Luke 24:13-36
The Queen of England often visits Bob
Morrow Castle. On one occasion when she was walking by herself in the early
morning, it started to rain so she rushed to the shelter of the nearest cottage
and knocked on the door. A lady came to the door who was obviously very upset
that someone would bother her at this time of the morning. She opened the door
a few inches and barked, "What do you want?" The queen didn't
introduce herself. She merely asked, "May I borrow an umbrella?"
"Just a minute," grumbled the woman. She slam-med the door, was gone
for a moment, and returned bringing the rattiest umbrella she could find...it
had several broken ribs and was peppered with lots of small holes. She pushed
it through the door and said, "HERE!" The Queen of England thanked
her and went on her way with the ragged umbrella.
The next morning, the queen's entire
escort, dressed in full dress uniform, pulled up in front of the cottage. One
of the escorts knocked on the door and returned the umbrella to the woman
saying, "Madam, the Queen of England thanks you." As he walked away
he heard her mutter, in obvious deep embarrass-ment, "Oh, If I'd only
known who she was......" Think about it....Imagine how this woman
felt.....Royalty had knocked on HER door! Can you comprehend how embarrassed
she must have been as she remember-ed her behavior the morning before in the
presence of her queen? Now...it was unusual for the Queen of England to knock
on the door of a commoner....but not impossible....after all, she was a living,
breathing human being. Imagine then how these two men in this scripture for today felt when they realized that this stranger who joined them on the dusty road to Emmaus was actually the Prince of Peace Himself...who had been crucified...who had died...who had been buried three days earlier!
Well, let's back up the road a bit... Cleopas and his companion were traveling from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, which was located 7 miles to the west...Their hearts were filled with deep sadness as they walked. The events of the prior weekend had been horrible beyond belief. Jesus - their Master and Teacher - had been betrayed, arrested, crucified and then buried. As these two walked they found them-selves reviewing the events of the past three days and they probably slipped into "iffing"...You know – like; “if only Jesus had run from the garden when He had the chance, what a different day this would have been”…”if only we had stood with Him during His trial”... “if only Peter had not denied Jesus”….”if only Jesus had not admitted to Pilate that He was their king”….”if only the secret disciples among the Pharis-ees like Joseph and Nicodemus had spoken out on Jesus' behalf”....And while they were “What-if-ing"… Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. It says that “they were kept from recognizing him.”
I think that this was an intentional way to get them to verbalize their feelings so He could lead them to solve their problems by seeing the truth for themselves. I say this because in verse 17 Jesus said, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" They responded with body-language that reveals just how defeated they felt. Verse 18 says that when He asked, they stood still, their faces downcast...as if they were defeated....as if recalling and verbalizing the memories of the events of that weekend were just too much to bear.
After this brief hesitation, Cleopas responds to Jesus' question...but he responds with a question of his own, "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these last days?" So Jesus probed further....forcing them to review who they thought He had been, before He showed them Who He is by saying, "What things?" You see, at this moment these two were living in the past and Jesus wanted to show them that He was living in the present and by the way, He still is!
Their shock at Jesus' lack of knowledge of the happenings in Jerusalem shows just how much Jesus was in the center of the news of that weekend. Everyone---even visitors---knew about the events that had transpired in the previous days....Jesus' trial and execution was top news. So, for Jesus to ask, "What things?" would be like someone coming to you two days after John F. Kennedy was assassin-ated and asking why all the flags were at half mast! Everyone knew what things had happened in Jerusalem that weekend. But Cleopas does answer Jesus' question...and in his answer, he shows that he is living in the past; for in his explanation in verses 19-21, he lists all the things Jesus WAS:
1.He was Jesus the Nazarene....
2.He was a prophet...
3.He was mighty in deeds.
4.He was mighty in word...
5.He was loved by and the common people...
6.He was crucified....
Then he says, "We were hoping that HE WAS the person to redeem Israel....He was....He was...He was... For them, Jesus was now limited to the past. “He was wonderful! we loved him! he taught us so much! we had such high hopes!...but He was crucified...and it is all over”...For them, death was irreversible. Well of course it was not all over and as they talk and listen for the rest of their journey, Jesus leads them to discover that not only He WAS…but He IS!
