Easter 2015
“A Walk to Remember”
Luke 24:13-35
Open
I want to share something that will shock most of you in attendance this morning. I used to be a professional wrestler. [Show picture] It’s a fairly long story to tell you how that came about but suffice to to say that I spent nine years involved in this endeavor.
You might think that the most memorable things about my time in pro wrestling would be all the places I went and all the people I met. Those things are memorable. But the most vivid memory I have from that time period is the night I took a walk. It wasn’t a planned walk. It was an unpleasant surprise.
I had wrestled in a town in western Kentucky. In fact, I wrestled twice that night: once in a singles match and again during a battle royale. I felt fine when I left home and drove to the venue for that night. I felt fine all through the wrestling event. But as I started to leave the building, I could tell that something wasn’t quite right. My stomach began to ache and I began to get the chills.
I got in the car to make the trip back to the central part of the state and got on the Western KY Parkway going east. I was about 10 miles from the exit that would put me on the road to home. Anna and I lived about 18 miles north of the exit so I was a little over 20 minutes from home. That’s when things started to go really wrong.
The motor in the car started to sputter and it died. I rolled over to the median on this four lane highway. Now, not only am I not feeling well but my car has quit running. I had plenty of gas in the tank but all attempts to restart the vehicle were fruitless. I didn’t have a cell phone so my only option was to walk.
I was feeling really lousy now and would walk awhile and sit on the edge of the highway for a while. Walk some more and sit some more. There were times I felt so bad I had to lay down on the edge of the highway and the grass. Only a few vehicles passed by and no one wanted to stop and help. I just kept walking and resting.
After about 2 hours, one car pulled over to help. It was a KY State Trooper. He said someone had called and reported a dead body on the side of the road. I said, “Well, obviously they were wrong but I’m glad you stopped.” He gave me a ride to the exit which happened to be the town where my parents lived.
From a service station, I called my dad and he came and took me back to my parents’ house. I called Anna and then slept for a few hours. My dad and I went back for the car in the morning. We found out that the fuel line had a problem. The bottom line of this story is that it was one of the most unenjoyable walks I’ve ever taken.
We’re going to look at an account of a walk that started off being unenjoyable. Two people made a journey out of despair. But along the road, they experienced the most thrilling event of their entire lives. It was definitely a “walk to remember.”
Lk. 24:13-35 – 13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
Disappointed Disciples
Did you ever notice that some of the saddest conditions of the human spirit start with three little letters – “dis”? “Dis” is a prefix that comes from the Latin and it means “to separate.” When it’s added to a word it means the reversal of what follows. So we get words like: disappointed, distraught, discouraged, disillusioned, disconcerted, disenchanted, disheartened, dismayed, disoriented, and disrupted. Those words describe the two people who traveled the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.
These two travelers were most likely part of a larger group of Jesus followers – perhaps two of the 70 mentioned in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus didn’t have just 12 followers. He had many more. He just selected twelve to which he gave special time and training.
Who are these travelers? It could have been a husband and wife. It could have been just two close friends. We just don’t know. Luke doesn’t tell us who they are. He only gives us one name – Cleopas. The other person can just simply be termed “the unknown disciple.”
As close followers of Jesus, they had heard His teaching, seen His miracles, and were in Jerusalem when Jesus entered on the back of a donkey – the people greeting Him as their king on the first day of the last week of his earthly existence. By the end of the week, Jesus had been arrested, crucified, and buried. It seemed like everything they had hoped for and trusted in was now just a pile of rubble. The only thing they could do at the end of the Passover was take a sad and grievous walk home.
Let me tell you about a boy named Phineas. He had been given an island in Connecticut. His grandfather had presented the deed for Ivy Island on the day Phineas was born. It was his glorious inheritance.
While other children had imaginations about mythical creatures, Phineas’ imagination centered on his island. He dreamed about how he would build a house, start a farm, raise livestock, and rule over his domain. Phineas’ greatest desire was to go and see his island.
Finally, in the summer of 1820, he persuaded his father to take him to view the island. Over three sleepless nights, Phineas waited to make the journey. The day came and Phineas, his father, and a hired hand climbed into the buggy and started for Ivy Island. Phineas was so excited, he would continually ask, “Are e almost there? Can I see it from here?”
