Grace and peace to you from Him who is and who was and who is
to come,
Today is the
third Sunday of Easter, so we’ll begin by reviewing some of Jesus’ resurrection
appearances. He revealed himself to Mary
Magdalene and to other women on Easter morning at the empty tomb. This mornings’ gospel is part of a
description of his meeting with two disciples on the road to a suburb of
Jerusalem at mid-day. He later appeared
to Peter and in the evening he met with ten of his disciples, when he showed
them his hands and his feet and ate some broiled fish with them so they’d know
he’d come back to life with a real body.
How quickly events developed – all in one day. That’s the way sometimes. The Internet caught on rapidly, as did the
automobile and the movies at the start of the last century. How quickly big cities were built after
industry replaced agriculture as the most important source of wealth in North
America and Europe.
Jesus’
resurrection was more important than any of that. The good news began to spread as soon as he
rose from the grave and people have been talking about the Risen Lord ever
since. It must be that every minute of
every day somebody somewhere in the world is telling someone else about Jesus’
return to life. Gossip about the gospel
will go on into eternity.
Our text
from Luke brings us back to the beginning.
We may wonder why he made himself known to these two disciples.
First, he
wanted them to be sure that the resurrection actually took place. Besides that, he taught them from the
Scriptures that God had planned it a long time before. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment desperate
decision.
Faith in the
resurrection is very important for every Christian. When John wrote about walking in the light,
he meant a clear understanding in our heads and a strong trust in our hearts
that Jesus rose from the dead with a transformed human body. We will also rise again. Some folks have different thoughts about the
end of earthly life – that everything finishes at the grave or that we are born
over and over till we get things right or that the soul rises to new life but
not the body – and so on. The
resurrected Jesus showed his two disciples what will happen: our souls and our
bodies will rise together on the last day.
Because we believe in Jesus’ victory over death, we are walking in the
light.
At the same
time, John used the word “light” to refer to what is good. There is no evil in Jesus at all. All power is his; he knows everything; he
exists everywhere at the same time. He
is with us when we go about our tasks.
He guards us when we lie down and when we rise up. He rejoices with us when we are happy. He comforts us in moments of sadness. He is present with us this morning at St.
Peter’s. He never fails to bring about what is good. He is wise, merciful, and compassionate, as we
will experience face to face in the life to come we cannot see now. Again, we are walking in the light because we
trust what the Bible tells us about Jesus and His resurrection.
A life of
faith is never easy. Our minds can close
in on us so that it seems that earthly cares are much stronger than the
promises of God. The Risen Lord who
breathed faith into the confused and unbelieving disciples also builds faith in
us. The joy of his physical presence was
not the main thing. What really
convinced them was that he proved to them that his resurrection fulfilled Old
Testament prophecies.
He meant
such prophecies as the promise of a Savior that the Heavenly Father made to
Adam and Eve, the prophecy of Moses that a greater than he would come, the
writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the Psalms that describe the Messiah’s
life and ministry. After listening to
him, his disciples agreed that Jesus had been at the center of God’s plan from
the beginning. He took part in the
creation of the universe. He guided the
Israelites from slavery to freedom; he sent them King David and the prophets
and the people who wrote the wisdom books. Now he rose from the grave and
claimed his disciples for the kingdom of light.
Jesus’ light
shines for each of us – in our baptisms, our confirmations, our worship, and
our everyday lives. He blesses our
prayers, our families, our service to him, and our passing from this life to
the next. The light that shines in the
Bible and the sacraments and that will never go out creates trust in him. Jesus gives us the same proofs he gave the
disciples in Emmaus because he wants us to keep on believing, not only that he
rose to new life, but also that he calls us his brothers and sisters and claims
us for immortality, too.
Now, another
reason Jesus appeared to the two disciples is that he wanted to bring them into
a new community – a fellowship first with him and then with other
believers. “Our fellowship is with the
Father and the Son,” John wrote.
Everyone needs the blessings of community life that we receive from our
families and our neighbors, our work and recreation, but we all need fellowship
with God more than we need our earthly communities. The curious thing is that by nature we humans
don’t look for him. Our instinct is to
run in the other direction. He must take
the initiative and come looking for us, as he looked for the disciples on the
road, so that he will be able to give us what we need – knowledge of him and of
ourselves. We are sinners, for whom He
died. He casts our sins thousands of
miles away, where not even he can see them again. “I declare you to be sinless for my Son’s
sake,” our Heavenly Father says to us.
“We welcome you into our fellowship.”
It’s human
nature to claim that we’re not sinners or that sin is a minor matter that we
can mostly ignore. John called this way
of thinking deception, the same as calling God a liar. If we claim we have no sin, we are solitary,
and God’s word is not alive in our hearts.
When we admit that we’ve fallen, though, we’re walking in the
light. We take hold of God’s pardon in
faith and he declares that we’re righteous in his sight – just the way he wants
us to be. When we confess in the deep
places of our souls that we need him, he welcomes us into fellowship with
him. He lifts us up and gives us a
higher status than we could earn on our own.
Jesus is the
friend of us sinners. He looks for
fellowship with the broken-hearted and the contrite with the intention of
giving us joy and new life. An uneasy
conscience is a terrible burden for anyone to carry. Some folks relive bad moments over and over
in their minds. Self-criticism is good,
but it’s not God’s will that we aim never-ending arrows of judgment at
ourselves. Jesus breaks through layers
of inner noise with the comfort of his friendship. He calls us to be his companions in his
everlasting kingdom.
As a result,
we act toward our neighbors as Jesus acts toward us. We pardon offenses. We offer love and troubled friends and family
members and give them our shoulders to lean on.
We remind them of Jesus and the fellowship of the kingdom.
So we find a
third reason that Jesus looked for the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He brought them together with other believers
and sent them out as witnesses to him.
He wants to give everyone in the world a chance to repent – to think
again – and to receive forgiveness in his name.
He intends the gospel of salvation through faith in him to be common
knowledge in every country. He stirs us
up to serve the gospel in our families and other communities we belong to.
What’s the
greatest thing a person can be?
Rich? Powerful? A wise man I once read said that the greatest
thing anyone can be is a witness, a spokesperson for his or her faith. We offer a witness to Jesus in different
ways, at different times – by inviting someone to church, by sharing favorite
parts of the Bible, be setting an example of steady perseverance in a crisis
when others are losing their heads, and in many other ways. There are times when Jesus and the gospel
shine through us when we aren’t even aware of it.
So, to sum
up – Because Jesus claims us as his brothers and sisters, we are permanently
changed and also protected from everlasting harm. We want to be comfortable, with a chance to
enjoy a few of the good things of life that Jesus is pleased to bless us with,
but the desire for earthly things does not overwhelm us. We also want truth and light and
fellowship. We trust that our Savior
will bless us with knowledge and vibrant faith so that we give a witness to his
bountiful goodness.
Jesus gives
us a steady hope that the hard parts of life cannot crush us. Even if we’re passing through a low spell
with lots of troubles bearing down on us, we know they won’t break us because
Jesus is carrying them for us, so we set good examples of endurance. Our witness is often most eloquent when God
puts us to the test. Each day brings its
trial. The strength of Jesus shines
through us every day.
Like our
Lord, we do not give up. If some of our
neighbors reject God’s Word, others will come our way for us to share it with.
We are like the travelers on the road to Emmaus. It may be we need to be reawakened to Jesus’
presence in our lives and his promises and the importance of making our
witness. So we ask him to revive us and
send us away from worship with plenty of spirit to offer our testimony to the
faith he has given us. In his name we
pray. AMEN.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your
hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN
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