Luke 24:13-32

 

     "'But we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free...Some of our group went to the tomb & found it exactly as the women had said, but they did not see him.'"

 

I.                      PERHAPS YOU WILL REMEMBER THE INCIDENT FROM THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, IN WHICH MARK TWAIN TELLS US THAT HUCKLEBERRY FINN, JOE HARPER AND TOM SAWYER SET OUT ON A RAFT DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TO BECOME PIRATES.

A.             They were gone for many days. Soon everybody back in Hannibal, Missouri, believed them to be lost and dead, so the town had a funeral for the 3 of them on a Sunday morning. At Sunday School the only thing people could talk about was the 3 boys. When the bell rang for Sunday School to be over, the people filed solemnly into the sanctuary for the funeral service. The preacher began eulogizing the 3 lost boys, stories so heart-warming that the townsfolk felt pangs of guilt. They had not seen such good in these boys when they were alive, but they had so often seen their faults and flaws. It was not long before everybody was sobbing in grief.                      All at once there was a rustle in the back, the back door creaked open slowly. The minister wiping his eyes with his handkerchief looked up and stood transfixed. Here came Tom, then Joe, followed by Huck Finn down the aisle. The congregation rushed to embrace the boys. The minister shouted, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Sing! Put your hearts in it." The good townspeople did not need to be told to put their hearts in it. They sang as never before. That Old Doxology swelled from the organ and their voices raised the rafters--the 3 boys had returned from the dead!                                     Now we the readers knew that Huck, Joe and Tom were alive all along. They had sneaked back into town and were up in the church balcony taking it all in. (LectionAid)

 

B.         In our lesson from Luke 24,  it seems as though everyone is up in the balcony--everyone is an observer, disengaged from the drama of Easter.

                                      1.  The two disciples of Jesus were walking home at the end of that first Easter Sunday, a trip of 7 miles in a northwesterly direction away from Jerusalem.

                                                     a.  ... walking away from Easter and the events of the weekend.

                                      2.  The two might easily have been a man and a woman. It might have been a married couple since they shared a home together.

                                      3.  Both were thinking in the PAST tense, they talked in the PAST tense to this stranger who overtook them on the road.

                                                     a.  "'Some of our group went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had said, but they did not see (his body).'"

                                                     b.  "'But we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free...’”

                                      4.  It was as if they were all walking away from God - disappointed, God had let them down again.

                                                     a.  It is always tempting to stay in the past, to return to yesterday, even with all its problems and suffering.

                                                     b.  In Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, however, there is “a point of no return,” a point past which we may only move ahead. We can remain in the balcony no longer. We have to join the action.

                        “Past the point of no return, the final threshold,

                        The bridge is crossed, so stand and watch it burn,

 

                        We’ve passed the point of no return

                       

                        Say you’ll share with me one love

                        Lead me, save me from my solitude

                        Say you’ll want me here beside you

                        Anywhere you go, let me go too... that’s all I ask of you.”

 

C.        Are any of us are like Cleopas and his friend or his wife ...like Christians who are sitting and watching in the balcony?

1.         When I was in junior high school, living in the mission boarding school in Teheran, Iran, my room-mate Larry Johnson and I  would go up into the balcony of the Community Church for Sunday worship. The church was in the same compound or walled-enclosure where we lived, about 100 yards from our house.  From that church balcony we could watch everyone else: the organist- also up in the loft, the other worshipers down below us, the minister and the ushers.  Very few other worshipers ever went upstairs. It was like no one knew we were up there or were watching them. We did not have to sit still--we could do whatever we wanted. And of course, we never listened to the sermon. But one Sunday, when they served Communion, we decided to

              help ourselves as the elements were passed...first the bread, then the juice.

              Neither of us had been confirmed and in those days taking the elements

              as children was a mortal, unforgivable sin!  Sunday afternoon back at the

Johnson house, we were both summoned into the library in a no-nonsense, “don’t try to lie; we know every detail of your sin” tone of voice. Who could have seen?  who told?

2.         Balconies in the early days in this country were not where the good Christians sat--the balconies were for the poor and the indentured servants, the slaves,  people who did not really belong there.

a.       They were not as progressive as we are here at Central, where the

balcony is reserved for the wonderful bell choir, for those videotaping.

3.         "If Christ has not been raised from the dead," Paul writes in I Corinthians, "then we have nothing to preach  you have nothing to believe. More than that, we are shown to be lying about God...And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a foolish delusion and you are still in your sins..  you deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world."

a.       You might as well be in the balcony watching a fictional drama.

                                      b.  That is the condition in which Jesus found the two on the road to Emmaus.

                                      c.  Now, I literally started my career in ministry on the road to Emmaus. I was the student assistant at the large 1,300 member St. John’s United Church of Christ in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, in 1970-71. It is 70 miles north of Philadelphia.

4.         "But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death," Paul says, "and I have seen him!"

a.       The risen Christ encountered Paul also on a road, like Cleopas.  The rest is not just history, but the miraculous explosion of a living church!

b.       Imagine Mary Magdalene’s startling explosive shout in front of Peter and the others, “‘I have seen Jesus. He is alive. He is risen from the grave!”  And yet the Gospel of John relates the revelation to Mary as a quiet matter of fact statement, as she moved from despair and tears, to hope of finding the dead body, to unbelievable shock! [PAUSE]

 

b.

c.   Where is your shock, surprise, excitement, being moved almost to tears on this Easter Sunday morning?  Where is the drama in your lives? 

