Anyone here watch Spiderman movies?
As a child I was never really interested in Spiderman,
however my son Zackary has convinced me to watch the Spiderman movies with him and I quite enjoy them..
One of the story lines of these movies is the potential romance between a young skinny whimpy man called Peter Parker,
who is also Spiderman and a beautiful lady.
Peter Parker looks nothing like a super hero.
He’s a skinny, wimpy looking guy.
And for most of the movies the young lady has no idea that Peter is Spiderman,
and no idea that Spiderman is this young wimpy Peter Parker.
Now if you were this young lady and you were walking down a
dark street who would you prefer to be with.
Peter Parker or Spiderman.
Initially she never recognized that she was with Spiderman.
But later learns that Peter Parker and Spiderman are the same person.
What about you and God?
Have there ever been times when you did not recognise God was present in your life,
only to find out later he was there all a long?
When the Tsunami hit on that boxing day some years ago, many people asked;
Where was God?
What is God up to?
Was God still enjoying Christmas?
This was the reaction of some people.
However almost immediately after these events people saw God in action.
God came amongst people, when groups like Australian Lutheran World Service and many other agencies came helping those in need.
Came helping people who had lost everything and were without food and clothing.
So amongst their disappointment God pops up, to help.
That is often how God works.
And the characters in today’s Gospel reading were despondent.
A lot had happened; it was still the day of the resurrection.
However they had seen Jesus.
They were probably miserable, confused, worried, uncertain.
Just imagine the scene.
These two characters had placed their faith in Jesus as the one to fix up Israel’s problems.
To redeem Israel.
And now it doesn’t look like this will happen.
Ever felt like that with God.
That you put your faith and trust in God
and things don’t seem to be working out.
Well these two characters were on their way home.
Probably dragging their feet.
Heads bowed.
Worried, confused, disappointed.
Because they hadn’t seen Jesus.
But others claimed they had.
Listen again to what they said,
about those women seeing Jesus.
In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body.
They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
From their discussion with the stranger they had met on the road,
It was apparent they weren’t fully convinced that Jesus had risen.
Because he hadn’t appeared to them.
They hadn’t seen.
There was no body.
A missing body causes problems.
For the two characters in today’s reading it results in them being unsure if he is alive or not.
And If he is a alive, they are wondering where is he.
Why hadn’t he appeared to everyone.
We often think if we were God we would make sure everyone knew we were around.
Often we are like a little 4 year old girl I read about who was asked,
Who was asked, what was the first things Jesus said when he came out of the tomb…
Without hesitation she replied:
TADA I am alive.
But he didn’t do that.
And if he is not alive where is the body.
At least with a body there was somewhere to go and remember this remarkable man.
Remember in the earlier reading, they stated Jesus was a great prophet.
Now it is important for us to have places to go to remember those people who were special to us.
On mother’s day cemeteries are full of flowers,
with people remembering their mums and all the good thing their mum had done.
So a missing body is a problem.
Either way it will lead to disappointment.
If Jesus is alive, why haven’t we seen him.
If he is dead, where is the body so we can pay tribute to him.
In today’s Gospel reading we see how Jesus addresses this disappointment, confusion and worry.
The first thing he does is he walks with them.
He spends time with them.
Did you notice he doesn’t come along and go TADA?
Instead he walks along with them.
Listening to them and talking to them and ultimately eats with them..
He does what the reading from 1 Peter tells each of us to do as disciples,
Jesus shows sincere love for them.
And as he walks with them he slowly reveals himself to them.
And he does exactly that in our lives.
The more time we spend with Jesus, the better we get to know him.
The longer our relationship continues with Jesus,
Our relationship with Jesus is like any other relationship
For instance some of you have been married for many years. And if I asked you do you know more about your partner now than you knew when you first met them the answer for most of you would be of course.
Our relationships grow, develop.
And our relationship with Jesus does the same.
Every time we reading His word, the bible we discover some aspects of Jesus interacting with us.
Everytime we worship we our relationship with Jesus is being affected.
And likewise everytime we share time with other Christians the same thing occurs.
Jesus walks with us, revealing who he is, and who we are.
He shows care for us.
However Jesus doesn’t just say everything should be all lovey dovey or good.
That’s often how we perceive things should be.
Occasionally I get myself into situations where I end up playing the game
If I was God for a day…
If you were God for a day, what would happen.
When I have played this game with others, some of the responses we get are…
If I was God for a day, there would be total peace on earth.
If I was God for a day, everyone would have everything they wanted.
If I was God for a day, everyone would be happy.
If I was God for a day, what would life be like?
As Christians many of us think if we were God for a day, then the life of a Christian would be the most attractive,
the easiest life one could have.
That Jesus would always be very obvious in our lives,
That we would always see Jesus going TADA…
However the way we perceive things should be, and the way God says life will be are not always the same.
And this is the second thing Jesus does with these two characters on the road to Emmaus to help them through their disappointments.
He points out on God says life will be, differs to how they would like things to be.
Listen again to verses 25 to 27
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
To the these two followers of Jesus does something very important he reminds them that some of their disappointment is because they have forgotten what the scriptures were saying.
They had forgotten what God said life will be.
And we too need to remember this.
As disciples of Jesus Christ that God reminds us in scripture of how life will be.
For instance he reminds us that we will not always notice His presence in our life.
In Matthew chapter 25, we are reminded that the people seeking food, drink or clothing may in fact be Jesus.
And we are also reminded in numerous places throughout the Gospels and the epistles that the life of a disciples will not always be easy.
When we watched the events of Easter according to the Gospel of John, Jesus reminded us that because they hated him, we his followers will also be hated.
This is not how I would plan things out.
But this is how God says things will be.
And when we understand this, life begins to make sense.
So listen God as He speaks to you through the bible.
And the third thing Jesus does is that he reveals himself to these disciples.
Now something interesting happens when he does this.
Remember in the reading the reason why Jesus ended up at their house, was because it was evening and they insisted that he couldn’t go on.
However after they saw him, Jesus vanished.
But they didn’t wait to the next morning, they left that night and went back to the other disciples, who had also seen Jesus and said, hey we have seen him to.
Do you share how Jesus has been present in your life,
How you have seen Jesus working
with other members of our congregation, with other Christians?
This is important as it continues to encourage us a congregation, it encourages other Christians.
So if or when you are disappointed with God remember that Jesus is walking with you, to hear how God says life will be and to hear and share how God is working in your life.
Remember that God never leaves us, he has defeated death for each of us, and like the footprints poem highlights so well when we only see one set of footprints in our lives, they are God’s carrying us.
Let us pray
AMEN
