Easter 3
26 April 2020
Luke 24:13-35
“Social Distancing”
“While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.” -Luke 24:15
Daughter Lydia has been quarantined in her apartment in Queens for now…eight weeks. A friend asked her, “How can you stand it? This isolation!”
Her response, “Where I grew up ‘social distancing’ is a way of life!”
You’ve heard the definition of ‘social distancing’ Hoosier style? The required six feet of distance between two persons can be defined as follows:
1. The wing span of a turkey buzzard.
2. A stalk of corn.
3. Two Wal-mart shopping carts.
4. Bobby Knight.
As they walked. Did these two; Cleopas and his traveling companion follow safe social distancing as they walked the road? We do not know.
Did Jesus violate their space? When He appeared to them? We don’t know that either.
What we do know is that, “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” –v. 16
Jesus was present. But they did not realize Him? They could not acknowledge Him. For they could not comprehend nor, could they understand the specter that Jesus was walking with them.
It is a rather strange tale. These two companions. Look directly at Jesus but do not recognize Him.
The Risen Jesus joins them as a fellow-traveler. “Something” prevents them from recognizing Him. What was that “something”? Was it their presumption that Jesus was still dead? Was it their pre-conceived idea of what Jesus should look like?
Seeing their obvious despondency and disillusionment, Jesus asks what they are talking about. With delicious irony they say, “You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.”
Jesus plays them out a little more with a totally innocent-sounding, “What things?” He wants to hear their version of what had happened. To them, death was the failure of Jesus’ mission. They refer to him as a “prophet” as if, after the debacle of his death, they could not see in Jesus the Messiah they had earlier acknowledged.
“We were hoping (ἠλπίζομεν elpizomen,) 1 that he would be the one to set Israel free.” 2
Again the irony of their own words is lost on them. For them, freedom meant liberation from the tyranny of foreign domination. And perhaps. The inauguration of the Kingdom of God as they understood it. 3
The death and resurrection did not change Jesus’ physical appearance. The wounds were still there. The print of the nails was in plain sight. Yet the physical appearance did not help them to recognize the resurrected Jesus.
This is a comfort for us. Today we must look elsewhere than the physical body to know Jesus has risen from the dead. Today you are invited to meet the risen Christ. He comes to you as He has promised. He comes to you in those specific places where He has promise to be found. He comes to you in His Word, His meal, and in His promises.
1. What keeps people from seeing Him?
A. Their demeanor was downcast – vs. 17 “And he said to them, "What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still, looking sad.”
Why were they returning back to Emmaus? Because they wanted to forget all the things that had happened in Jerusalem. Because they wanted to return to their normal lives after this tragedy they had experienced.
And has this not been the conversation of so many this past month? Conversations of uncertainty and doubt. “When shall we return back to normal?” “Will there be a new – normal to our lives?” And, “what shall our life be after Covid-19 is behind us?”
B. Despair – vs.21 “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.”
What they could not get out of their head were these two realities. First, their redeemer had been crucified. And now, beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
The third day, Jesus had told them, would be the day of His triumphant return to them. And, strangely enough, on the early morning of this third day, something did happen - which had stirred, excited, and perplexed them. Certain women of their company, who had been early to the grave of the Master. They had every intention to embalm the corpse. But they found the sepulcher empty. And they came back reporting how they had seen a vision of angels there, who told them their Master lived. What did it all mean?
2. What enables you to know Jesus is alive?
A. The Word – Scriptures – Vs. 32 “They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?"
1. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” – V. 27 Jesus pointed to the Old Testament Scriptures and interpreted them that showed He was to suffer, die and rise again.
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.” – Isaiah 53
This is what Paul preached to the church in Corinth. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
2. Luke would remind us in t he book of Acts,, “As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” - Acts 17:3
3. It was these Scriptures which spoke of Him. The promise of a Servant who would bring us back to God. This Jesus taught plainly, “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:31–32; Mark 12:26- 27; Luke 20:37-38)
4. This is what drove Jesus to the cross. It was a divine necessity. Jesus was driven to the cross. He asked, “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” v. 26
If Jesus is the Messiah, the cross and empty tomb were the Father’s way of reconciling you. Since reconciliation required a satisfaction of God’s wrath against sin, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was necessary. This indicates that the cross was a divine project. It means that only the Father could remove the offense of sin. God in Christ satisfied His own justice resulting in the Father accepting and receiving you as forgiven children.
B. Jesus was also present the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper – Vv. 30, 31 “He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.”
As they walked, the Emmaus disciples knew of the fact of the empty tomb. Yet they still did not understand the resurrection. The women had report the empty tomb to the disciples. Some even checked out the story and found it to be the case. Yet, they did not believe Jesus rose from the dead. The empty tomb only makes sense in light of Scripture. These two Emmaus disciples experienced Jesus in the Word proclaimed and Sacraments shared.
C. His promise – of forgiveness and life is also for you. Last Sunday. John records for us the events in that took place as the disciples were staying in place that first Easter. “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.’ As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.’” – John 20:21-23
To flatten the curve of this present virus we’ve been advised by medical experts to practice social distancing of six feet or more. We stay apart now so that later we can come together.
Your Lord Jesus is neither distant, isolated, nor far-off. He comes to you in the promises of His Word offering you His life in exchange for yours. As He walked with those Emmaus disciples and was welcomed into their home He has promised to be the ever-present yet unseen guest wherever you go.
Walk with your Savior has He has promised to come to your through His Word of forgiveness and life. In His Word you will recognize Him. In His Word; proclaimed, taught, read and shared you will hear His voice offering your pardon and peace.
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1 Only one occurrence.
2 https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/e1014g/
3 Today the quotation from Benjamin Franklin, “those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither.” is frequently used to argue all sorts of political agendas both on the right as well as the left.
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