Third Sunday of
Easter (A)
April 23, 2023
Text: Luke 24:13-35
Alleluia!
Christ is risen! He is risen,
indeed! Alleluia!
Two
disciples walk the dusty road from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus. One is named Cleopas. The other is unnamed. Since the early days of Church history,
Cleopas has been identified as Clopas from John 19 (v. 25), the brother of St.
Joseph, and therefore the uncle of our Lord Jesus Christ. Could be.
Could be. The tradition then
speculated about who that second, unnamed disciple was. Of course, he could be anybody. But the tradition is that he is Simeon, the
son of Clopas, cousin of our Lord Jesus Christ, and known to history as the
second Bishop of Jerusalem, after the Lord’s own brother, James. Bishop about the time Luke’s Gospel was
completed, thus one of the eyewitnesses St. Luke may have interviewed in
compiling his masterpiece, and one in a seat of authority who could vouch for
the Gospel’s veracity, and sanction its use in the Church. Again, could be. Could be.
These traditions come from somewhere, maybe even from Simeon himself, or
those who knew him, so we shouldn’t be so quick to discount the traditions as
mere products of pious imagination.
But
why doesn’t Luke just name this second disciple? Why name Cleopas, but not the other guy? Oftentimes in the Gospels, when something is
left open-ended, or a figure is left unnamed, it is because the hearer, you,
are to place yourself there in the narrative. Not just read yourself into the story as one
who identifies with the characters, but understand that this is the reality
as it pertains to you. And it
does. For in the very same way Jesus draws
near to the Emmaus disciples, and abides with them, and makes
Himself known to them, so He does for you.
Do
you notice the pattern of Jesus’ interaction here with the
disciples? First there is interpretation
of the Scriptures. Teaching. Preaching, even. And specifically, a Christological
preaching of the Scriptures. “And
beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27; ESV). Preaching from these Scriptures (what we
call the Old Testament), that it was necessary… divinely so… “that
the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory” (v.
26). Teaching us how to read
Scripture, to read it such that on every page we see Christ and His saving work
for us.
And
then, we should note, on the basis of this Christological preaching of the
Scriptures, a brief interlude of entreaty… we might even say, prayer… Lord,
“Stay with us” (v. 29), remain with us, abide with us,
here in the besetting darkness and the evening of the day. Dwell in our home. Do not leave us. Followed by the second part of the pattern:
The Meal. Now, all at once, the One
we’ve bid to come and be our Guest, sets Himself as the Host and Giver of the
repast, as He “took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them”
(v. 30). And that sounds very familiar
to us, doesn’t it? We hear essentially
those same words every Sunday, and every time we gather here in this
House to hear the Christological preaching of the Scriptures, and recline
together at this Table.
What
is the pattern? Word and Sacrament. Preaching and Supper. This is what we mean when we call this
that we’ve gathered for “the Liturgy.”
There are many different orders of service, some better than
others, and they come in a variety of musical settings and maybe with slightly
different renderings of the words, and with minor differences in order. In our hymnal, we have five different orders
for the Divine Service, but they are not different liturgies. The Liturgy… The Divine Service…
is Jesus drawing near to His disciples (that’s you) in the Christological
preaching of the Scriptures and His Holy Supper. (Incidentally, we also have some other very
important orders of service, such as Matins, Vespers, Compline, etc., that are
not the Liturgy in all its fulness, but emphasize the first part of the
pattern, the Christological preaching of the Scriptures, punctuated by prayer,
and [if we’re doing it right] eventually leading us to the Divine Service
complete with the Sacrament.)
Now,
my purpose this morning does not include criticism of inferior orders of
service which are, in spite of the claim that they are non-liturgical,
nevertheless the Liturgy of preaching and Sacrament. For that, you can see me virtually any other
time, any day of the week. I’m happy to
criticize. And incidentally, my
criticism is not primarily concerned with the style of music (though there are
some points to be made about that). My
criticism is primarily concerned with non-Christological preaching and the
minimizing of the miracle that takes place in the Holy Sacrament. But today the point is simply this: The
Liturgy of the Church, Word and Sacrament, is the pattern set for the
disciples (for us!), by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He gives it to us, as a gift. When you come to Church for the Divine
Service, you are the disciple on the road to Emmaus. And Jesus draws near to you.