Finally, his dad stopped the buggy and pointed to north beyond a meadow to a stand of tall trees. Phineas jumped from the buggy, leaving his father and the hired hand behind. He ran to the trees and through an opening he could see Ivy Island.
His grandfather had called Ivy Island the most valuable land in Connecticut. His father called it a most generous gift. To the contrary, Phineas discovered that Ivy Island was nothing more than five acres of snake-infested marsh land. As poor Phineas stared at the cruel joke, his father and the hired hand roared with laughter.
Phineas was crushed. He never forgot how he had been fooled. The disappointment of Ivy Island shaped the rest of his life. This boy who had been fooled made a career out of fooling other people.. You know him as P.T. Barnum, the man who said, “There’s a sucker born every minutes,” and spent his life proving it.
Wrong expectations lead to disappointment, and disappointment leads to despair. These two travelers had wrong expectations for Jesus. When He didn’t meet their expectations, they were disappointed and know made a journey of despair.
Loving Lord
Notice that Jesus did not leave His followers on their despair. He came to them. He walked with them. He taught them. He left them with a rekindled faith and an excitement to share their experience.
Jesus did everything He did out of love. How did Jesus show His love? First, He came. Jn. 1:1 – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But He knew that without something drastic happening, that we were trapped in our sin. Our sin stood between us and relationship with God. So He came to earth. Jn. 1:14 – The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Second, He died. Jesus said in Mk. 10:45 – “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
You see, one perfect human had to die to pay the penalty for our sin. Rom. 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That’s the bad news. None of us deserve relationship with God out of our own effort. But the good news is given in the next verse. Rom. 3:24 – And all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Last, He arose. In Lk. 9:22, Jesus tells His disciples, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” The testimony of his followers bears out that Jesus rose from the grave.
1 Cor. 15:3-7 – For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
Jesus came to these two travelers on the Emmaus road in their disappointment and despair. They were convinced about His death. They had watched as He was crucified and buried. They just struggled with the resurrection part.
When things seemed their worst, Jesus taught them the plan of God as revealed in the word of God. Verse 27 says, And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. While we do not know the specific passages Jesus used, we know He showed them the Scriptures with a view toward showing them how all the of Old Testament pointed to Him as its fulfillment.
Perhaps Jesus began with Gen. 3:15, where God cursed the serpent saying, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. And He will strike your head and you will strike His heel.”
From there maybe He pointed them to Deut. 18:15, where Moses says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to Him.”
And from there perhaps He went to Is. 7:14 where God says, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son and name Him Immanuel.”
From there Jesus could have taken them to Is. 53:3: He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Perhaps Jesus talked to them about what Is. 53:7-11 says: He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
We know that Jesus walked them through the entirety of the Old Testament to show how it gave witness to who He was, why He had come, and why it was necessary for Him to suffer, die, and rise again. Scripture gives testimony of who Jesus is. He uses it today to open the eyes of those who do not know Him.
Many people will try to tell you who Jesus is. They will tell you He is one of many ways to get to Heaven. They will tell you He was a good man, a great prophet, a good teacher, or a rebel who defied the Roman authorities. But outside of a knowledge of Scripture, you will never have a proper understanding of who Jesus is.
That is one of the reasons it is so important to believe in that all of Scripture is God's word. For if it is untrustworthy at any point then it can be untrustworthy at every point. It is either all God's word or it is not His word at all.
D.L. Moody said, “I prayed for faith and thought that someday it would come down and strike me like lightning. But faith didn’t seem to come. One day I read in Romans that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” I had up to this time, closed my Bible and prayed for faith. Now I opened my Bible and began to study and faith has been growing ever since.”
Realized Resurrection
Jesus walked and talked with these despondent travelers. When they reached the town of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, they invited Jesus to eat and spend the night. It wasn’t uncommon for the Jews of the time to invite other Jews who were traveling for such hospitality. Travel at night could be dangerous. But I think these two wanted to hear more from Jesus.
CBS has a TV show called Undercover Boss. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here is the premise. One of the high ranking officials of a corporation disguises themselves and works for a while at an entry-level position. The disguises completely change the bosses appearasnce.
