4/26/15 D.
Marion Clark
Introduction
Have you ever been looking for something that is unfindable?
You have looked everywhere. Your wife says, “Did you look in the drawer?” “Yes!
A hundred times.” But you look one more time, and there it is, right in front
of your eyes. “How did I miss that?” Or, here is another. You are trying to
understand what seems in-understandable – maybe a puzzle or instructions or
even a math problem. A teacher or friend comes alongside you and gives the key
to understanding the matter. All of a sudden it clicks, and now you understand.
Indeed, you wonder how you did not see it all along. Two disciples of Jesus had
such an “how did I miss that” experience in our text this morning.
Text
That very day two of them were going to a
village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and
they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
So two disciples
are walking along. The subject, of course, is their Master who was tragically
executed and, yet, whose body has mysteriously disappeared that very day. What
can it all mean? Jesus comes along.
15 While they
were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with
them. 16 But their eyes were kept from
recognizing him. 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. 18 Then one of them, named
Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know
the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 And
he said to them, “What things?”
And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet
mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and
how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and
crucified him. 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. 22 Moreover,
some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the
morning, 23 and when they did not find
his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who
said that he was alive. 24 Some of
those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had
said, but him they did not see.”
You teachers should be able to feel
for Jesus at this point. Here he is – their Teacher who had taught them time
and again about who he was and what to expect to take place in Jerusalem. This
is like exam time. The Teacher is testing his students who are flunking the
test. Cleopas finds it incredulous that this stranger could be so ignorant
about Jesus, not realizing that it is his own ignorance that is incredulous.
Note the title they give for Jesus
– a man who was a prophet. They had hoped he was the Messiah, “the one to
redeem Israel,” but his crucifixion ended such expectations. Even so, he was
“mighty in deed and word,” which still indicated that he was a prophet of God.
But what is really bewildering is the disappearance of the body. Some women of
their group claimed that they had seen angels who said that Jesus was alive,
but, well, you know how women can let their emotions get the best of them.
Something happened, but what?
25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it
not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his
glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and
all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning himself.
Clearly Jesus
reaches his breaking point – “O foolish ones, and slow of heart.” He doesn’t
say, “slow of heart to believe all that I taught you.” He could have, but he is
not ready to reveal his identity. That is what the angels had said to the
women. “Remember how he told you, while
he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men
and be crucified and on the third day rise”
(Luke 24:6-7). Instead – and this is the point – he speaks of the prophets,
i.e. the writers of the Scriptures. And so he takes them through the Scriptures
(Moses and all the Prophets), interpreting passages that predict and allude to
him and to his work of suffering, death, and resurrection (entering into his
glory).
“Don’t you see the reference to the Messiah at the very
beginning in God’s curse on the Serpent?”
“Cursed on the tree? Of course! That’s the whole point of
the crucifixion – to fulfill the Law.”
“Now let’s look at the Passover…”
“Do you see now the meaning of the scapegoat on the Day of
Atonement?”
“And that is who Isaiah is referring to as the Suffering
Servant.”
“David is not
referring to himself in his psalm when he says that God ‘will not abandon my
soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption’. David stayed dead. He is
referring to the Messiah.”
28 So they drew near to the
village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 but
they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and
the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread
and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And
their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their
sight.
Note when their
eyes were opened. It was when “he took
the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.” Does that sound
familiar? They had experienced something like it three nights earlier in an
upper room. “And he took bread, and when
he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them” (Luke 22:19). It’s
Jesus! Then he vanishes.
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?” 33 And
they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven
and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying,
“The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and
how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
It is all out in the open. Jesus has risen from the dead.
Take note, though, Cleopas and his companion comment to one another about what
was happening to them before they
recognized Jesus: “Did
not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he
opened to us the Scriptures?” The message of the Emmaus road story is that
the Scriptures (the Old Testament) reveal and explain the person and work of
Jesus Christ, the Messiah. That their hearts burned within them is a way of
saying that they were inwardly stirred up as understanding took root in them.
It was not something about Jesus’ voice; it was not Jesus’ charisma; it was the
fact that he was opening up the meaning of the Scriptures. He possessed the key
to unlock what had been mysterious; he had provided the correct interpretation
to what had before been misinterpreted or overlooked altogether. “Yes, yes, now
we see; now we understand; it is making sense.”