And
what is the result of the Preaching and the Meal, the divinely given pattern,
the Liturgy? Jesus Himself goes with
you on the Way (v. 15). Not just
figuratively. Not just spiritually. Really… corporeally (that is, bodily,
as in His conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified
and risen Body)… as He did with the Emmaus disciples. Though your bodily eyes are, for a
time, kept from seeing Him. And into
all your doubts and fears and misunderstandings, your own “we had hoped that
he was the one to redeem Israel” (v. 21) moments… even when you’re going
the wrong way (right? They’re going away
from Jerusalem instead of toward it)… into all of this… He speaks. And as He interprets to you in all the
Scriptures the things concerning Himself, what happens? You know this. Your heart is burning within you.
Okay,
your sinful nature often gets in the way, and your heart burns for lunch and an
afternoon nap instead of the life-giving Word.
And Satan and the world cast any number of distractions before your
eyes. I know this from personal
experience. Okay. Repent.
Crucify those enemies. Drown them
again in the Red Sea baptismal waters.
But you do know this, also, from personal experience. When the Lord clears away all the dross, and
gives you ears to hear His Word, and you have this God-given clarity that it’s
all about Jesus Christ, and the salvation He won for you, and the life He gives
to you… that all Holy Scripture is finally about that, and gives you that…
Him!... your heart burns with faith, and love, and joy, and hope. It is the Holy Spirit. It is a Pentecost within your very body and
soul.
And
then what? You pray… Formally, we do this in the Prayer of the
Church, and the hymns and canticles and liturgical petitions… But you pray: “Stay with us.” Remain with us. Abide with us. “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide” (LSB
878), a hymn I should have included today, but we can’t do them all. “Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest.” Really, our Host. Understand, it is a prayer for Jesus’ real
and substantial presence. His bodily
presence. When a child is scared in the
middle of the night and calls out for Mom and Dad, is it enough for the parents
to say, “It’s okay, my little one, for I’m with you in spirit… from my own bed
across the house”? Of course not. I’ve tried it. The child wants Mom and Dad’s bodily
presence for shelter and protection from all the things that lurk in the
darkness. That’s what we
need. And that is what Jesus gives us.
He
takes bread, gives thanks, and breaks it.
“This is My body,” He says.
“And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him” (v.
31). The eyes that were opened to
evil and damnation and death at the eating from the forbidden tree in the
Garden, are now opened to righteousness and salvation and life in the eating of
the bread that Jesus gives, the fruit of the Tree of Life, the Tree of the
cross, His crucified and risen Body.
Eyes opened, now, to recognize Jesus from now on in the Breaking
of the Bread. “And he vanished from
their sight” (v. 31). No, He didn’t go
away. That will never be the case
again, now that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. But we could translate this literally, “He
became invisible to them.” Present,
but hidden from their eyes.
Because now, and until He comes again in glory, the disciples are to
expect to see Him… not as he had appeared to them over the past three years, in
a manner visible to the naked eye, what our Confessions call His “circumscribed
corporeal mode of presence, as when He walked bodily on earth when He occupied
and yielded space according to His size”[1] (so, like we see one
another here today)… but now they are to see Him in the Breaking of the Bread,
the Lord’s Supper. Even as they hear Him
in the Christological Preaching of the Scriptures.
And
so you. The Liturgy, Word and
Sacrament, is simply and fundamentally Jesus drawing near to you on the Way,
bodily present with you (Emmanuel, God with us!), to give you His Spirit and
His gifts. That is a reality that can
only be because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. He is glorified, bodily now, with the
glory He has shared from all eternity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. So His body can be with all of us, always,
and everywhere, and particularly in the Supper, where we eat that body, and
drink His blood, as He bids us do.
So
here you are, you and Cleopas… and Jesus’ cousin, Bishop Simeon… and Simon
Peter, and the rest of the Apostles, and all of us, with the Christians
throughout the world, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven,
all the saints, all of our loved ones who have died in Christ and so live in
Him… and here is Jesus. Do you hear His
voice? Your eyes are kept from seeing
Him, but He is speaking to you, all the things concerning Himself. He is coming in to abide with you. He is the answer to all your prayers. He is about to take the bread, bless it, and
break it. And all at once you will see
that He is risen! He is risen,
indeed! Alleluia! And He is with you always… really, bodily…
to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20).
Jesus abides with you. In
the Name of the Father, and of the Son X,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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