“Walking with Jesus”
Luke 24:13-35
Two of Jesus’ disciples are walking home, down a dusty road, on the afternoon that Jesus rose from the dead.
I wonder if, before Jesus was crucified, they had ever expected to walk down this road again.
Had they planned to return home, some day, after having left everything to follow Jesus?
After-all, as they say, they had “hoped that [Jesus] was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”
Nah, I think they had left home for good when they decided to follow Jesus.
But now that Jesus was gone; there was nowhere else for them to go.
Time to return to the old routine.
Time to get back to life.
What other choices were there?
There can be no doubt that the seven mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus was an especially difficult one on the afternoon of the first Easter.
We are told that as these two disciples were walking they were talking about everything that had happened.
They couldn’t get it out of their heads: The arrest, the trial, the horrible crucifixion, the fear, and now the confusion.
Some of the women had gone to the tomb that morning, and didn’t find Jesus’ body.
They had told them that they had seen “a vision of angels, who said that [Jesus] was alive.”
But that was just “crazy talk.”
They couldn’t stand anymore of it.
They had had enough.
And so, they headed home, defeated, with their tails between their legs.
Jesus had not only been their Lord, their hope and their reason for living—He had been their friend.
And they had believed in Him.
They had really believed.
They had walked so many miles with Jesus.
And they had so many happy memories.
What amazing and exciting times those had been.
But never again would they walk with Him.
Never again would they hear His voice.
They had enjoyed the Last Supper with Him just a few days ago, but now they would never eat with Him again.
They must have felt so empty.
They must have felt so lost.
I suppose they were in shock.
What would come next?
Isolation?
Anger?
Depression?
They were experiencing the stages of grief.
There aren’t many people in this room who haven’t experienced the loss of a loved one.
There aren’t many of us who cannot relate, in some way, to what Cleopas and the other disciple were experiencing on that long walk to Emmaus.
(pause)
We are told in our Gospel Lesson for this morning that as the two disciples walked along, “Jesus himself came up and walked along with them” but they didn’t recognize Him.
And so they stood with “their faces downcast.”
I don’t know if very many of us recognize the Risen Christ the first time we see Him.
And how could we?
Oftentimes we aren’t looking for Him.
We aren’t expecting Him.
I mean, we don’t even have a picture to go by.
Just look at our passage for this morning.
We are told that the two disciples thought the Resurrected Jesus was “a stranger.”
People do have experiences, though.
One time my mother was walking across the campus of Ohio State University, where she went to school.
As she walked, she noticed another pair of feet walking next to hers.
Somehow, she knew it was Jesus.
She walked like that for a little while, until finally, she decided to look up.
But the One Who had been walking with her suddenly disappeared from her sight.
Are there different dimensions, and if we could only see through the eyes of faith, we could see so much more?
I really have no idea.
As far as I know, I have never actually literally “seen Jesus” but I have felt His presence with me many, many times.
I have experienced His love and care during times of terrible crisis.
I have seen His love carried out through other people Who love and follow Him.
I’ve experienced His Presence as I’ve read the Scriptures and worshipped.
And the older I get, the more aware I am that He is with me at all times.
I pray to Him nearly continuously.
I love Him.
I trust that He has forgiven me—even me and has delivered me from hell and death.
And I know He loves me and everyone else who lives and has ever lived.
And I see Him in other people.
I see Him in you all—right now, even.
I see Him in children and those who are elderly.
I see Him in those who hurt.
I see Him in the hungry.
I see Him in the addicts.
I see Him in those who are struggling, but have great faith, even in the midst of situations I cannot even fathom.
I also see Him working in the lives of the rich and well-fed.
But sometimes, I see a lot more pain, sadness and emptiness in the lives of the rich and well-fed than I do in middle class or lower middle class folks or people living in abject poverty.
It’s kind of weird.
I remember one time, about 15 or so years ago, when SUV’s were REALLY getting popular and Bigger and Bigger and Bigger.
Another pastor friend of mine and I were driving behind a brand new SUV.
It was the most gigantic thing I’d ever seen.
I mentioned to him, “Wow, isn’t that something?”
His reply was: “I think it’s one of the most disgusting and ugly things I have ever seen.”
It was quite an insight for me.
A much different view than the world would have seen and than I saw at the time.
There was a time when I was impressed by money and fancy cars, big houses, and so forth.
But the lust for them reflect a sort of “blindness” to the Reality of the Resurrected Christ, and what it means to be “truly human.”
There’s a bit of sadness in ton’s of money spent on self and little or none shared with others.
Of course, a lot of good can be done with money.
Being rich isn’t a sin.
It’s what we do with what we’ve got.
And in my life, I am sure I make a lot of bad decisions along these lines and have a very long way to go.
Why am I saying all this stuff?
I’m saying this stuff because when we come face to face with the Resurrected Christ, and finally recognize Him and accept the grace to try and follow Him and then come to love Him and He becomes Lord of our lives and the biggest part of who we are…
…we change—big time.
Of course, the changes take time.
But they do come.
I bet the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus that first Easter Sunday had already changed a lot.
How couldn’t they?
If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have been so heartbroken in thinking that Jesus was dead; that their hope was a lie.
Have you ever had a crisis of faith?
Have you ever wondered if Jesus was really with you or really loved you?
I have.
I experienced that for a number of years.
And this was after I had been saved.
It took 10 years for me to regain my confidence, my faith in Christ.
It took 10 years for me to be able to look back and realize Jesus had been with me all along.
He had been guiding and molding and moving in my life all the while and I hadn’t even been aware of it.
That moment of awareness, though.
Wow.
Nothing beats that!!!
It makes all the pain worthwhile--amazingly enough.
While we are going through the pain, the misery, the isolation, the fear, the anger, the disappointment, the mourning—it may seem as if nothing good can come of it—but when we find that Jesus is with us on the journey…
…that becomes all that matters.
And our joy becomes complete.
We find that we truly can do all things through Christ Who gives us strength.
And nothing can separate us from His love.
“Ask and it will be given to you: search, and you will find: knock, and the door will be opened for you.
For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
As Jesus walked along with the two forlorn disciples on the road to Emmaus He spoke to them.
“Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”
And their “hearts were burning” within them.
Have you ever felt like that?
I have.
I’ve had conversations with others about God and the Bible—and felt my heart burn and my adrenaline rush with excitement and new insight.
I’ve also experienced that as I’ve read Scripture alone with Jesus at my side.
But still, even as the disciples’ felt their hearts burn with excitement, they still did not recognize the Resurrected Christ.
He was still a stranger.
And when they finally reached their home, Jesus—not One to force Himself upon others—“walked ahead as if he were going on.”
“But they urged him [a stranger] strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is nearly over.’
So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him…”
In the final judgment Jesus tells us that He appears repeatedly to us in the form of people who are in need of food, drink, and a warm welcome, and says: “Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
The Resurrected Christ comes to us as a stranger.
He walks along side us.
He asks us questions.
He informs us.
He loves on us.
And He hopes we will invite Him in.
And when and if we do—we see Him—and our eyes are opened and our lives are never the same again!!!