And what would have really excited them was
that the sufferings and death were fitting in to the real picture of the
Messiah, which means that the answer to the mystery of the vanishing body
(could it really be?) is that the body has been raised from the dead! No wonder
they did not want Jesus to walk on and leave them. They are at the climax of
the most amazing story. And then Jesus enacts the real climax – he reveals
himself.
Lessons
There are two essential lessons to take away from our
passage – one is about what is in Scripture; the other is about what is in our
hearts.
Scripture
It was already noted that, unlike the angels who rebuked the
women for not remembering what Jesus had told them about himself, Jesus scolds
the two disciples for not remembering or understanding what the Scriptures told
about him.
This is a critical point. The disciples were Jews. They
believed and took seriously the sacred Scriptures. Because of the Scriptures
they looked for the Messiah to come, and their expectations for what the
Messiah would be like and do came from the Scriptures. The Messiah was not a
new concept; it did not spring out of nonbiblical sources. And anyone’s claim
to be the Messiah would have to be verified by fulfillment of the Scriptures.
So, in this case, Jesus had to produce scripture references that verified that
the Messiah must suffer, be killed, and be raised from the dead.
He also had to demonstrate how other interpretations about
the Messiah were wrong or incomplete. The disciples were expecting a Messiah
who would conquer enemies and set up a kingdom, meaning for them conquering the
Romans and re-establishing the kingdom of Israel. There is truth in the
expectations but not full understanding of who the real enemies were and the
kind of kingdom the Messiah would establish on his first visit. Indeed, the
concept of two visits by the Messiah is an interpretation that the disciples
would not have thought of before.
But then, there is more to proof-texting going on. Jesus is
not simply teaching that among many other themes of the Scriptures there are
also Scripture texts that pertain to the Messiah. The person and work of the
Messiah is what all of the Scriptures teach in one form or another. Scripture
as a whole is to be understood in light of the work of the Messiah. He is the
key that unlocks its meaning. And so, as he would have taken them through the
Scriptures to teach about himself, both on the Emmaus road and then when he
appears to all the disciples later, he would not be hopping around finding
proof-texts to quote. Rather he would have systematically taken them through
the flow of the Scriptures, explaining how the historical narratives
foreshadowed him; how the sacrificial system foreshadowed his work; how
unfilled expectations and unexplained puzzles find fulfillment in his coming.
There is the story of the minister teaching children. He
pulled out a stuffed animal and asked the children what the animal represented.
One shrewd child who was a veteran of the minister’s stories raised his hand,
“I don’t how but it must be Jesus.” So it is with God’s Word. Wherever one may
be in the Scriptures, the sharp mind will be on the lookout for Jesus. Either
the scripture text presents some direct mention of him, or alludes to him, or
sets the conditions for which his coming is necessary and is understood.
Our Hearts
So, Jesus opened up the Scriptures for his disciples that
they might see him in those sacred texts. But something else needed to take
place. Jesus had taught them before. He had forewarned them of his sufferings
and had explicitly said that he would rise again. And yet, after all of these
events took place, indeed, on the very day of his resurrection they are still
clueless. Their eyes had been veiled so that they did not recognize Jesus. That
was not their fault, but rather the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not want
to be recognized. But placing a veil over their minds was not the Spirit’s
work; it was their own.
I must confess that I had a personal reason for preaching
this text. The sermon I most clearly remember is one preached years ago on this
passage. It was the Sunday following Easter. The associate minister read the
passage through the end of the chapter. She began by commenting that the events
she was about to read did not happen. Gospels were not history and so we should
not take these events literally. Halfway through the reading she stopped to
remind her hearers that the story she read did not take place. Something
happened but not this. She concluded her reading with yet another assertion that,
though something significant happened, these episodes did not. The preacher, as
he “expounded” the text explained that Luke was not interested in explaining
who Jesus was; rather, his interest was Jesus’ message, which happened to be
that we ought to love one another.
