In Jesus Holy Name Easter III 2020
Text: Luke 24:32 Redeemer
“One Sunday Morning in Jerusalem”
He is Risen! He has risen indeed!
We have gathered this Sunday to hear the “rest of the story.” For years the great newsman and philosopher Paul Harvey told his listeners “The Rest of the Story”. His radio program began by telling some story which most people found to be familiar or fascinating. Then, when the story was almost complete, he shared more. Mr. Harvey would then supply a little known fact, which became “the Rest of the Story.”
We are curious people. We love stories. Whenever, two fishermen get together…there is always “The rest of the story”. When we all return from “Sheltering In”, I’m sure we will be interested in “the rest of the story”. What did you do? Tell me “the rest of your story.”
Not once, not twice, but three times Jesus told his disciples: “We are going to Jerusalem. I will be arrested. They are going to put me on trial. I am going to die on the cross.” Each time Jesus added: “and on the third day I’m going to rise from the dead.”
It is this last part which should have caught their attention. Now you and I both know everybody dies; but hardly nobody ever rises from the dead. Rising from the dead is pretty special. I’ve done hundreds of funerals, but none of them have ever risen from the dead… at least not yet. That’s why the disciples should have remembered the times Jesus had said He was going to rise on the third day, but they didn’t. That is why on the Sunday after the Crucifixion they were shocked that the tomb of Jesus was empty.
When Colleen and I were growing up in the Mid West our families would always visit the church cemetery in the late spring. We’d place flowers on the graves of our parents, grand parents. And remember. We’d remember “stories”.
The longest walk you will ever take is the walk away from the grave of someone
you love. If you have never done that, you can’t imagine how difficult it is.
On the eve of Good Friday, it was a painful walk back to their home in Jerusalem for the women who had followed Nicodemus and Joseph to the burial site of Jesus.
• To walk away and feel as if the world has come to an end.
• To walk away and think about what used to be and what might have been.
• To walk away and realize, “I’ll never be the same again.”
• To play over and over in your mind the good times, the laughter, the crazy stories.
• To reach out and touch a face and find it gone forever.
• To cry until you can’t cry anymore.
• To watch your dreams and hopes and all that was good about life, buried.
• To know it is over, done, finished, the end, and there is nothing you can do about it.
It is the longest walk and the saddest day. Every step takes you away from the tombstone of a broken dream. In our Gospel reading these were the feelings of the husband and wife walking to their home in Emmaus after the death of Jesus.
They were disillusioned. The dejected pair were on their seven mile walk home. It was over. They knew life would never be the same. They watched their dreams, their hope for a new Israel with the famous prophet Jesus destroyed, when the great stone sealed His grave.
When they talked about Jesus, their words come slowly. Their faces carried the sadness of grief and loss. Eyes down cast. Shoulders carried the weight of lost hope. “I can hardly believe it. He’s gone.” “What do we do now?”
Everything they said was in the past tense. This is how we normally speak of the dead. They still loved him. They still believed in him as best they could. They clung to every cherished memory. The third day was almost gone and Jesus was nowhere to be found. Bring down the curtain, it’s all over now.
This is what Good Friday looks like without Easter. Without the resurrection,
the cross is nothing but a tragedy, a story without a moral, a drama that ends before the final act. All their dreams for what could have been. Gone.
Remember, they did not know “the rest of the story”. It had not yet been written. A few more steps and they would be home. Just then a stranger comes up behind them and says, “I’m sorry, but I could not help over hearing you. What things are you talking about?” (God Came near M. Lucado p. 87)
“Are you new to Jerusalem? You haven’t heard?” “Heard what?”, the visitor asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth?”
“He was a great prophet. We saw him heal a man paralyzed from birth. We saw Him heal a man born blind. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. We were there when He fed 5000 men, women and children with five barely loaves of bread and two fish. Just a few weeks ago he raised our friend Lazarus from 4 days dead. Now He is dead, crucified by the Romans. We thought …. We thought….He was the long expected prophet.
