Title: The Faces of Jesus
Text: Luke 24:13-35
Thesis: We do not always realize the roles or recognize the activity of Christ in our lives.
Significance: It is the Road to Emmaus text wherein we see Jesus as a stranger, as a guest and as a host.
Introduction
It seems like a long time ago but the haunting lyrics of Joan Osbourne’s “What If God Was One of Us” remain fresh in my mind and mostly so because it is a thought provoking question.
If God had a name, what would it be
And would you call it to his face
If you were faced with him in all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
If God had a face what would it look like
And would you want to see
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
He's trying to make his way home
Back up to heaven all alone
Nobody calling on the phone
Except for the pope maybe in Rome
More recently, in the television series Joan of Arcadia, a teenager Joan Girardi, sees and speaks with God and performs tasks she is given. The title song for the series is Joan Osbourne’s “What if God Was One of Us.”
In the Joan of Arcadia pilot episode, God appears to Joan and reminds her that she promised to do anything he wanted if he would let her brother survive a car crash that left him a paraplegic. God appears in the form of various people including small children, teenage boys, elderly ladies, transients, or passersby. Joan is asked by God to perform tasks that often may seem strange but are for the greater good.
In addition to working through my understanding of the God-head… the Holy Trinity, Three-in-One, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I have often wondered if God might show up in the face of a Compassion child or a homeless person or an emergency room nurse or school teacher or a kindly stranger who stops to help change your tire. All of that kind of thinking is purely speculative but in our post-resurrection text today we see the face of Jesus in three different characters.
As our text begins Jesus is the stranger.
I. Loving the Stranger
As they walked along… Jesus suddenly came and began walking with them. But God kept them from recognizing him. Luke 24:13-27
A stranger is someone you have not met before or do not know. By extension a stranger may be thought of as a foreigner or an intruder… one who does not belong.
Two of Jesus followers were walking on a road leading from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus when suddenly Jesus pops into the picture as they were walking and asks them what they are talking about. The one named Cleopas was shocked, “You must be the only stranger in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about what happened a couple of days ago.”
Part of me thinks this is kind of a preposterous situation… how is it that two followers of Jesus did not recognize him? Was Jesus so changed by his death that he was unrecognizable? I confess I’ve not always recognized the deceased. Or were they just so grief stricken and preoccupied that they did not notice? Sometimes I make an appointment to meet someone I walk into Starbucks or a restaurant and look around as if I might recognize someone I’ve never met. I usually tell whomever I’m meeting that I am easy to spot because I’ll be the handsomest man in the room. But these guys knew Jesus. However the Scripture says God kept them from recognizing Jesus.
As this account unfolds the first image we have of Jesus is that of a stranger… Cleopas said to Jesus, “You must be the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know…” (It would have seemed to them as it would have seemed to anyone in Dallas on November 22, 1963 if someone had asked, “What are you talking about?” They would have responded, “You must be the only stranger in Dallas who has not heard that President John F. Kennedy has been assassinated.”)
Strangers. There was a day when you saw a GI dressed in his uniform, carrying a duffle bag and thumbing a ride… you pulled over and gave him a lift. But times have changed. I’m not comfortable giving rides to strangers… Giving rides to hitch hikers is a good way to get yourself robbed or kidnapped or killed. (I had a friend who figured out what to do if a stranger wants a ride. He said, “If someone approaches you and asks, ‘What way are you going,’ you immediately ask back, “Which way are you going?” Then when they say, ‘East,’ you say, “I’m headed west.”)
Once at a truck stop I noticed a big one ton Dodge Dually pulling an auto transport carrying four classic cars. They were likely purchased at an auto auction and the buyer was having them shipped somewhere. I thought at the time that that would be a pretty cool job… driving a big Dodge diesel, dually, hauling classic cars.
There was a prominent sign on the cab of the Dodge that read, “Private Carrier – Not for Hire – No Passengers.” In other words, “Stranger, don’t bother asking to ride along with me.”
Most of us are afraid of or dread something. Jennifer Aniston, Cher, and Whoopi Goldberg are all aviophobes. They are afraid of flying. Michael Jackson was haunted by the fear of contamination, infections, and diseases. He was mysophobic. Famous people of the past were no different. George Washington was scared to death of being buried alive. Richard Nixon was terrified of hospitals, and Napoleon Bonaparte was afraid of cats.
We fear strangers. Unlike the wariness we have of strangers, these two guys modeled what Jesus had taught them. They showed love for the stranger… they did not ignore him. They did not try to ditch him. They just let him come along side them as one of the group.
The word for loving the stranger is:
Philoxenia – Love the Stranger
Xenophobia – Fear the Stranger
These two disciples modeled what they had learned from Christ as they walked along with this “stranger.” They practiced “philoxenia” which means they “loved the stranger.” What those disciples modeled is very unlike the way society sees the stranger. The prevalent attitude today is what we call “xenophobia” which means “fear the stranger.”
One day last week I made a pass through McDonalds for a quick breakfast. I pulled away from the drive-thru and parked in the middle of the large lot on the northeast corner of Sheridan and 72nd… near the now vacant Albertson’s. Note… I parked way out in the middle. No one was around. I could eat my burrito and sip my coffee and read the paper in peace. I was all settled in, making my way through the paper when someone tapped on the window… like right next to my head. I nearly had a stroke.
I am not afraid of much but I was startled and the last thing I was thinking at that moment was “love the stranger.”
