4-13-08

We are in "the great fifty days," as mentioned last week. The "great fifty days" of Eastertide, for, lo, Easter is not a great day alone, but a great season, lasting until Pentecost, May11, this year.

So we get to cruise the Resurrection road for seven Sundays. Hopefully you have not eaten all your chocolate bunnies yet. Though I'm not sure your peeps will keep.

Each of the four gospels gives us Resurrection accounts about Jesus. Upon close reading we find they are fairly different. Some are in Galilee, some are in Jerusalem. Some have these disciples present, some have those disciples present, all with a different mix of women, or not.

We have been studying Matthew this year in Bible study. Matthew is the leanest of the four gospels relative to Resurrection stories. Only four verses (28:16-20) of Resurrection material in Matthew, and Matthew is our longest gospel.

The four verses are great ones, in fact, these verses are called the Great Commission, where Matthew has the Risen Lord appearing to the eleven disciples on a hillside in Galilee, granting them "all authority in heaven and on earth" to go forth to all people everywhere and teach them and baptize them, and "lo, (Jesus) will be with them always, even to the end of the age."

Only Matthew gives us the Great Commission. It is very important to the church. I plan to return to it later in the "great fifty days." But this is Matthew's only Resurrection account. Whereas Matthew front loads his gospel, with the birth narrative, including the Magi, also unique to Matthew, he is fairly abbreviated at the back end.

So this morning let's look at Luke, to another Resurrection story, which, itself, appears only in Luke, that being, the Road to Emmaus. We've been on this road before, as recently as last Easter season, for with seven weeks in the season, and only four gospels, we become familiar with some of these stories. However, it is good to walk the road, or jog the road, as some of you prepare for the Ice Breaker, for you never know when you might get your picture in the Tribune. The Road to Emmaus.

Let's rewind the Resurrection in Luke, taking it from the top. It won't take long. In Luke it is Mary Magdalene along with Mary, the mother of James, and Joanna, a woman of means mentioned earlier in Luke, and only in Luke, and "the other women" (who are unnamed), who discover the empty tomb. Luke has our largest contingency of followers making the Resurrection discovery Easter morning, though as in every gospel, all are women.

The women in Luke discover the empty tomb and return to tell the disciples, who receive the news of the empty tomb as "an idle tale." As "nonsense." However, as in the Gospel of John, Peter, though not John in Luke as in John (you don't have to follow all of this), runs to the tomb, discovers the tomb to be empty for himself, and goes back home amazed.

Which is how we should respond to all of this. Amazed! We should be amazed, stunned, confused and afraid, as were the men and women back then, for surely something is at work here that has never gone on before, and is beyond our understanding, including our ability to tell this amazing story the same way twice.

It is later the same empty tomb day in Luke. Two of Jesus' disciples are on the road to Emmaus. Emmaus is seven miles west-northwest of Jerusalem. It is a hot, dusty, hilly road. The disciples do not notice. They are sad, sorrowful, forlorn.

Though they have heard the news of the empty tomb, they are confused. So they don't immediately start dying Easter eggs. They are still stuck on the cross. For them Jesus is dead! This they know, and understand. The two disciples on the road home to Emmaus.

Who are these two disciples? One is identified as Cleopas, who, by the way, is not one of the original twelve disciples. Trust me, I know their names. He is not one of them.

So Cleopas is a member of the junior varsity team, that larger congregation of men and women who followed Jesus as well. Who is the other disciple with Cleopas? His (or her) name is not given. Which is just as well. Like the seven fishermen in John's Resurrection appearance, where one disciple goes unnamed, let's assume the unnamed disciple is you. For each of us is on the road to Emmaus as well, which makes the story read with more interest, wouldn't you agree?

So, we are sad and sorrowful, our hope crushed on the cross, aimlessly ambling toward Emmaus that first Easter afternoon. A stranger draws near and joins us on our walk. We hardly notice. Our heads hang low. It still feels like Lent.

The stranger asks, "What are you talking about as you walk along?" Or "Que paso?" as in the Spanish version. "What's happening?"

Cleopas answers for us, in Aramaic, "Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have come to pass these last few days?" As you can tell by the comment, we are still looking back, cleaved to the cross.

Cleopas goes on to tell the stranger about Jesus of Nazareth and the hope he arose in us, but how he was crucified, and with that our expectations defeated. Now his tomb has been found empty, which perplexes us. We don't know what this means.

The stranger talks to us in return, explaining to us what was said about the Messiah in scripture. Understand, scripture here is reference to the Hebrew Bible, what we call the Old Testament, not the New Testament, which is not yet written.

Nevertheless, as the stranger speaks, our hearts are strangely warmed. He speaks with authority and authenticity. He makes sense of the suffering and seems, well, a window to the Messiah himself. Though we do not see clearly yet.

As we near our destination for the day, the stranger is about to go on. Cleopas, God love ?em, speaks up, "Won't you stay with us? The day is nearly gone. Allow us to offer you our hospitality." Hospitality. Hugely important in the Hebrew culture. The stranger agrees and joins us in our home. Yes, perhaps the other disciple is a woman. Perhaps the other disciple is Cleopas's wife. We don't know.