Like anyone who lost a loved one, they tried to make sense out of the tragedy. Only those who have seen a dream crushed and the death of a great hope can enter fully into this story. If you have ever walked away from a funeral so deeply hurt that you could not speak, if you have loved and been deeply hurt, tried and failed, believed and then been disappointed, you know what it was like for these two disciples on the Emmaus Road.
Their question is our question, only slightly rephrased. Where is Jesus when we need him? Where did he go? Why did he leave us? We thought He was a powerful prophet in word and deed. Why didn’t they recognize the stranger?
Luke tells us that “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” There is even a touch of humor in that Jesus is with them and they think he’s dead.
Jesus rebukes them for one thing and only one thing–for failing to understand the Scriptures. He doesn’t criticize them for leaving Jerusalem and walking back home. He doesn’t criticize their doubt nor condemn their confusion. All of that was perfectly understandable. He tells them they should have known and believed what God had promised. They should have remembered what He himself said. “on the third day I will rise from the dead.” But they too, forgot.
Jesus begins to explain “the rest of the story”: He tells them plainly that it was
necessary for the Christ to suffer and die on the cross. What seemed like the ultimate miscarriage of justice turns out to be the Creator of the Universe’s plan from eternity so that we who have broken His commandments would have peace and harmony with our Creator restored.
No one took his life. He laid it down. Jesus sacrifices His life on the cross so that our broken commandments would be forgiven. No. Forgotten. Erased. So that Satan could never again accuse us of our failures. (Col. 2:15) This is the “”good news” of the cross, verified by the resurrection of Jesus.
There is no better way to understand what Easter is all about. Visit a cemetery and ponder how great the miracle was. Two thousand years ago a man defeated death once and for all. He came out of the grave never to die again. God reversed the natural process when he raised his Son from the dead. It is a pure miracle and a mystery beyond all human knowledge.
That it happened we have no doubt.
But we cannot explain it. And we cannot repeat it, until Jesus returns. When He does every believer will possess a glorified resurrected body. And that’s why we’re still talking about “the rest of the story” ……the resurrection of Jesus twenty centuries later.
The resurrection. That’s “the rest of the story”. When the first Christians preached, they didn’t mention Bethlehem; they talked about the empty tomb. They never got over the fact that on Easter Sunday when they went to the tomb, Jesus was gone.
The resurrection is the central fact of Christianity. Disprove it and nothing is left. That’s why from the very beginning, skeptics and doubters have attacked the Christian faith at this very point. It’s not the virgin birth. It’s not the miracles. It’s not his death. The resurrection is the touchstone that skeptics seek to disprove.
To complete “The Rest of the story” we find that the two disciples had invited this visitor into their home. It was a common Mid-East custom. They asked Him to speak a blessing over the bread. He did. And suddenly He was gone.
Why did he leave so suddenly? The answer is, he didn’t leave them at all. He simply became invisible. Leaving implies a change of geography, but it’s not as if Jesus moved to a different location. He appeared to them on the road but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. Even when he taught them the Scriptures, He still did not reveal himself to them. Only in the course of sharing a meal together did Cleopas and his wife recognize who He was. And then He vanished.
That doesn’t mean he left them. It simply means they could no longer visibly see him. This is the rest of the story for us.
Just because you don’t see Jesus doesn’t mean He isn’t there.
Just because you can’t feel him doesn’t mean He has left you.
Just because you think you are alone doesn’t mean He is no longer by your side.
It is the Holy Spirit that replaces the physical presence of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit that convinces your heart that the resurrection is true. What did the two disciples say: ”Were not our hearts burning within us when He told us the scriptures.” There are times when we all say, “Lord Jesus, it would be wonderful if you would stay a while longer.” And the Lord answers back, “My child, I am with you even though you think I’m gone.”
The two disciples couldn’t wait to get back to Jerusalem. Even though it was late in the evening. They had to go back and tell the others what they had seen and heard. If Jesus is alive, there’s no time to waste.
If Jesus is alive, everything we believe is true.
If Jesus is alive, then death has been defeated.
If Jesus is alive, then heaven is more than a dream. It is real.
If Jesus is alive, then our sins are really forgiven. And forgotten.
If Jesus is alive, then all his promises are true.
He is Risen! Alleluia!
