“What do you want?” “I don’t know. What do you want?” “I’m not sure, what do you think?” “I don’t know. What do you think?” Sound familiar? Ever had a conversation like that when it comes to choosing a movie or a TV show or what to order for takeout – pizza, fish, Chinese, Mexican, Thai? “I don’t know. What do you think?”
You can almost picture Jesus’ followers huddled in that room in Jerusalem on Easter Sunday having that type of conversation, but not on what to eat or what to watch. The confusion of that morning was still hanging in air leaving them unsure what to do or even what to think. “Jesus is dead,” says some of the disciples. “No, Jesus is alive!” say the women who returned from the tomb. Peter and John chime in, “The tomb WAS empty.” And then you hear two of Jesus’ followers say, “We’re leaving,” and they walk out the door and head towards a village called Emmaus.
Cleopas and his travelling companion (we’re not told their name) began walking away from Jerusalem, but Jerusalem did not leave them. They could not help themselves from talking about all that had happened in Jerusalem over the last week. There was Palm Sunday when Jesus rides into Jerusalem to the praise of the crowds, and there was the teaching of Jesus to the crowds at the temple. There was his arrest by the Jewish religious leaders and his execution by crucifixion. And now there were these women who came this morning and said that an angel told them that Jesus was alive and that they saw him. It was all so hard to wrap their minds around, to understand, to believe. So they decided to leave Jerusalem. Maybe getting out of the city would help clear their heads, collet their thoughts and calm their hearts. Little did they know just how very good this walk was going to be for them.
Suddenly a man starts walking along side of them. His identify has been hidden from them. It’s Jesus and he’s listening to their conversation when he asks, “What are you guys talking about?” Jesus’ seemingly absurd question stops them in their tracks as Cleopas exclaims, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days?” (Luke 24:18). Where did this guy come from? Did he just crawl out of some hole in the ground not to have heard what all of Jerusalem had been talking about? At first it might seem like Jesus was toying with these disciples a bit when he asks them, “What things?” (Luke 24:19). But what did Jesus’ question lead them to do? It forced them to think about all that they had seen, learned, heard and believed.
You can almost imagine a smile coming to Cleopas’ face when he says, “[Jesus of Nazareth] was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people” (Luke 24:19). Cleopas thinks back to better days. He thinks about the powerful miracles that Jesus had performed and the authority by which he spoke, confirming who he was both before God and the people who saw him. But then the smile begins to fade from his face as Cleopas says, “The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:20,21). Here is the heart of the matter. They hoped and believed that this Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah, who through his suffering would accomplish all that God had promised for his people. But the suffering and death of Jesus seemed to have accomplished nothing. Why? Cleopas explains, “And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place” (Luke 24:21). Jesus had not just died an hour or two before this conversation. Jesus had now been dead for three days. They thought that there was absolutely no way that Jesus could possibly be who they hoped him to be. What only added to their confusion was that some women said that Jesus was alive, and his tomb was empty. It was all so confusing, so hard to believe, so difficult to understand.
Have you ever been there? I think we know that feeling maybe sometimes better than we’d like to admit. We struggle with the question of why. Why would go allow this to happen to me or to someone that I care about? Why doesn’t God do something to take away the pain or to remove this struggle with pornography or jealousy or gossip? Maybe it’s when we do what God asks us to do and it actually makes our life more difficult. You decide to have that conversation with a son or daughter about the choices that they’re making which are not what God wants for them, and what’s the result? That son or daughter gets angry at you and stops talking to you. Or maybe you look at your marriage and while you know that God says marriage is a gift, wow is it hard to see when the person you live with seems to just make your life miserable. You look at life and what you or others are going through and it all seems so confusing, God’s promises so hard to believe, God’s ways so difficult to understand. And so the temptation is to just walk away – walk away from Jesus and go it on your own.
When I was reading through this account in Luke 24 I began wondering why Jesus waited so long to reveal his identity to these two disciples. First, can you imagine if Jesus had immediately revealed his identity to these disciples? Do you think they would have heard a single thing that Jesus said afterwards? They would have been so excited and overwhelmed that they probably would have just grabbed Jesus hand and tried to drag him back to Jerusalem to show the other disciples. But I think that there is something more to why Jesus waited. Jesus wanted to show us something important. If Jesus would have showed his disciples who he was we might say, “Well, of course they believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, they saw the resurrected Jesus.” But instead what does Jesus first do with these disciples who were confused and struggling? Listen to Jesus’ words, “’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” (Luke 24:25-27). Where did Jesus take these confused and struggling disciples? He takes them to the same place that is available to you and me today. He takes them to the Bible.
He shows them from the Bible that what he did was exactly what the Bible said that the promised Savior was supposed to do. In fact, Jesus was just reminding them of what they already knew. Just think about it! Why was it that Cleopas and so many others believed that Jesus was as Cleopas said “the one” – the one promised by God to suffer and die as the payment for the world’s sins? It was because they saw that Jesus had in fact had done all that was foretold about him throughout the Old Testament. Hundreds of prophecies, written by multiple prophets, over thousands of years were all fulfilled by this one man Jesus of Nazareth. Read through the gospel of Matthew which describes the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and count the number of times he says, “as it was written” or “to fulfill what the prophets” in reference to Jesus as fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The entirety of the Old Testament points to Jesus, the one promised by God who would come to make peace between a holy God and sinful people. Every sacrifice that was offered in the Old Testament was a reminder of that cost of sin. That sin requires the sacrifice of life and the shedding of blood. They all pointed ahead to the perfect sacrifice for sin that God would provide in his Son Jesus, born from the nation of Israel, in Judah, in the town of Bethlehem at God’s perfectly appointed time. As the disciple John would later write about Jesus, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).
What those disciples saw in the suffering and death of Jesus was exactly what they and all of us need for Jesus to do. That was Jesus paying what is required for our sin. Our sins of doubt, anger, lust, jealousy and every other sin that requires our suffering and separation from God, God’s son Jesus has taken for us. Jesus became the curse of sin so that we could stand at peace with God. How do we know that what Jesus has done is enough for us to be at peace with God? Because Jesus has entered his glory by rising from the dead. Jesus has now resumed full use of his glory as God that he has set aside in order to suffer and die for us. It is all right there, just as the Bible says.
When we find ourselves confused, and struggling, doubting God’s power, questioning his goodness, wondering about his faithfulness or whatever else it might be, don’t walk away from Jesus. Walk with Jesus, just like Jesus did with those followers on the road to Emmaus on Easter afternoon. See what Jesus showed them as he opened up the Scriptures, the same Scriptures that God has graciously given to you and me. See the God who not only makes promises, but keeps them even when it seems unlikely or impossible. See a God who is merciful and compassionate, who is patient and long-suffering not wanting a single soul to be lost. See a God whose power is limited by nothing, whose love is boundless. See a God who does not leave us guessing about what is good for us, but guides us with is Word to show us the way of blessing. See a God who strengthens us in our struggles, who brings clarity in times of confusion, and who walks beside us through this life and is waiting there at the finish line when our life is over. Dear friends, see what those disciples saw in the Scriptures, see Jesus your living Savior. Amen.