It has been a long and weary day. We are miles down the winding road from the empty tomb. We are still in bondage to the Romans, and victimized by our own chief priests and scribes, who had Jesus crucified. What to think? What to do? At any rate, there is the stranger to share our sorrow. He seems to understand.

We sit together for a meal. We are tired and hungry, bereaved and bereft. The stranger takes the bread and offers a blessing. Which is nice. Helpful, hopeful. Then he breaks the bread and offers it to us. In that moment, it is like scales fall from our eyes, for our eyes are opened, and we see, no longer a stranger, but Jesus, the Risen Lord, at table with us.

We are stunned. Cleopas nearly collapses. We look at one another in amazement, and then back to the stranger - who has disappeared, gone instantly from our sight. But now (knock on head) we understand. The empty tomb. He is not dead. He is risen! Alleluia!

We leap from the table, renewed, refreshed, rejoiced & rejuiced, and run the hilly 10K back to Jerusalem, where we find the eleven disciples and the others, and tell them how we recognized the Lord in the breaking of the bread. It is Easter after all. Praise be to God! He is risen, indeed!

So, what does this mean? What does this mean for us? After all, we, too, are down the road from Easter. Is there a post-Easter message in here for us? Does Luke leave any travel tips for us in his retelling of this Resurrection appearance on the road to Emmaus?

Well, of course. Of course. This is God's Holy Word. Four tips to fill your post-Easter pockets.

1) The two disciples return to Jerusalem, share their good news with the others, and while there the Risen Lord appears to all of them, saying, first words of the Risen Lord, "Peace be with you."

"Peace be with you." The Risen Lord says this in Luke, he says this in John. First words, "Peace be with you." Understand, Rome still rules. The chief priests and the scribes still miss the message, and mangle the messenger. The roads to Emmaus are still dusty and dry, as well as steep. We still have our challenges, our heartaches and pains, disappointments and sorrow. But, first words of the Risen Lord, "Peace be with you." Which I take to mean, we are not alone!

This is what the Risen Lord tells the disciples gathered together in fear and persecution, in confusion and doubt. We are not alone.

"Lo, I will be with you to the end of the age." (Matthew) "In my absence...receive the Holy Spirit." (John) "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." (Mark)

Different vocabulary, same message: God is with us. So who can be against us! We can make it. In fact, it is promised we are going to make it, for as Luke puts it, "behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you." So "Peace be with you."

2) Therefore, we can go out. We need not stay in hiding. We need not live in fear. We need not be timid, tense, terrified, tentative, and tiny.

We can go out. In fact, we must go out. Christ calls us, nay, Christ commissions us: "You are my witnesses..." (Luke) "Go, therefore, to all peoples and make them my disciples, baptizing and teaching them..." as I have told you in Matthew. "Feed my sheep." (John) "Go into the entire world and preach the gospel to the whole creation." (Mark) Which sounds to me like this is good news for the plants and animals as well. As we sang this morning, "All creatures of our God and King."

This is such good news; we cannot keep it for ourselves. We are commissioned to teach Christ's commandments. We are called to share the good news. So "Go!" And our world will know the difference, for peace will be with the world as well.

3) There is a stylistic approach prevalent in the Risen Lord, which we are to model, so the Lord tells us.

Isn't it marvelous of the six Marys in the New Testament, it is Mary Magdalene who appears at the tomb in every gospel account? And only Mary Magdalene. Who better?

Furthermore, in every gospel account, except Luke, it is Mary Magdalene, a woman of questionable repute, to whom the Risen Lord first appears. In Luke the Risen Lord first appears to Cleopas and you.

Well, this sets us up for the way of the Lord, doesn't it? Listen to among the last words of the Risen Lord: "In Christ's name the message about repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations." (Luke) "If you forgive people's sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." (John)

Think about it. The main message of the Resurrection is forgiveness. It is about being forgiven, and who is without sin in the Bible or in this sanctuary? It is about being forgiven and about forgiving others as we have been forgiven. This is the Word of the Risen Lord.

4) And finally, a fourth Resurrection theme: we will find the Risen Lord like the disciples as we journey to Emmaus. We will find the Risen Lord on the roads of life, or upon the seas of Galilee, or in the urban habitations of Jerusalem, or in the wildernesses of Judah.

We will find the Risen Lord wherever we live and toil, wherever hospitality is offered to the stranger, wherever sinners are forgiven, and wherever care is provided to the least of God's children, especially where care is provided to the least of God's children. We will find the Risen Lord there. I am absolutely sure of it.

The Lord of life is not to be discovered in remote rooms removed from the daily grind, nor cloistered in caves, nor propped up in pious prayer towers. Though let's not limit the Lord. The Lord is there, too.

But more commonly our Easter faith occurs where common people live amidst the ordinary, routine, sometimes disappointing, and even broken events of life. Our Easter occurs where human concerns are expressed, hopes are shared, and people are honest about themselves and their predicaments.

You see, Easter is celebrated as the Lord meets Mary with her tears, the women with their fears, Peter with his failures, Thomas with his doubts, and the disciples ambling aimlessly along the road of life.

Where else would we expect to meet the Lord of life, but right where we are on the road of life? So don't put your trumpets away yet. Let the Easter resound continue to sound in your corner of the world, for Christ is risen, Christ is risen, indeed, and so are you, to the glory of God. AMEN.