[Machine transcription]
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Dear Saints, a few words about this text, The Road to Emmaus,
and then a few, maybe really one reflection on what Jesus is doing for us here in the text.
The text takes us back to the very first Easter Sunday.
The women had gone to the tomb and heard from the angels and come into Jerusalem
and reported to some of the disciples
where Cleopas was and his friend,
and that the tomb was empty.
And Peter and John had run and seen the empty tomb
and come back and reported the same.
And so they left town, left Jerusalem,
to go to Emmaus, a little village
about 7 miles north and west from Jerusalem.
A beautiful little village on top of the hill.
And as they leave town,
wondering about these things,
Jesus joins them.
Now, we want to notice that this is an important apologetic point as we consider the resurrection
of Jesus, is that even though Jesus at least three times told them that he had to die and
then he would be raised on the third day, and even though they had heard those words
and remembered those words, and even though they had seen the empty tomb and the body
of Jesus gone, and even though some of them had seen an angel reporting that Jesus has
risen from the dead, they still are doubting. They still are confused. They
still don’t know what’s happening. They still said that we had hoped that He was
the one who was going to rescue us and deliver us. We had hoped, but their hope
is gone. So Jesus comes and finds them in this despondent state. And, as Jesus
want to be, so playful after his own resurrection, he hides himself or he
closes their eyes so that they don’t recognize who he is. It makes this
incredible scene where they’re so sad and despondent and troubled and Jesus is
so innocent in a way. He says, why are you so sad? And they say, are you the
only person who doesn’t know the things that have happened here? Are you the only
stranger in Jerusalem that wasn’t paying attention to this? There was this Jesus.
we had hoped that he was the one, the Messiah, the one who would deliver us,
the one that God had promised for so long. We had hoped that he was the one,
but he was handed over to the rulers, he was tried, he was handed over to Pilate,
he was crucified, dead, and buried. And our hope was buried with him.
Our confidence was buried with him. So Jesus rebukes them,
O foolish ones,” he says, and so slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
And he went as they walked and he opened up, the text says, the scriptures to them.
The books of Moses, the prophets, the Psalms. Beginning from Moses and going
through all the prophets, he said, he opened the scriptures to show them this
one thing, that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer first and then to
enter into his glory. And then as they came to Emmaus, Jesus acted as if he
would keep going, and they compelled him, abide with us, the fast falls the even
tide, and so Jesus comes into the room with them, and he’s sitting at the
head of the table, and he takes the bread, and he offers the blessing, and
suddenly they recognize who it was, and then he’s gone, disappears from their
sight, back to Jerusalem to appear to Peter as they’re running back to report
these things so that when they get back, they say, yes, Jesus had appeared to Peter
already, and then Jesus appears to them again in the upper room. Just incredible
text. But there’s an important, important point to this text, and we start to see a
theme that’s developing not only in this text, but in our text from last week, from
John chapter 20, not only the appearing to the disciples and the appearing to
Thomas, but also when Jesus appeared at the tomb to Mary Magdalene. And he said,
don’t cling to me. Jesus is teaching his disciples and he’s and he’s teaching us
that he will dwell with us in a different way, that he will be with us
in a different way, certainly than what the disciples were used to. Now Jesus
goes to great pains to demonstrate to the disciples that he is not some sort
of ghost or phantasm or spirit. He says put your hands on my side, he says
feel the wounds that I’ve got here. He takes fish, always he’s eating fish, not
only on Easter Sunday, but then in Galilee as well, showing them that he’s
not a ghost, that he has flesh and blood, that he is truly risen, that the grave is
empty, that it’s his true body and blood that is raised from the grave, that he’s
not some sort of idea or abstraction, but flesh and blood Jesus.
but he then is going to say that he will be with them in a very different way.
Not like he was before the crucifixion and before the resurrection.
He won’t walk bodily with them, but rather he will be with them according to his resurrected glory,
and that they will have him, and this is the key point,
they will have him not according to his normal bodily presence,
but that they’ll have him according to his word.
That’s why he hides himself from the disciples
on the road to Emmaus.
And instead of opening their eyes to see his body,
to see his physical form,
he opens their ears to hear the word.
That’s why he says to Mary Magdalene,
don’t cling to me like it is now.
That’s why he says to Thomas,
blessed are those who believe and have not seen.
In fact, it wonderfully reminds us of the account that Jesus told of Lazarus
and the rich man who died. Remember this? Two men died, Lazarus who was poor and
the rich man who’s rich, and Lazarus was a believer, goes to Abraham’s bosom,
paradise, and the rich man goes to Hades, to hell, to suffer, and he sees Lazarus
in glory, and he says, could Lazarus come and give me a little relief, a
drop of water to cool my lips and the Lord says no the gap between here and
there can’t be crossed he says we’ll send Lazarus back from the dead so that
my brothers will believe and they won’t come here and Abraham says to him from
across the gulf they have Moses and the prophets let them believe them if they
don’t believe them they won’t even believe if one rises from the dead so
that we have the sure testimony of the holy scriptures that’s what the Lord has
left us. That’s what he wants us to have, the words of the prophets and the
apostles, so that by these we would know that Jesus is God in the flesh, that
Jesus is crucified for us and for our salvation, and that Jesus is truly risen
from the dead, truly. The grave is empty and that he sits at the right hand of
God the Father until the day coming soon when he returns for us. And we have this
confidence, the church has been trained up to have this confidence, by none other
than the resurrected Jesus himself who opened the scriptures to these disciples
on the road to Emmaus and who continues to open the scriptures also to us and
confirm and strengthen our faith by them. So God be praised, we have today, we have
everything that Jesus wants us to have. The absolute confidence that Christ is
risen. He has risen indeed. Alleluia. And we know this because he has preached it
to us in the words of the prophets and the apostles. May this be our confidence
our comfort, our wisdom, and our peace. In the name of Jesus, Amen. And now may the
peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and
minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
