened the Scriptures and then fed His servants, who had all kinds of confusion and doubt prior to being instructed. And you know as well as I, though we have partaken of this supper, will we not go back out into the world, and will not something frighten us from the shadows of our own doubts? And will not something give us a scare by our own misunderstanding of God’s great hand in our lives?
It’s interesting, isn’t it? Intellectuals argue and bring all kinds of great rational questions to you and to the faith. And we have no rational or reasonable understanding of how to explain it to them that’s going to make them get it. Because it’s not understood by reason or senses. Ours is an unreasonable faith. Ours is an unreasonable God who opens eyes that seemingly think that they can see, but are hidden. We must become continually and daily fools for Christ.
In the first reading today is a great passage about baptism. It talks about several things that baptism does. It says, “The text says baptism saves you, brings forgiveness, as it were.” It talks about the Holy Spirit being imparted through baptism. And it talks about this promise of baptism bringing such gifts for not only you as adults, but for your children. And yet there are even fellow believers who scoff at this great gift, who look at us and say, “You guys are kind of unreasonable in this whole concept of baptism, aren’t you?” And does not the world look at us and say, “This is nothing more than a great memory, a symbol of our faith.”
Are you going to stand by and let such ridicule of God’s great promise go unheralded by you? It is unreasonable. And we’re okay with that, aren’t we? And it is unreasonable to have a God like this, and we are very okay with that too. Because it is not by reason or senses, but by the great gift of faith that He has given unto you. And he comes into your life the same way he came into these people’s lives. Interjecting himself, posing these questions to you, drawing you back to the scriptures, and then feeding you.
You know, for some of us who grew up in the church, we have kind of a blessed life experience and a cursed life experience. Now the blessed life experience for many of us is that we’ve never known a day that we can remember that we didn’t believe or trust in God. But if you’ve ever talked to an adult convert, they help you and me remember very important aspects of having not seen and having their eyes opened. Dramatic. The stories that can be told and have already been told. They can see how they viewed life prior to having their eyes opened through the Scriptures and having been fed by the Lord of those Scriptures.
It is the same today. Keep inviting those people whom you know. Keep encouraging them to come and hear the Scriptures explained. And keep introducing them to one another to build that relationship. And then their eyes shall be opened as well, just as yours were and continue to be.
It was our Lord Himself who said this earlier in the Gospel of Luke. “Unto you, as believers in Christ, it is given to know.” It is given to know by your Father, in other words, the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to others, meaning unbelievers, it comes to them as if in parables, that seeing they may not see, hearing they may not understand. That’s Christ’s way.
But just as He turned these two men’s doubt and despair through which they looked at the world into sight that saw hope and peace, so he will do in their life, and so he has continually done in your life. Christ is indeed risen, lives and reigns with the Father, but he is here now in this preached and read word. He is here now in that supper. Come again and have your eyes opened to see the world through grace and mercy, forgiveness and hope, peace and fellow love. Love that is not based on emotion, but on God’s commitment.
In the holy name of the one risen for you, Jesus. Amen.
