Discovering The Risen Christ Along the Road You Walk

For us, Easter was three Sundays ago, and we're still talking about it!

Like most of us, the Disciples put their faith in a specific person or thing that they had hopes for, and promises of dreams come true.
And they saw the man die.
Their hopes, their dreams, their faith, began to fade.
All of these things were caught up in the visible presence of this man from Nazareth, they knew so well.
And now where was he?
He was gone.
And where were they?
They were going - away, to Emmaus.

What the disciples did after Easter, was much more important than what they had done before Easter.

And what we do after Easter is of much more importance than what we did before Easter.

Easter is the one event in history that explains and gives meaning to Christianity.

Friends, there were no Christians until after Easter . . .

Cleopas and his unnamed companion on the road to Emmaus thought they were "well-informed".

They were amazed that this "stranger" who had quietly joined them while they were "deep in conversation," – or as Phillips puts it, "absorbed in their serious talk and discussion," –
[they were amazed that this stranger] knew so little, or nothing at all,
of the events in which they were so completely engrossed.

"How can you possibly have been in Jerusalem during these last few days without knowing what happened?" They asked the stranger.

And he replied, "What do you mean?"

"All this about Jesus of Nazareth" and they went on to spell out the facts they knew so well.

Friends, I really believe this story is of crucial
importance for each of us –
in order to understand about Christianity,
in order to understand about Easter,
in order to understand ourselves.

Of all of the stories that have great importance to our faith, I would have to pick this one as having the greatest significance upon my personal life and understanding.

For me, the first to keep in mind is that
We can be equipped with all of the facts in the world, and we still may not know what happened. We may be blessed with a wonderful Christian education,
We may know a catechism as well as our own name,
We may be able to recite the books of the Old and New Testaments and spout Scripture passages like a fountain,
We may be very proud of our knowledge of Bible names and Bible facts, and Bible history,
And someday, we may suddenly be brought to the realization that it means very little, if nothing
at all, if we have never grasped the true meaning and significance of those facts and events for ourselves and for others.

Cleopas and his friend blurted out their knowledge of the things they had seen and experienced while being with Jesus.
At the same time, they demonstrated that now they really doubted the whole business,
and that they were deeply disappointed in the Prophet from Nazareth, who had failed them so miserably.
"We had been hoping," they said, "that he was the man to liberate Israel."
"What is more," they went on, "today three days after his crucifixion, some of the women in our company have astounded us, telling us that they went to the tomb and found it empty.
They failed to find his body and returned with a story that they had seen a vision of angels who told them that he was alive.
Then others went and found things just as the women had said; but him they did not see."

You see, they were sure of their facts.
They had been personally involved with this Jesus of Nazareth.
They had even been granted the privilege that morning of hearing the good news for the first time. And they were sick about it.
They were sad.
As J.B. Phillips gives us the story, "their faces were drawn with misery."

You see, they still just didn't get it.
Oh, they had all the facts, – but no understanding of what they meant.
They had enjoyed the best opportunity for a Christian education ever granted to anyone.
They had lived with Jesus.
And now, it was he, still un-recognized, who made it clear to them that they actually knew so very little.
That they had almost no understanding of the true significance of what had happened.

So, I imagine, with a smile on his face, this "stranger" said, "You are so dense!
You are so slow to believe all that the prophets said!"
And then he proceeded to reveal to them the true meaning of the facts they knew so well
and the events in which they had been personally involved.

"This is your Messiah," he told them, "and beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he explained to them the passages which referred to himself in every part of the scriptures."

It was a Bible class five or six miles long on that road between Jerusalem and Emmaus.

By the time they reached the village they were so engrossed that they couldn't bear the thought of parting with the still-unknown stranger who was doing so much for them.

So they invited him to stay over and have dinner.

And it was at that time, at supper, when he took the loaf of bread, and blessed it, and broke it,
just as he had done in the upper room not many nights before, that "their eyes were opened and they suddenly recognized him."

Suddenly, everything was changed for them.
Suddenly Easter made sense.
Suddenly the whole message came clear.
And now they understood a whole new way of religion and a whole new way of living.
No longer sad and sick and miserable,
without a moment's hesitation,
they returned to Jerusalem,
crossing those seven miles in a fraction of the time they had spent in coming.

They immediately found the other disciples and, with great excitement, they heard that Jesus had appeared to Simon.
They then shared their own experience with the others that evening of Easter Sunday.
And the next words are startling to us, and tremendously significant. "As they were talking about all this, there he was, standing among them."

Understand where they were and what they were needing: having followed him to Calvary, they needed disparately to know the significance of the open and empty tomb,
having seen him die,
and having been shocked by his death into a kind of stupor of unbelief,
they needed to know and to understand what it meant for him – and for them – to be ALIVE AGAIN.

And this begins to get at the center of Easter and Christianity, and us (what we believe, and what we do, and how we live!).

For us, Easter was three Sundays ago, and we're still talking about it!

You see, what the disciples did after Easter, was much more important than what they had done before Easter.
And what we do after Easter is of much more importance than what we did before Easter.

Easter is the one event in history that explains and gives meaning to Christianity.

