I want to speak about today’s Gospel lesson. It is a very important passage in the Gospel message because we get both some important history in this lesson, as well as some very important theology. So I would like for us to look at this Gospel message for a few minutes.

Luke tells us that two of Jesus’ followers were walking back home to a village called Emmaus which is about seven miles from Jerusalem. Here we see an important reminder that Jesus’ followers were not limited to the twelve disciples. There were, of course, numerous others who were close to Jesus, and who were with him frequently. For instance, we see very clearly in John’s Gospel Mary and Martha, the sisters in Bethany, and their brother, Lazarus. These people are clearly very familiar to Jesus, and are a part of his inner circle. We see in John’s Gospel also, at the foot of the cross, there were numerous women there to care for Jesus in his final moments before his death. These women also would have been a part of what some scholars refer to as the Jesus movement. In other words, there were clearly persons not among the twelve disciples who were, nonetheless, very dear to Jesus, and were certainly very close to him and to the disciples.

We see two of these people in this passage from Luke. Two followers of Jesus who have been in Jerusalem, and are now on their way home. What we see also, historically, is that they are absolutely devastated by what had happened. We need to be absolutely clear from an historical point of view that the disciples and those around Jesus never fully understood his prophecy that he would die, and then be raised from the dead. We use the phrase in our Modern English: “I can’t wrap my head around it.” That is a fairly new phrase in our lexicon. Well, that is what was happening here. The followers of Jesus never could understand what he was trying to teach them, that a part of God’s plan was for him to be killed and then be raised from the dead. So what we see here is a glimpse of two of Jesus’ followers who are absolutely devastated following Good Friday. They even say, Luke tells us, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” You see what is happening here, past tense, “We had hoped he was the one.” Their dreams were shattered on Good Friday. They just couldn’t make sense of the fact that the Son of God, the Messiah, would suffer such a cruel, humiliating death at the hands of the Roman Empire. So these people were devastated as they walked back home. Then Jesus says to them, “You just never understood, did you? You never understood what I was trying to teach you.” Then, Luke tells us, Jesus goes back through the scriptures and tries to teach these two followers, “This is what I was telling you. This all is a part of God’s plan.” So these two followers hear this teaching, “This is what had to happen for God’s will to be done.” Then, when they get back to their village, they say to Jesus, “Stay with us, it’s evening, it’s late.” This was common in the culture of this time. We don’t typically do this in our modern culture here in the Western world. We don’t typically invite strangers into our homes. And, there are reasons for that, but in the ancient world, if you ran into a traveler, and you deemed this person safe enough, it was the courteous thing to do to invite that person into your home. You couldn’t just check into the Hampton Inn down the street at this time in history. So, they invited Jesus in and it is then when he presides at table and he takes bread and breaks it, it is then that they recognized him.

Another historical tidbit is very clear from the Gospels that Jesus frequently shared meals with people. Of course, the Last Supper is by no means the only meal we see in the Gospels. So, Jesus, when he had these meals, he saw them as a foretaste of heaven, of the Kingdom of God. Jesus pictured the Kingdom of God as a banquet to which all were invited. Everyone is loved by God, and everyone is invited to receive the invitation to come to the banquet. So, these two people most likely would have been with Jesus before at meals, and it is in the meal that they recognize him. His resurrection form obviously was different than his previous body. Mary Magdalene doesn’t recognize Jesus when she sees him for the first time after the resurrection. But, as he breaks the bread, and says the prayer of blessing, their eyes are opened, and they realized that the rumor they heard before they left Jerusalem is true. It’s true. The Lord is alive. The Lord really is raised from the dead. Then, Scripture tells us, Jesus vanished. We can read in the Gospel that he next appeared in the Upper Room with all the disciples, except Thomas, gathered. Then these two people in Emmaus say, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the Scriptures to us?” So in retrospect they can see that it was Jesus all the time on the road. They had this feeling in their hearts. They had this sense . . . ‘this is someone special’, as he taught them from the scriptures. Now they realize that the Lord really is risen.

Then notice what they do. Having walked seven miles to their village, what do they do? They are so excited. They are so filled with joy that they go right back to where they had come from. They walked seven miles back to Jerusalem to tell the other followers of Jesus, “He is risen. It’s true. He’s risen.” So, when they tell the other followers, “He’s risen.” They say, “Yes, we know. He has already appeared to Simon.”

I want to conclude by holding up this picture for us. We see here one of the great reversals in all of literature. These two people on their way home initially are absolutely devastated by the loss of their Lord. And yet, when they realize that Jesus is risen, then they are overcome with joy. They can’t contain their joy, and they walk seven miles back to where they have just come from to share the good news, “Jesus is risen.” That is the image I want to leave us with this morning. Imagine how overwhelmed with joy his followers were when they realized, “O, this is what he meant all those times he did try to teach us about. We just didn’t understand, but now we do.” The power of God raised Jesus from the dead. Imagine how overwhelmed with joy his followers were. That’s how we are to live our lives. This doesn’t mean that tragedy won’t happen. It doesn’t mean we won’t have times of great concern for friends and loved ones. But, in the midst of the daily realities of life, our foundation as Christians is the good news, “Jesus is risen.” And, because he is risen, and is with us through the Holy Spirit, we are never alone in this life. There is never a time that we are separated from the Spirit of God himself which is Jesus’ gift to us.

So, as these first followers were filled with joy of the good news of the resurrection, that joy is to undergird our lives as well. In the midst of genuine heartache, in the midst of genuine struggle, down deep we can turn to this proclamation, “He is risen!” His Holy Spirit is in us and, because of that, there is never a moment when Jesus Christ himself is not with us. My final comment is this, for the last couple of weeks and for a few more weeks to come, we begin these Easter services with me saying, “Alleluia. Christ is risen”, and you respond, “The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.” I ask you, as I ask myself, “Let’s think about that.” When we say these words in the next weeks, when we say at the end of the service, “Alleluia. Alleluia,” let’s think about what we are doing, because we are proclaiming the foundation of our faith, whether we thought about it consciously or not this morning. Why we are here today is because Jesus is risen. That is why we are here. That is why we follow him, because through the power of the Holy Spirit, he is with us every moment. So today and the next few Sundays, I ask you to think about what we say in our worship. “Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.” Let’s ponder those words in our hearts and in our minds, because they really are words of great joy, words of great comfort, words of great strength. There is never a moment when Jesus Christ himself is not with us. Amen.