 

 

II.         ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS, IT IS AS IF THE LORD JESUS IS ALSO IN THE BALCONY WATCHING THE WOMEN AT THE TOMB AND THE DISCIPLES COME TO DO THEIR FUNERAL THING FOR A DEAD FRIEND. CHRIST IS WHISPERING TO YOU AND ME AS IF WE ARE OFFSTAGE   “'YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE THIS...JUST WATCH WHAT HAPPENS NOW!'"

A.       So the resurrected Savior makes an unobserved entrance, moving up to join the two travelers on the road, overtaking them from behind.

1.       He engages them in conversation, as if he were another disciple.

2.  He scolds them for their lack of faith, for thinking only in the past tense--

a.       He calls them "foolish" and "slow of heart"

b.  To call someone foolish in the Gospels is a serious matter.

                   3.       Jesus tells them the trouble is in their hearts, not their understanding of Scripture or of knowing about everything that has happened.

                                      a.  "Heavy the heart...when love is alive but hope is dead,” as Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta puts it.

                                      b.  “Past the point of no return, the final threshold, the bridge is crossed” in this church. After today, on this last Sunday together, there is no turning back for you or me, no luxury of watching from the balcony.

 

B.         As the 3 of them near the end of their journey, like every good Jew, Cleopas and his friend/or wife invite this man to share the hospitality of their home--stay for supper, spend the night.

1.       Dr. Bruce Larson, in his commentary on Luke, draws the inference here that "had they not made time for Jesus, he would have gone on. He did not intrude. They had to press him, ‘Please come in; it's late; Don't go on.’"

2.  The initiative shifts now from Jesus to the two in Emmaus.

a.       suggestive of a heightened expectancy, the hint of the birth of  openness, the moment of expectancy.

3.       So a few minutes later in their home, in the restful intimacy of breaking bread these two are hit squarely between the eyes! Could this be their beloved Lord and Savior? someone  given up for dead for all eternity, given up for dead along with their faith.

a.       “‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road?’”

b.  In Return to Cold Mountain, a tragic romance on the horrors of the Civil War, one of the few joyful scenes is when the dog recognizes his long-lost master Inman returning in the distance across the fields and the dog takes off barking, even before his only love Ada knows anything. Three winters had past, they have just gone through the motions of a harsh life, but for Inman, a Southern deserter, he has traveled 1,000 miles on foot to return, to come home to the one he loves.

 

C.        Bruce Larson is right on when he says that "The events of Easter cannot be reduced to a creed or philosophy We are not asked to believe the doctrine of the resurrection. We are asked to meet this (person) raised from the dead. In faith, we move from belief in a doctrine... to a person. Ultimate truth is (the risen Lord of history).” Writes, Larson, “We can say as these two believers did-- "'We met Him; He is alive!'"

1.       It isn't just an innocent meeting, it is an encounter of soul-grabbing, life-shaking dimensions!

 

III.       IN HIS RESURRECTION JESUS MOVES OUR FAITH TO THE PRESENT TENSE, FOR JESUS IS ALWAYS THERE IN THE PRESENT TENSE. HE SUMMONS US AWAY FROM THE PAST TENSE.

     (page 3)

 

A.        Another way of saying this same thing is, how does life emerge from death?

1.       Is our Jesus still in the grave, have we run off and left him somewhere between the cross and resurrection?

2.  Did we once believe passionately, when we first began our journey of faith?

a.       Do we say, "We had hoped..."?

b.  Are we sitting in the balcony of faith?

c.   Are we living and thinking in the past tense? or have we been resurrected to a present and a future tense?        

 

B.         Charles Sheldon in a best-seller novel years ago, In His Steps, tells the story of a church transformed when people begin to ask, "'What would Jesus do? I want to do what He would do if he were here?'"

1.         Someone else has observed, "That is (a) theologically inaccurate" statement.  The question is not 'what would Jesus do...’' The real question is  'What are you doing, Jesus? because I know you are here! And how can I be part of it.'"

2.  We must come out of the balcony and walk up the center aisle of faith.

a.       The truth of worship, of our liturgy, is that you and I are the celebrants, the actors, and it is Christ who is the observer.

3.       Not long ago I received a brochure put out by the Hope Heart Institute, "The 10 Greatest Health Commandments." These commandments might well be used to take care of ourselves spiritually, not just physically, 10 ways to live in the present tense of Easter...

a.       Exercise your body (1)

b.  exercise your mind (2)

c.   exercise your spirit (3)

d.  exercise your willpower (4)

e.   have a happy heart (5)

f.   play (6)

g.   eat, drink and be merry --sensibly (7)

h.   give up guilt, regret and depression (8)

i.   do not fear the future (9)

j.        live now. (10)

4.       We must impose on Jesus, we must invite him to question our foolishness and our slowness of heart, for he will never impose Himself on you or me. He will not intrude on us unless we invite him.

 

C.        For each of us it must become a matter of new birth, being reborn literally!

1.       When you and I fix our eyes of faith on the resurrected Lord and Savior who is here with us, the power of his Presence is enough to transform us, to move us from the past tense of faith into the present tense, even to a future tense.

 

D.        Our Gospel story this morning ends on a powerful note: these two who had moved along at a leisurely, uninvolved pace until Jesus broke bread with them, suddenly were charged up with a new infectious excitement!

                   1.       This is exactly where you and I find ourselves today on our last Sunday together, Easter Sunday.  Let us say to our Living Christ:

1.         “We’ve passed the point of no return...

                   Say you’ll share with me one love

              Lead me, save me from my solitude

              Say you’ll want me here beside you.”

              Anywhere you go, let me go too.... that’s all I ask of you.