In Hebrews we are encouraged to, “keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters. Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it.” Hebrews 13:;1-2 Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if that guy tapping on my window was an angel and after I had given him a piece of my mind that I could not afford to lose and a swift kick in the seat of the pants, the angel zipped up to tell Jesus I was a bonified xenophobiaist jerk?
Jesus may come to us, as he came to those men making their 7 mile hike to Emmaus and the questions are: “Will we love the stranger?” Or will we “fear the stranger?”
Likely, we see Jesus in the faces of the strangers we meet along the way… we just don’t recognize him.
It is as they reach the village of Emmaus that we see another face… we see the face of a guest.
II. Welcoming the Guest
By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he was going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” Luke 24:28-29
I am hardly a seasoned traveler so I do not speak from a lot of “man of the world” experience. However I have stayed in a couple of really nice hotels. The one I am most familiar with is the Hyatt Regency in Rosemont near O’Hare Airport. (The Hyatt is the site of our Annual Covenant Midwinter Meetings in late January/early February.) The Hyatt has a Concierge Service.
I am not even sure I can say it right so I am hardly one to comment on what they do but my understanding is the position or office of Concierge finds its origin in France. The Concierge was a doorman in a large apartment building. His job was to man the door, hold mail for absentee residents, keep apartment keys in the event of an emergency, receiving deliveries, etc. The Concierge lived in a small apartment on the ground floor of the apartment building or in some hotels where he could monitor the comings and goings of residents and guests.
Today the Concierge serves hotel guests in recommending and making reservations for guests, making suggestions regarding the best night spots, arranging taxi or limo services, procuring tickets for special events, etc.
On my first day at the Hyatt this January I stopped by the Concierge’s desk for a newspaper… they were out. We chatted. The next morning and every morning after that, the Concierge saved a paper for me. When he saw me coming he would hold up a finger as if to say, “Just a moment,” duck into the room behind his desk and emerge with a copy of USA Today. We’d chat about the weather, our grandkids or whatever and off I would go with my newspaper. I felt the hospitality… the Concierge made me feel welcome in his world.
In the plotline Jesus and the two have completed their 7 mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They had reached the exit and were about to walk off onto the Emmaus Road Ramp. Jesus the stranger was about to continue on but the two disciples, in typical Middle Eastern style, invited… actually begged him to stop and spend the night with them.
This is more than just being polite and gracious toward a stranger… it is actually inviting the stranger into their lives to share their home and hospitality.
There are numerous stories from the Gospels that demonstrate the heart of a welcoming person. The story of the Good Samaritan comes to mind. As in the case of those who are caught in a blizzard or displaced by a fire or flood… the Good Samaritan welcomes the neighbor into his life. In the story of the great feast and Master sent his servants out to roust out every person they could find and bring them back to be guests at his banquet. In Matthew 25 the true followers of Christ welcome the guest who is hungry, thirsty, ill or imprisoned. And it is in welcoming the marginalized into our lives that we have in fact welcomed Christ into our lives. Jesus said, “In as much as you have done it for one of the least of these, you have done it to me.”
In light of that image, Esther de Waal suggests that, at the end of all hospitable activity, we are faced with two questions: “Did we see Christ in them? Did they see Christ is us?”
So it is that we see the face of Jesus in the faces of those to whom we are hospitable.
As we reach the conclusion of our text we see yet another face… we see the face of a host.
III. Recognizing the Host
As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Luke 24:30-31
A host is a person who receives or entertains other people. A host may be a person who organizes and holds an event to which others are invited.
We have quickly noted that within the span of this encounter Jesus went from being “stranger” to “guest” to “host.”
There is a certain tension between being “the guest” or “the host.” I often wonder if I am the guest or the host when invited to lunch or dinner. Who says grace, the guest or the host? Which am I? When invited to lunch or dinner my inclination is to simply take the check… I hate that lag time while the check lays there waiting to see who is going to pick it up. Does the guest become the host if the host does not pick up the tab?
I don’t know if Jesus was feeling any of this awkwardness but as we move along in the text we see Jesus who began as a stranger who was then welcomed as a guest into their home becomes the host. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. At that moment he disappeared! Luke 24:30-31
Theologically we make the leap to see and say that the risen Jesus is the host whenever we come to the Lord’s Table or Communion. When we partake of the broken bread and the cup we are experiencing the real presence of Christ. When we hear the words, “This is my body which is broken for you” and when we hear the words, “this is my blood shed for the forgiveness of you sins” it is Christ who is present and active as the host.
And so as in the case of the stranger and the guest, we see the face of Jesus in the role of host.
The question for us today and always is: Will we see Jesus as the host when we receive the bread and the cup?
Conclusion
I read about a violinist who played in a Metro station in Washington, D.C… he played his violin while his violin case lay open at his feet. Passers-by dropped a few coins or a buck in the case as they walked by on their way to the subway. During the 45 minutes he played, six people stopped to listen. He made $32 before he packed up and went home. The violinist’s name is Josh Bell. He is one of the most renowned classical musicians in the world who plays in concerts where seats sell-out for an average of $100 each.
How it is that such an extraordinary musician would go unnoticed? He went unnoticed because he seemed to be just another broke musician trying to make a few bucks playing for tips in a subway station. He went unnoticed because no one was looking for Josh Bell in a subway station.
I wonder if we don’t see Jesus because we are not looking for Jesus… in the face of the stranger, in the face of the guest and in the face of the host.
So we look for Jesus, as from these lines from Gerald Manley Hopkins’ “As Kingfishers Catch Fire.”
For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces…