Friends, there were no Christians until after Easter –
until after these things started happening,
that those closest to him – the disciples –
finally understood [and believed and understood] a faith – a whole way of living –
that was indeed about liberating Israel!

Again:
We live and move about and be within certain boundaries, or human limitations.
We are obviously bound between points of time in space.
We experience a beginning and an end.
There is a point when we are born, there is a point when we die.
And even with all of our tremendous technological expertise, we have no way of transcending time – of getting beyond either point in time.
We have no time machine wherein we can go into the future or into the past.
We humans are pretty well limited to the time we have been given to experience.

And it's within this framework then, that the early Christians began to see that Easter was an event through which God breaks the chains of human limitation,
moves beyond the points of birth and death,
and expands the whole concept of life itself.

The early Christians saw, experienced and understood that a life for others breaks out of the
personal, the egotistical, the selfish, and transcends the limits of birth and death.

And, they say that Christ showed us the way of totally giving of yourself –
living for others –
giving of yourself so others may live –
that puts us in the company of the saints that have gone before,
and places an eternal, hopeful quality for future generations.

The Easter event liberated Israel from being slaves to the idea that their God must be restricted to a particular person,
bound to a particular time period,
or a given space in history.

Now, note, that like most of us, the Disciples put their faith in a specific person or thing that they had hopes for, and promises of dreams come true.
And they saw the man die.
Their hopes, their dreams, their faith, began to fade.
All of these things were caught up in the visible presence of this man from Nazareth, they knew so well.
And now where was he?
He was gone.
And where were they?
They were going - - away, to Emmaus.

There are two points of discovery in this story – and there are two points of discovery each of us must make before we know what life in Christ is all about.

The first point of discovery occurs at supper – when the bread was broken
(the story says, their eyes were opened)
they suddenly realized they were in communion with the presence of Christ through this "stranger".

And the second point of discovery was quickly made as they recognized the presence of Christ wherever they went.

You see, they understood Easter as taking the Presence of Christ, the idea of God working in history,
the idea of God-with-us (Emmanuel),
and separating it from the physical confines of the body of Jesus,
separating it from the limitations of time and space,
and placing it in the on-going process of life –
wherever life is lived.

Talk about liberation.
Talk about freedom.
Talk about redemption and salvation.
Brothers and Sisters as they found out on the road to Emmaus, Easter did liberate Israel (and liberates us)
from IDOLATRY.

In all of the stories in the New Testament,
no one ever believed until they had an awareness of the Presence of Christ.
Until they became aware that Christ was present and God was acting in their midst,
belief made no sense.

So, look again at your faith, and read this story again – at first, the disciples were totally
unaware of the presence of Christ as they walked along the road to Emmaus.

They were totally insensitive to that stranger in their midst that seemed to know so much.
They were so caught up in their own despair, their own struggle with their faith, that they couldn't recognize Christ was with them as they walked.

Friends, today the words of the hymn,
"Open my eyes that I may see,
open my ears that I may hear,
open my mouth that I may speak",
informs our task as Christian folk.

As we celebrate this communion today, we participate with a fellowship of saints from all the
ages, and we come to grips with the source of life itself –
through the images of the bread and the cup – symbols of sustenance and life itself –
where communion becomes a celebration of illumination,
where in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup, our eyes and ears are opened,
to see and to be aware of the presence of Christ among us [in our neighbors along our road] and the significance of a life literally poured out for others.

My sincere prayer is for each of you to make some discovery about how Easter affects your faith and find some special significance in communion this morning. Amen.

These thoughts were presented to the congregation from the pulpit of The Connecting Place: Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, April 18, 2010.

Easter 2010: Encountering the Risen Christ

If we are honest, those apostles on that first Easter were really not much different from us, are they?
We know what’s real, don’t we?

Like the apostles, like those women early in the morning on that first Easter,
we usually fail to recognize the living Lord and his restoring power for our lives,
because we look in the wrong places.


After some 2000 years, we still come to hear the story told once more.
While we may not comprehend the actual story – and the events the stories recall –
we have a hunch that it is an important story
and so we come to hear it again,
to sing the festive music,
to take in the colorful flowers,
to see who else is here,
and, maybe, to be inspired somewhat.

The Easter story is central to each of the Gospels. Each of the Gospels has a little different slant on the story, but each one is very clear about the significance of what happened that day.

Mark lets us know that it was the women who were there first early in the morning.
[It seems like the women are always there first, doesn’t it?]
And Mark names the women.
When they got to the tomb they became frightened. What they saw was not what they were expecting to see.

It is very clear that none of those early followers of Jesus expected Easter.
Although the signs may have pointed to it, it was not expected.
[At this point, they were no different from you and me, were they?]
Resurrection was not a part of their daily experience.
They actually thought their movement was over. They were afraid for their lives.
They took to hiding, lest the authorities would find them and kill them too.

So, while the men hid, the women went to the tomb carrying spices they had prepared, presumably for a ritual cleansing of the body of their friend Jesus.

