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SERMONS

Third Sunday of Easter
April 6, 2008

By The Rev. Sylvia Czarnetzky

Acts 2:14a, 36-47
Psalm 116:10-17
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35

This time of the church year, I feel a little cheated. You see, during Holy Week, in our gospel readings there is such an enormous amount of detail about Jesus’s last days on earth -- the last supper, the trial, the thorns, the nails, the cross, the tomb. The suffering and death of Jesus is told in excruciating detail. (Taylor 19)

Yet, the gospels are relatively stingy with details about the resurrection of Jesus: we get very little detail about the resurrection, and that has always bothered me.

Don’t we as Christians, believe that the resurrection of Jesus is more significant to us than the death of Jesus? Isn’t the resurrection more important for us, theologically, than the passion of Jesus? Then why do we get so little detail about the resurrection? I don’t get it. 

What do we know about the resurrection, really? How much do we really know about what actually happened on that Sunday morning two thousand years ago? Today’s gospel gives us a window on what two disciples were thinking on the very day of the resurrection.

Listen to how one disciple describes the events of Easter morning as he walked down the Emmaus road on Easter afternoon: 

“…it is now the third day since [the crucifixion]. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” (Lk. 24:21-4)

Can you hear the uncertainty in the voices of the disciples?

This is what we heard, then we went to see for ourselvesand this is what we saw…”

Mind you, this is the same day they found the empty tomb -- their memory is as fresh as it can be!

We simply don’t get a lot of detail about the resurrection;
to make matters worse, our gospels include only seven stories of the resurrected Jesus appearing to the disciples. (Taylor 19)

But today’s gospel is one of them. Today we hear the story of Jesus appearing to two disciples on the Emmaus Road.

It’s Easter afternoon, and rumors of resurrection are flying all over Jerusalem. Cleopas and one other disciple are walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, which is about a seven-mile journey.

And as they walk down the Emmaus road, they are undoubtedly talking about all they’ve heard and all that’s happened for the past three days.

And this stranger falls into step with them and begins to walk with them, and the disciples talk to him, but they don’t recognize who he is.

And it’s also clear that the disciples don’t yet understand
what the death and rumored resurrection of Jesus mean.
So the stranger tries to help them understand. The stranger talks to them about fulfillment of scripture, from Moses and the prophets on down. (24:27)

Then the men get to Emmaus, and the stranger tries to keep going, but the disciples call him back.

“Stay with us,” they say, “because it is almost evening
and the day is now nearly over.” (24:28-9) 

And the stranger accepts disciples invitation. And it is not until the stranger takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and
gives it to them, that they recognize this stranger for who he is -- the risen Christ.  And the moment they recognize him, he vanishes from their sight. (24:30-1)

And what do these two disciples do when they realize
they’ve been walking and talking with the risen Christ
all the way from Jerusalem to Emmaus? They turn around immediately! And they begin to walk back to Jerusalem to tell the others! (24:33)

Remember, these disciples have had a big day and a long day, and, p.s. night has fallen, yet they still turn right around and begin the seven-mile walk back to Jerusalem,
And they share their remarkable story with the others who are gathered there. (Lk. 24:33-5)

For me, the Emmaus Road story is all about this: deciding whether the rumor of resurrection is true. Not everybody saw Jesus risen from the dead, before he ascended into heaven, and those who did not see him with their own eyes had to make up their minds about whether Jesus was resurrected from the dead. (Taylor 19-20)

So the Emmaus story is a story of seeing and not seeing,
of believing and not believing, of recognizing Jesus and failing to recognize him. But one thing I’ve always wondered about: how could they not recognize him? “[H]ow could these two disciples not have perceived that it was Jesus butting into their conversation? Hadn’t they been following Him very closely?" Didn’t they know what he looked like? Hadn’t they been paying attention? (Dawn 16)

Maybe they were just upset about all that had happened, (16) or unsure what to believe about all of this. But for some reason the disciples were for a time “prevent[ed] from beholding” the risen Christ right there in their midst! (16)

Maybe it’s just me.  Maybe I’m being too literal or too demanding. Or maybe I’m focusing on the wrong things in this story. Maybe the point is not why it took so long
for them to recognize Jesus. Maybe the point has more to do with what helped them recognize Jesus.
What healed their temporary blindness? How did they figure out who Jesus was? (Brueggemann 280)

Well, there were at least two ways that the identity of the risen Christ was revealed to them -- first, by scripture -- remember Jesus talked at length about the prophets and the scriptures as they walked along. But it was not until the breaking of the bread that Jesus’s identity was revealed to them. (280)
                                                         
Scripture and the breaking of the bread -- that’s where they found the risen Christ on that Easter afternoon. If scripture and the breaking of the bread were the two things that helped cure these cases of temporary blindness, surely, there’s hope for us! (280)

Because isn’t that what Luke is after for us -- that same kind of “Aha!” moment where we suddenly and completely recognize the risen Christ in our midst? And scripture, and bread and wine are the things that help us get there --
that help us open our eyes to see the resurrected Christ
walking with us down the road. (Rossing 31)

It also seems to me that the Emmaus road story is really our story too. Because aren’t we like the disciples that day – wanting the rumors of resurrection to be true, but not quite convinced? wanting to believe in the empty tomb, hoping the resurrection rumors are true, yet not quite there? (Dawn 17)

I think in that way our struggle is no different from theirs:
We want the gospel to be true, but our cynicism won’t quite let us. And we spend much of our lives vacillating
between “wishful thinking anddespairing cynicism.” (17)

But one of the things I find enormously comforting about this story even though the disciples didn’t recognize Jesus right away, Jesus didn’t give up on them!!  (Taylor 22-3)

The temporary “blindness of the two disciples does not
keep their Christ from coming to them. He does not limit his post-resurrection appearances to those with full confidence in him. He comes to the disappointed, the doubtful,” the inconsolable.

“He comes to those who do not know their Bibles, who do not recognize him even when they are walking right beside him. He comes to those who have given up and are headed back home,…” (22)                   

And that’s why we come to this table, Sunday after Sunday. So we can know Christ in the breaking of bread and in the word. So we can recognize God’s presence among us, even if it’s only for a moment.” (23)

For “[t]his is the place he has promised to be, and this is the place he returns to meet us again and again. Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the bread.” (Taylor 23) Amen.

Works Cited

Brueggemann, Walter, et al. Texts for Preaching: Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV - Year A. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995. 273-81.

Colon-Emeric, Edgardo Antonio. “Consorting with aliens.”  “Living by the Word.” Christian Century April 5, 2005. 18.

Dawn, Marva. “Behold, it came to pass.” Journal for Preachers. Easter, 2005.

Rossing, Barbara A. “The Season of Easter.” New Proclamation, Year A.Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005.

Taylor, Barbara Brown. “Blessed Brokenness.” Gospel Medicine. Cambridge: Cowley Press, 1995. 19-23.