Third Sunday of Easter

Third Sunday of Easter (A)

April 26, 2020

Text: Luke 24:13-35

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!

            “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25; ESV).  There is no way to know, but I wonder if Jesus spoke this rebuke with a grin on His face.  Though He is making a very serious point, there is a certain humor about it all.  “Guys, wake up!  Are you still so dense?  Is this not what the Scriptures say?”  “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (v. 26).  It is time to catch up with the Easter reality that Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  And the victory remains with life! 

            At the very least, this is not the stern rebuke of indignation.  It is a loving admonition for dear children of God, bought and paid for by this same Jesus’ blood, this same Jesus who is risen from the dead and lives and reigns, for them, and for all, and walks with them on a country road to Emmaus.  And their eyes are kept from recognizing Him, but their hearts burn within them as He interprets to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (v. 27). 

            This line has never before struck me so vividly as in these days of pandemic and uncertainty, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe.”  Because that is me these days!  And it is you, too.  None of us knows how all of this is going to go in the coming days.  Did we flatten the curve?  Are the hospitals up to speed?  Are we through the worst of this pandemic, or are there darker days to come?  Will the economy open and people get back on their feet and back to work?  Will it close again?  What will the government do?  Will our nation and way of life survive?  Am I safe?  Am I secure?  How can I make sure my family members are taken care of and provided for?  So many questions, all unanswered and unanswerable.  And behind them is the illusion that any of this can be controlled.  It can’t!  Life is dangerous.  This is a fallen world.  Nature can be hostile to life.  Human beings don’t know everything and we can’t do everything.  There are forces in Creation, visible and invisible, that are beyond our ability to comprehend or control.

            Well, it’s enough to drive you to despair if you don’t keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and the things of salvation, if you can’t or won’t catch up to the new Easter reality.  Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we’re tempted to think our present circumstances mean the end of the world.  And actually, they may, and when you think about it, for Christians, that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all… Come, Lord Jesus!  But we think it’s the end of the world, as in all is hopeless, all is lost!  That is how Cleopas and his companion felt after Jesus had died, and now the rumors of resurrection were too good to be true.  No, when a man dies, he stays dead.  We know that.  All their hopes were dashed.  That’s where we so easily find ourselves apart from Christ.  Hopeless.  If we get sick, if we lose our house, if we can’t buy groceries, then what?  All is lost, that’s what.  If we aren’t careful, we may even say dreadful and faithless things about Jesus, like “We had hoped He was the One who would redeem us, but I guess He’s no match for coronavirus or another great depression.”

            But it is just here that our Lord… who incidentally is walking with us on the way, though our eyes are kept from recognizing Him… it is just here that He opens the Scriptures to us, and our hearts burn within us as He interprets to us the things concerning Himself.  “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe…”  Did I not tell you this is how it would be?  That the whole creation is broken by your sin, but I have come to make all things new?  To redeem you for myself by my holy, precious blood and my innocent suffering and death?  To bring you life and hope and joy by my resurrection on the Third Day?  And didn’t I promise you that this earthly life would not be easy?  That there is a cost to being my disciple?  That the world will hate you, the devil will continually stalk you, and your own flesh will so often fail you?  And yet I told you, that just as I died and now I am risen, so your sorrow would be turned to joy, your mourning into dancing, your wailing into singing, and that God Himself would wipe away every tear from your eyes?  First comes the darkness, and then the light.  First comes Good Friday, but then Easter Sunday.  First comes sadness, but then everlasting joy and consolation.

            You know this to be true.  Your heart is burning within your right now as you hear it.  Because it is the voice of Jesus, whom your eyes are kept from seeing.  Keep your eyes and your ears on His Scriptures as He opens them up to you.  Keep a focus on His voice in the preaching and the Holy Absolution.  Remember that you are baptized into Christ.  Do you know what that means?  You have died with Christ.  In spite of all appearances to the contrary, death really cannot touch you now, because you got your death over with at the font.  And you have been raised with Christ to new resurrection life, spiritually already now, bodily on that Day when He comes again in glory.  Your sins are washed away.  You are God’s own child!  Don’t let apparent circumstance deceive you.  Don’t let the devil lie to you.  And don’t look to the world or your own flesh for solutions to creation’s brokenness.  Christ is your deliverance.  He has saved you.  It is an accomplished fact.  It is finished, as He said from the cross.  And His tomb is empty, the first of many.  All the graves will be emptied on that Day.  Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

            Now as they drew near the village of Emmaus, the disciples urged the Lord strongly, though they still did not recognize Him, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent” (v. 29).  There was something about this Stranger who opened the Scriptures to them.  They instinctively knew they needed Him as the light began to fade and the darkness came upon them.  That is where we are.  This is a darkness to be felt, is it not?  If there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it is hard to see.  But there is a Light that scatters all darkness, and it is Jesus Himself.  We beg Him, stay with us!  We need You!  And what does He do?  He comes into our homes.  He abides with us.  “Come, Lord Jesus,” we Lutherans love to pray at table, and it’s more than just a blessing of the food.  It is a reflection on this Holy Gospel.  It is a request that Jesus dwell with us, make His home with us, that He never leave us or forsake us, and that He finally come with His holy angels to deliver us, to raise the dead and heal all ills.

            It is remarkable how Jesus answers the prayer of the Emmaus disciples.  He comes into their home, Luke says, “to stay with them” (v. 29).  And “When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them” (v. 30).  And that was when it happened.  Their eyes were opened.  They recognized Him.  They knew that it is all true.  Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!  And then He vanished from their sight.  Not that He was gone.  No, beloved, from now on Jesus is never gone!  “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).  He is ever and always walking with us on the way and dwelling in our homes.  We don’t see Him with our eyes.  But now we recognize Him in a new way.  In the Breaking of the Bread.  In the Holy Supper of His Body and Blood.  That is where we are to look for Him.  In the opening up of the Scriptures, and in the Breaking of the Bread.  In the Word and in the Holy Sacrament.

            We have been prevented for a time from participating in that blessed Meal.  It is certainly a time for Christians to raise a cry of lament and to pray, “Stay with us, Lord, for it is toward evening.  The day is far spent.  The darkness is advancing.  Don’t leave us.  Don’t forsake us.”  We beg the Lord to restore the Holy Sacrament to us soon. 

            But this is also a time to know the Savior’s voice and gracious presence as He walks with us along the way in His Word, in Scripture and in preaching.  Oh, how we long for the Supper and the gracious presence of Jesus with His true Body and Blood under the bread and wine.  But don’t think for a minute our inability to have Him this way keeps Him from abiding with us.  That’s a trick of the devil, the lying serpent!  It’s the world’s pipe dream.  He is with us.  Just as He was with the Emmaus disciples.  He is not just somewhere up there in heaven looking down, or only with us in spirit.  He is with us here, now, in this place, bodily, the Crucified who is risen.  Even as we look for Him in the Sacrament, we know by our ears that He is with us as He speaks His Word.  And we are with Him, and in Him, in the life-giving baptismal waters, baptized into Christ. 

            “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe…”  “O children, what am I to do with you?!  I know what I will do with you.  I will come to you and I will raise you from the dead.”

            Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.