EXORDIUM
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
It was said by a certain president of our country many years ago, that the landing of astronauts on the moon in 1969 was the greatest event in human history. He was wrong. What we celebrate today was the greatest event in human history.
The sad reality that many people in our world do not know that the resurrection of Jesus happened, or do not care that it happened, does not change this fact. But the fact of Jesus’ resurrection has the power to change them, when they hear the living and life-giving message of their living and life-giving Lord.
Today we have heard this message of the greatest event in human history, and will continue to hear this message. If we were afflicted by doubts and distractions when we came here today, this message will vanquish those doubts and distractions.
This message will deliver to us the unconquerable truth of Christ’s resurrection, and the invincible hope of our own resurrection in Christ. And this message will send us forth on this day with a true love for our neighbors, and will embolden us in our testimony to them of what God did for them, and for the whole human race, on this day.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
SERMON
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
Please listen with me to a reading from the 24th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke, beginning at the 13th verse:
Now behold, two of [Jesus’ disciples] were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.” Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scirptures the things concerning Himself. Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
So far our text.
“We ~were hoping~ that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”
The loss of faith is always a profoundly sad thing to observe in someone’s life. And for those who have lost their own faith, sometimes ~they~ feel sad about it as well.
I once heard an interview with a man who had formerly been a Christian, but who had come to a point of no longer believing in the Christian message. And yet, he also said that he did ~miss~ the feeling of emotional comfort that he used to experience when he was a Christian.
Nevertheless, he had reached the sad conclusion – in light of his consideration of all the ~suffering~ that exists in the world – that there is no God, and consequently that there is no divine Savior.
As I listened to this disheartening interview, it became clear to me that this man’s previous Christian faith had never been built on a very sound foundation, and also that it had never been ~nurtured~ in a proper way. He had previously embraced a “revivalistic” kind of Christianity, which emphasized the emotional ~experience~ of faith over the objective ~content~ of faith.
And in this kind of subjective Christianity, there are no solid and objective sacramental “anchors,” to keep a struggling Christian from being tossed to and fro in a sea of doubt and confusion. But even so, weak though his faith may have been, it was a sad thing to see the evidence of his having lost it – and to see ~his~ sadness at having lost it.
“We ~were hoping~ that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.”
With such poignant words, ~many~ over the centuries have expressed their emotional grief over their loss of faith. With these exact words – in St. Luke’s remarkable account of the resurrection appearance of Jesus on the road to Emmaus – the disciples with whom the risen Lord was walking expressed ~their~ emotional grief over ~their~ loss of faith.
But Jesus, on this day of his resurrection, wanted to have a conversation with these men. For the ~sake~ of this conversation, he temporarily hid his identity from them as he joined them on their journey.
For now, he didn’t want them to be able to recognize him in his physical ~person~. Instead, he wanted to bring them to a point where they would be able to recognize him in the ~Scriptures~. He wanted the conversation to be ~about~ the Scriptures, and about what the ~Scriptures~ say to the human heart concerning the Messiah and his redemption.
The disciples had been hoping that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel. Yet they had now ~lost~ that hope. But ~why~ had they lost that hope? What had that hope been ~based~ on? On the social and political aspirations of anti-Roman Jewish nationalism?
What did the ~Bible~ actually say about what the redemption of Israel would look like, when it ~did happen~? How would the ~Redeemer~ of Israel be ~recognized~, when he ~did come~?
These are questions that the divine Scriptures do answer. But these disciples had apparently not been seeking answers to these questions from that source.
It would seem that they had indeed been waiting for God to send a social and political deliverer, who would right all the wrongs in the land: getting rid of the Romans and their cruelty; and getting rid of all corruption, injustice, and suffering in the civic life of the Jews.
They had also come to believe that ~Jesus~ was the Christ, the Son of the living God. ~As~ the Christ, and ~as~ the Son of God, they had expected him to make these kinds of changes in and for their nation.
That’s the kind of redemption that they were hoping for, and that they thought Jesus would bring – in spite of everything Jesus had previously said to the contrary.
But they hadn’t ever really listened to him. And so, when Jesus died, without accomplishing any of the things they had expected, these disciples ~lost~ their hope in him. And now, their mysterious traveling companion is ~rebuking~ them for this.
They had been building their faith on something other than God’s Word. No wonder they were confused. No wonder they had lost their faith, such as it was. And Jesus – still in disguise – said to them:
“‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! ~Ought~ not the Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
The redemption of Israel, and indeed the redemption of ~all humanity~, was to take place through the suffering and ~death~ of the Redeemer, and not through a political coup d’état or a military conquest.
According to the Scriptures, it was ~necessary~ that the work of redemption would be carried out in the way it ~was~ carried out. It was necessary, because the most fundamental captivity in which Israel, and all the world, languished, was ~not~ the imperial enslavement of ~Rome~. It was the ~spiritual~ enslavement of the ~devil~, within his dark kingdom of sin and death.
But the Messiah came to redeem us from this captivity. God ~himself~ came, in the person of Jesus, to liberate his people ~himself~. He confronted the devil, and crushed him underfoot.
To liberate his people from the power of ~sin~, he took all human sin ~upon~ himself, and atoned for it. To liberate them from the power of ~death~, he himself entered into the ~domain~ of death, and then victoriously broke forth ~from~ it on the third day.