You know, of all the stories of the events around Jesus resurrection, this is one of my favorites because I see our own doubts and struggles reflected so clearly here. In this story, so many of our questions about the implications of Jesus' resurrection are answered with God's profound truth. So this morning I want to look very closely at this discussion between Jesus and these two travelers and I want to highlight two of those truths.
The first thing they discovered is this:
Becoming a Christian...a follower of the Risen Lord... requires a PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, not a second hand one. Each of us faces a crisis of belief in the Risen Lord. there comes a time when every individual must decide on their own whether or not Jesus was indeed the only Son of God who died on the cross for the sins of the world and on the third day rose from the dead. Cleopas and his friend had heard that the women had gone to Jesus' tomb that morning to anoint His body, and that they had found the large stone door rolled away and the tomb empty. They also knew that Peter had gone himself and confirmed these facts. But these two travelers on the road to Emmaus didn't know that Jesus was alive. Their inform-ation was rumor and hearsay; it was second hand. They had heard all the news but for them to be convin-ced of the resurrected Jesus would require a personal, first-hand encounter with the Risen One who had been their Master for three years; which is of course what Jesus gave them on the road that day. A second hand experience won't do for any of us. We too, must meet the risen Christ ourselves in order to begin a personal relationship with Him. Knowing facts related to us by other people is not enough.
Secondly, Becoming and being a Christian involves more than something to believe -there is also some-one to RECEIVE and go on receiving, living with, and responding to. You see, Christianity is not a religion...it is a relationship...a personal relationship with the living Jesus Christ.
Well, in the first part of the story Cleopas and his friend did the talking....in the last part Jesus did. And in His words Jesus emphasized a second truth that these two travelers discovered....
Third, God gave us the Bible as a road map that will guide us to a personal relationship with the Risen Lord. These two disciples were basing their beliefs about the Messiah on their own expectations, and in so doing were ignoring the teachings of scripture. In verse 25 Jesus says, "Oh how foolish you are; how slow to believe in all that the prophets have said! Was it not inevitable that Christ should suffer like that and so find His glory?" In other words He says, "Guys. you should not be surprised at what has happened these past three days....all this is in the guidebook.... remember?" Then verse 27 says, "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." What a great "Sunday School Class" that must have been! John 20:31 says, "These things have been written that you might BELIEVE and in believing have life in His name"
One night at one o'clock in the morning the phone rang, waking Dr. Leo Winters, the highly acclaimed surgeon from Chicago. The nurse on the other end reported that a young boy had been horribly mangled in a late-night car accident. Dr. Winters sleepily asked if there were not some other surgeon who could handle this emergency. But the nurse told him no....his hands were possibly the only ones in the city---or maybe even in the whole region ---skilled enough to save the boy's life. The doctor dressed quickly, hopped in his car and began to drive to the hospital. But when he stopped at a red light, his door was jerked open by a man in a grey hat and a dirty flannel shirt. "Give me your car!" the man screamed, pulling him from his seat and throwing him into the street. Winters tried explaining who he was and where he was going, but the man would not listen and sped away. The doctor wandered for over 45 minutes before finding a phone. When he finally got a taxi to the hospital, over an hour had passed. He burst through the doors and into the nurses' station, but the nurse on duty only shook her head. It was too late. The boy had died about 30 minutes earlier. "His dad got here before he died," the nurse told him. "Please go see him in the chapel. He is awfully confused. He could not understand why you never came." Without explaining his tardiness to the nurse, Dr. Winters walked hurriedly down the hall and quietly entered the chapel. At the front knelt the huddled form of a weeping father, who wore a grey hat and dirty flannel shirt. This was the same man who had stolen the doctor's car. Tragically, he had pushed from his life the only one who could heal his son.
Jesus Christ is the only one who can heal us from our sin; save us; and give us a relationship with God. But, Jesus will not force His way into your heart and life...you must ask Him - “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” says Jesus, “if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in”. My prayer this morning echos the words Paul wrote the Ephesians (1:18-20), "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.... which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead."
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