Easter 3A – April 10, 2005

Sermon by Pastor Richard M Burgess

Scripture Text: Luke 24.13-35

Where is Emmaus?

Where do you go when your hero falls? Where do you go when your hopes are shattered? Where do you go when your world is turned upside down?

Where is Emmaus?

The two disciples in today’s gospel lesson knew where Emmaus was. It was their home. It was where they went when everything had collapsed. And these disciples had definitely been crushed and disoriented. Their expectations of Jesus had been shattered.

They had expected Jesus to be the Messiah and the Son of God. They had expected the Messiah to be a new king in line of David, the beginning of a new era of prosperity, prestige, and power. Jesus had already proved himself to them. He was as wise as Solomon. He had supernatural knowledge of peoples lives, even their thoughts. And Jesus had been mighty in deeds, in miracles and in healings.

They had expected more of same form Jesus, for his kingdom to continue to grow. But instead, Jesus had been betrayed by one of his insiders, those closest to him. He had been tried and convicted by both the Jewish and Roman authorities. He had been beaten publically and finally he had been executed. In all of this Jesus had failed to resist and there had been no divine intervention to save him.

It’s not really surprising that these two didn’t recognize Jesus when they saw him. Their world had been so shattered, their expectations so destroyed that the shock alone was enough to blind them. They were doing well to find their way home. They were not going to recognize anyone, let alone a man they knew to be dead.

Have you ever been on the way to Emmaus?

Have you ever been so upset you couldn’t recognize anyone or anything? Have you ever been lost?

In my years working as a chaplain, I met a lot of people who were very upset. One in particular stands out today. A man had a sudden heart attack, unexpected with no previous history of heart problems. They worked on him in the ambulance and at the hospital, but were unable to revive him and he died. When we told his wife, she had what we call a “flat affect”; she spoke in a very even, unemotional tone with no expression. She told me how they met, how she knew they would marry and where they would live, and how both came to pass. After a while we saw his body and prayed. The woman went out to wait while her son got the car. She took out a cigarette, put it in her mouth, and lit the filter. Poof! It flared up and she remained emotionless as she stared out into space.

This woman’s life had been so shattered that she couldn’t even see a fire in front of her face!

Where is Emmaus?

Certainly it is where we go when things fall apart, when we are blinded by tragedy. It is also where go to regain our sight, where we go to begin to put things back together.

These two disciples walked the road to Emmaus, and when they came to Emmaus they were changed.

These disciples had a hero whom they thought had fallen. But he had only gone away for a couple days to defeat death.

These disciples thought their hopes in the Messiah and a new world order were shattered. But they had only mistaken force and domination for power, when it was actually love and submission that were going to rule.

These disciples thought their world was turned upside down, but actually it had been upside down all along and had now been turned right side up again.

The rule of sin in our lives since Adam was over and now grace would rule, as it had always been intended. The Kingdom of God had begun, and while it was a little confusing at first, and still is at times, it is the right way. It is the way God was working then and continues to work now. It is the end toward which we are all headed.

Death is tragic. Death with its whole family of losses, troubles, & crises disorients us and threatens to destroy us. But death is not the end. Death is always followed by resurrection. And how do we come to know that?

Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we hear the news of Christ’s resurrection. We hear the resurrected Christ as the Living Word in the proclamation of the Scriptures. We meet the resurrected Christ in the breaking of bread and drinking of wine. And we share the resurrected Christ when we leave these walls and return to the world.

Where is Emmaus?

Emmaus is here. Emmaus is where we go when tragedy has struck, when we are broken, when we are so broken we can’t see. Emmaus is where we go to meet Christ in Word and Sacrament and see again.

And having met Christ, let us rush out today to share the good news with the world. The good news that “Alleluia! Christ is risen!”

congregation: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

AMEN

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