Just two days before they were there as the body of Jesus was placed in the unused tomb that had been dug out of solid rock.
And so, they were surprised to find the stone that blocked the entrance to the tomb rolled away from the doorway.
And, then they saw this man – and then they were frightened.
Why was this stranger there?
And why is he in the tomb of their friend?
What did he want?
Who was he?
Who did he work for?

Of course, they were too scared to ask these questions out loud.
They had witnessed the way the authorities and the crowds treated their friend a couple of days before, and they must of feared for their lives now.
They bowed downed to the ground.
They cowed.
They turned their heads.
They averted their eyes.
As if to say, “I didn’t see you.
Spare me and I won’t tell anyone you were here.”

But then, the unusual happens – the real surprise of the story.
The man in his bright shining clothes spoke to the women.
He said, “So, Why are you looking among the dead for the one who is alive?”
Those women must wondered what that meant as much as we do.
Then the man said, “He is not here!”
What do you mean, “He’s not here?
What have you done with him?”
“He has been raised. Remember what he said?”
“Well, yeah, but . . . .”
Mark says that then they remembered.
Then it began to dawn on them.
It must be true.
All that he said before.
It must be true.
Blessed are the peacemakers --
the last shall be first --
love your neighbor as yourself --
a place is prepared for you at the table in the Kingdom --
worry not about the cares of the world, God will take care of you.
It all must be true!
They immediately returned to where the apostles were hiding and told them what had happened.
“It all must be true, don’t you see?”

But, the apostles thought the women were a little touched in the head
– they thought they were crazy
– they thought the women were nuts
– they didn’t believe them.

Jesus’s closest friends and disciples didn’t believe the women.
Because the story was too far fetched –
even for them –
especially for them.
They had seen their leader totally defeated,
mocked even,
tortured,
ridiculed,
killed,
dead to the max.
And no one helped him.

He died alone –
apparently despised and rejected by all who may have been able to help him –
apparently even abandoned by his God.

The authorities had won.
If they had thought of it, they would have said, “The devil was victorious.”
Clearly, their lives as they had known them, were over.
Things had changed now.
And, they weren’t sure just how it was all going to be sorted out.
So the women must be hallucinating.

If we are honest, those apostles on that first Easter were really not much different from us, are they?
We know what’s real, don’t we?
We know the limits of the physical universe.
We experience the reality of life within boundaries of space and time, right? – we are born, we live, and we die.
And so we hear the Easter account as those disciples did on that morning – except . . . .

Except, we know the rest of the story.
The disciples came to believe only after they experienced the Risen Christ –
the disciples came to believe only after they met the Risen Christ --
the disciples came to believe only after the encountered the Risen Christ.
And so it is with us.

The real miracle of Easter is not that the tomb was empty.
The real miracle of Easter is not that Jesus was raised as the two men announced to the women that morning.
But, the real miracle of Easter is that Jesus continues to be alive and continues to come to us and continues to empower us –
just as he came to those apostles, and just as he empowered them.

They came to find and experience the presence of Christ wherever they went.
Wherever they went, whatever they did, he was already there – ahead of them.

Like the apostles, like those women early in the morning on that first Easter,
we usually fail to recognize the living Lord and his restoring power for our lives,
because we look in the wrong places.
[Why do you look among the dead, for the one who lives?]
When we seek the living Lord among the dead, as they did, what we do here and what we celebrate is little more than a history lesson.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what Easter proclaims is that Jesus refuses to stay buried,
refuses to stay undercover,
refuses to stay entombed,
refuses to stay in the container.
He keeps getting out of the tombs in which we keep trying to bury him.
It would be much more comfortable if we didn’t have this to deal with, wouldn’t it?
We keep trying to put Jesus in a box, don’t we? – a tomb –
like the Jews tried to keep their God in a box.
But, it didn’t work for them.
And it doesn’t work for us.

That’s why we celebrate Easter each year at this time.
That’s why we celebrate Easter each and every Sunday when we gather in here in worship.
Easter is a conviction that says that something extraordinary is loose in our world, and compels us to live our lives into glory.
Christ is alive!
Christ is present today.
We see it again and again. If we only look.
If we only use the senses that have been given to us.

We encounter the presence of Christ through people who are ready to help one another through difficult times.
We encounter the presence of Christ through those who care for one another.
We encounter the presence of Christ through those who work for justice and are willing to protect the sacred rights of every person.
We encounter the presence of Christ among people who seek peace with a fervent desire to live in a world that is transformed by human action and divine love.
We encounter the presence of Christ with people who joyfully share the gift of love no matter the circumstance or cost.

And the kicker is, friends, you and I are called to be those people –
each and every one of us, is called to be –
helpers,
caregivers,
protectors of justice,
pursuers of peace
and witnesses to God’s love at work in the world.

You can look all you want among the dead for the one who lives.
But, you’ll never find the Christ there.
The direction was given to those women on that first Easter morning –
and the direction is given to you and me –
“He is not here.
He has been raised.
Go back to where you came from.
Go back to the communities, to the streets and byways where you live your lives.
That’s where you will find him.”

It’s a new world now.
It’s a new day!
There are new rules to play by!
Joy to the world!
Joy to you this Easter day!
Amen.

This a part of the Easter sermon at The Connecting Place: Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, April 4, 2010.