If the disciples on the road to Emmaus had been basing their faith on the divine message of the Scriptures – as Jesus had been trying to explain this message to them during the time of his ministry – they would ~not~ have lost their faith when Jesus died. Their faith would have been ~confirmed~ – ~and filled~ with the ~expectancy~ of the ~resurrection~.
Are you, perhaps, losing ~your~ faith, and your Christian hope? Or do you sometimes feel that you ~might~ be? Have disappointments and tragedies caused you to question if what you think you believe about a good and powerful God, is really true?
Well, what ~do~ you actually believe? And ~why~ do you ~believe~ it?
Maybe your faith on this Easter Sunday – like the flagging faith of the disciples on the road to Emmaus on that ~first~ Easter – is based on the wrong expectations. Maybe your faith is based on human ~presumptions~, and ~not~ on divine ~promises~.
Maybe it would be a ~good~ thing if ~such~ a faith would be lost: not so that you would have ~no~ faith, but so that God could give you a firm and ~saving~ faith, based squarely and securely on the testimony of the Scriptures.
Perhaps a misdirected faith needs to be ~dismantled~, and ~reconstructed~ on the true foundation of what the Bible really ~promises~ about Christ, and what it promises to ~you in~ Christ.
The Scriptures don’t promise an end to earthly suffering and injustice. They don’t promise that things will always go smoothly for ~you~, or turn out as you expect.
In this fallen world, confessing Christ, and living as a disciple of Christ, sometimes means that you are going to be significantly ~out~ of harmony with a lot of what is going on around you. You might suffer. If you are a Christian in places like North Korea or northern Nigeria, you might not survive.
Jesus warns: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” And Jesus ~promises~: “Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
Believing that Jesus has saved you from sin and death will place you into a ~hostile~ relationship with the forces ~of~ sin and death in this world – both natural and supernatural. God has not promised otherwise.
If your faith is based on the premise that God ~has~ made promises like this – promises of material prosperity and earthly comfort for those who believe in him – your faith is not built on the solid rock of Scripture, but on sinking sand.
~Such~ a faith will ~not~ survive. And such a faith doesn’t ~deserve~ to survive.
A faith that is based on Moses and the ~Prophets~, on the other hand, will know that sometimes God ~does~ allow suffering on the earth, and that such suffering is ~not~ a sign of God’s lack of concern. It’s easy to imagine that on the road to Emmaus, Jesus referred to the passage from the Book of Exodus, where the Lord speaks to Moses from the burning bush:
“I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
It’s also easy to imagine that Jesus then ~applied~ this passage to ~himself~, and to ~his~ saving work on the ~cross~. And that’s because the Lord has ~also~ seen the sufferings that the slavery of ~sin~ has brought to ~all~ men. And in Christ he has come down to deliver ~us~ from this affliction.
When Jesus and his companions arrived at Emmaus, the two disciples urged him strongly, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And Jesus went in to stay with them.
And Jesus stays with us, too. When the light of human happiness is flickering, and seems to be going out, Jesus stays. In a time of trial, when all ~human~ strength is ~gone~, Jesus stays.
God has not promised to his children that in this world they will never endure hardship. But he ~has~ promised that they will never endure hardship ~alone~. “I am with you always,” Jesus says to his church.
This Biblical pledge builds and preserves faith – especially when this pledge takes concrete form in the breaking of the Bread of ~Life~ among us. At Emmaus,
“As He sat at the table with them, … He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him… He was ~known~ to them ~in~ the ~breaking~ of ~bread~.”
This is how the risen Christ preserves ~our~ faith, ~too~. ~We~ know him in the breaking of the bread. When he comes to be among us in his Sacred Supper by the power of his Word; and when we hear him say, “given for you,” and “shed for you for the remission of sins,” then ~our~ eyes are opened, and ~we~ know him.
We recognize him as a resurrected Savior who is now our constant companion in life, and who continues to cover us with his righteousness and mercifully to wash away our sins.
The Lord’s Supper ~is~ an “anchor” for us, and for our faith. As the living Christ embraces us in this sacrament, he holds onto us, and keeps our faith focused on where it needs to ~be~ focused.
The story of the risen Christ and the disciples – on the road ~to~ Emmaus, and at the table ~in~ Emmaus – teaches us this. This story teaches us about the only valid basis for faith: namely, what the ~Scriptures~ declare and impress deeply upon us, about what God ~has done~; and ~not~ what human opinion would assert about what God ~should~ do.
This story also teaches us about the methods that Christ himself has instituted for our ~preservation~ in faith, whenever our faith in him is assaulted by the weakness of the flesh, by the lies of the devil, or by the allurements of the world. Jesus is ~alive~ for us, and he is continually known ~to~ us in the bread that ~we~ break – and in the cup that we bless.
After he had made himself known to the disciples at Emmaus, Jesus disappeared from their physical sight. But this didn’t diminish their newfound confidence in his abiding ~invisible~ presence with them.
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things ~not~ seen,” Paul says. The Scriptures, with their divine authority; and the sacraments, with their divine power, instill and ~sustain~ such a faith within us.
As Christ abides with us in these ways, and as we abide in ~him~ in these ways, faith will endure. Faith will thrive!
Christ has ~not~ failed us. In Christ, therefore, as he abides with us and sustains us in his gospel and sacraments, we will never say that we ~were hoping~ that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.
We ~do~ hope in him. We know that he ~did~ redeem Israel. We know that he did redeem the ~world~. ~We know~ that he ~did redeem us~. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!