If it’s a manufacturing company, the boss works the production line. If it’s a convenience store chain, the boss works as a clerk. If it’s a sanitation company, the boss works on the garbage truck. If it’s a restaurant chain, the boss works as a server or in food prep. You get the idea. To get the broadest experience, they work in different stores or locations each day. The scenario presented to supervisors and co-workers is that the new employee is part of a program to retrain workers who have lost a previous job or that they are competing with someone else for a new job.
After they work at several locations within their corporation, their supervisors and co-workers are brought to corporate headquarters under the premise of giving their opinion about their yet unrecognized boss. Needless to say, they are all surprised to find out that this employee is in reality their boss.
Sometimes the boss has to reprimand errant co-workers or supervisors. The most touching part of the show are those moments when the bosses bless their employees with raises, promotions, financial aid for school, vacations, and sometimes even money to cover health costs for loved ones.
It became clear to them who Jesus was when He stepped out of the role of guest to the role of host. Notice Jesus broke the bread. The host always did that. It was symbolic because it signaled the start of fellowship over the meal.
Can you imagine how Cleopas and his friend felt when they realized who their traveling companion really was? They had an encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. Prov. 13:12 – Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
The journey of disappointment and despair turned into a journey of fulfillment and hope. That’s what Jesus does. He takes our hopelessness and replaces it with confidence. He takes our despair and replaces it with joy and amazement.
1 Pet. 1:3-4a – Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
Once you really encounter the risen Christ and submit to Him, your life should never be the same. Here are four marks of encounter with the resurrected Christ:
The first mark is hearts that burn. This heart burn doesn’t come from eating spicy food. It comes because the fire in our soul has been stoked with a holy fire. Our hope level starts to rise. We know something important is happening.
The second mark is that we have eyes that are opened. What seemed cloudy and dim has now become clear. Like these two disciples in our story, we see things from a different viewpoint. A fog is lifted and we like what we see.
The third mark is that our faith that is revived. Where we thought we knew that because of everything that has happened, we were despondent and thought that life could never be good again. But because of holy heartburn and corrected vision, we know that whatever it is that we have to face, no matter what road we have to walk, Jesus is there and He will walk beside us guide us through His word.
The fourth mark is encounter that is shared. These two travelers turned around and went back to where they had started this journey. This time they weren’t headed home in despair but back to Jerusalem to share what they had experienced.
The shared experience marks every encounter with the risen Christ. The women who went to the tomb early that first resurrection morning ran back to tell about the empty tomb. It made such a change in Christ’s followers that they were willing to die for declaring the truth of the resurrection. If you truly know Christ, you can’t help but share Him with others.
Close
Look at the difference in these men once they have encountered the risen Christ. They got back on the road they had been traveling. This was the same road that had earlier symbolized defeat. It was a road that signified hopelessness. There had only been sorrow and confusion on that road before.
It was the same road, but things had changed. It was the same road, only now there was a different destination. It was the same road, only now there was a different conversation. It was the same road, only now there was a different understanding.
Maybe you’re here today and your road has been one of disappointment and despair. You know you have to travel that road but you just don’t see any hope at the end of the journey. Nothing seems like it’s going to work out but when you leave this place today, you know you’ve got to get on the road again.
Understand something very important today. Jesus is alive. Death and sin have been defeated. No matter what happens, you can make the journey with Jesus Chrisr.
What would “getting on the road again” mean for you? Maybe it means finding a rest stop to refuel with Jesus. You’ve been traveling too fast and too furious but it’s taking a toll on your spiritual life. It has caused you to drift away from God. Please, don’t despair, because your hope is not lost. Jesus can re-energize you for the journey.
Maybe it means buckling up and relying on Jesus to get you safely through a dangerous stretch of road. It looks as if you’re not going to make the turn or the road is uncertain. Hope is not lost for you, either. Jesus is alive and you can count on him to show up in unexpected ways.
Maybe it means that you need to deliver the news about Jesus to someone who would benefit from hearing it. That’s what the two travelers on the road to Emmaus did. They got back on the road to testify about Jesus’ resurrection. Perhaps that’s what God is calling you to do today, too.
Or maybe you just need to trust Jesus for the first time. It’s time for you to get out of the driver’s seat and let Him be in charge of your life. Let’s pray.