I knew that I was in a church that would have a low view of
Jesus’ nature and of Scripture’s veracity, but there are two aspects of these
ministers’ statements that take us beyond a simple difference of opinion. The
first was the certainty by which the reader declared unequivocally that what
she was reading did not take place. Something significant happened after three
days that made the disciples eventually come up with the resurrection story,
but what it was she did not know. What she did know without doubt was that the
resurrection story with these added episodes was merely a story and not fact.
Now how is it that the one thing she was sure of was that what was reported was
not true? There are not textual variances, no critical studies that indicate
Luke either did not write this passage or that he meant for his readers not to
take this passage literally.
The second aspect is the clear misinterpretation by the
preacher of the passage. It is one thing to say something like Luke is adding his
own interpretation to what happened to Jesus’ body or that he, with the other
gospel writers, are adding resurrection stories to explain how the spirit of
Jesus continued on, etc. But instead, he takes Luke’s text – which is clearly
about Jesus rising from the dead and then explaining how his death and
resurrection were foretold in the Old Testament – he takes that text and claims
that Luke is not interested in who Jesus is. And even when he turns to what
Luke has Jesus saying, he comes up with an interpretation – Jesus wants us to
love everyone – that is nowhere in the text.
What we have here is a failure to understand what is being
clearly communicated by Scripture. It is not merely bringing presuppositions to
the Scriptures, which we cannot avoid doing, but blatantly allowing those
presuppositions to veil their minds so that they will understand only what they
want to understand. But then that is what is to be expected of those who do not
take Scripture seriously.
But here then is the irony of the disciples. They did take
Scripture seriously; they believed in its veracity. It was because they took
Scripture seriously that they looked for the Messiah. And yet, even though
Jesus had taught them ahead of time of what was to happen; even though he had been
teaching them from the Scriptures, their minds were just as veiled as these two
ministers. Their presuppositions of what the Messiah would do (taken from the
primary viewpoints of the traditional, conservative scholars of their day) kept
their minds veiled. Or were the presuppositions at fault? Did their obtuseness
not have more to do with what they wanted to believe or not want to believe?
Those two skeptical ministers did not want to believe what
this passage actually teaches. To do so would be too embarrassing, too
inconvenient, and require too much change on their part. What tripped up the
disciples was the suffering and the crucifixion, especially the crucifixion. To
hang upon a tree is to be cursed of God. That is what Scripture says
(Deuteronomy 21:23). How could such happen to the Messiah? That is what they
would say is their problem, but was it not really something like this? “We
refuse to believe that God would allow such to happen. We do not want to
believe something like that.” They had “hoped” Jesus was the one to redeem
Israel, but the cross – that was too much, too much to take. God would not do
such a thing! I will not believe it!
What will we refuse to believe? To be sure, there are very
important truths upon which we must stand, but we do so because Scripture is
clear. Even so, there is much doctrine that we will not accept, not because we
are convinced by Scripture but because they do not fit the way we understand
the way things should be. The result is that we falsely interpret Scripture
like the preacher or even deny that what it says it means like the reader.
The lesson for us is that when we come across Scripture that
is hard for us to take, all the more we need to study it. We need to ask
ourselves why we are troubled by it. We need to let the Scripture probe our
hearts. Don’t be quick to make the interpretation of Scripture something that
is easy to handle. That was a point made in the story of the Canaanite woman
who was basically insulted by Jesus. We are quick to tame Jesus, when we are
the ones who need to be tamed by him. We do the same with Jesus’ hard
teachings. For example, he teaches, more than anyone else, about hell. What are
we going to do with it? Claim that Jesus would not have said such things? Even
harder, he teaches us to love and to show mercy to our enemies, to the people
we despise. Again, what are we going to do with it? Reinterpret it to mean
enemies who are not so bad or who have repented, or like some interpreters,
claim it applies to another dispensation?
Specifically I would ask some of you, do you also refuse to
believe that Jesus would have died on the cross for your sins? Do you refuse to
believe that your sins are so weighty? Do you refuse to believe that Jesus
could actually bear your sins on a piece of wood and that he could rise three
days later? Is it too incredible? Too much of a fairytale? Will your
presuppositions not allow Scripture to probe your heart to find out if your
refusal to believe is really intellectual or if it is a matter of the heart?
The Scripture has been opened to you; will you allow it to open your mind and
your heart?
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