"On the Road and at the Table" (Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter)

Many of you I’m sure have seen this painting before. The original German title is “Gang nach Emmaus,” the “Walk to Emmaus,” by 19th century Swiss artist, Robert Zünd. It’s a picture of Christ and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Of course it’s based on the Holy Gospel for today. It’s a lovely painting. And what a wonderful walk it must have been! To have Jesus there at your side as you walk along! You feel like you’d like to put yourself into the picture, so you could just walk along with them and listen in.

Let’s do that for a while. Let’s zoom in on the picture, so we can see and hear what’s going on. What was it like? Well, it didn’t start out so wonderful on that Sunday afternoon. Those two fellas there--they’re on their way home from Jerusalem, going back to the town of Emmaus. But they’re sad, confused, and discouraged. Their faces are downcast. The reason is that their master, Jesus, had been crucified just a couple of days earlier, on Friday. They had been followers of Jesus, among his larger group of disciples. So naturally that’s all they can think about, the tragic events of the last few days.

All of a sudden a stranger catches up to them and joins them as they walk. Of course, we know that it’s Jesus. But they don’t. “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him,” the text says. Implied is that God is keeping them from recognizing Jesus at this point. God has something for them to learn and experience first. So this stranger asks them what they’re talking about. They fill him in, saying that they’ve been talking about “Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”

These disciples had certain hopes about Jesus, but now those hopes were dashed, their dreams were shattered. All their hopes had ended. Because Jesus was dead. He had been crucified, no less, before he could do anything to achieve the goal they had wanted him to accomplish. “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” But now who would deliver their nation from the hands of the Romans? Who would lead their nation to glory? No one, it seems, at least for the foreseeable future. These two men felt like God had let them down. How long, O Lord, how long before the promised Messiah finally arrives? Apparently, it must not have been Jesus, because he didn’t get the job done.

But the stranger rebukes them: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Jesus rebukes them for not recognizing what had been there under their nose all along. The Scriptures--the part we call the Old Testament--the Scriptures had been telling them all along what would happen to the Messiah, but they had missed it. Just like everybody else, they didn’t get it. They were looking for another kind of Savior, one that fit their own expectations. They were certainly not looking for a Messiah who would be rejected--rejected by their own religious leaders. They were not expecting a Messiah who would have to suffer and die in shame and weakness.

So Jesus then takes them through the Scriptures, in order that they can see what they’ve been missing. What a Bible study that must have been! What Scriptures did he use? Jesus could have taken them to the stories of Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah--prophets who spoke God’s word to God’s people and yet were rejected. He most surely would have taken them to Isaiah 53, the song of the Suffering Servant: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Jesus may have taken them also to Psalm 22, the cry of the righteous sufferer: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This stranger on the road opened up the Scriptures to them, so they could see that what had happened to Jesus actually was God’s plan, that it had been prophesied, that it was necessary that the Christ should suffer these things.

Those same Scriptures tell us why it was necessary that the Christ should suffer and die. Beginning back in Genesis 3, where God told Adam and Eve that in the very act of the serpent striking the woman’s seed in the heel, that one would strike the serpent in the head and thus destroy his power. Then think of all the Scriptures where it takes a death, the shedding of blood, to make a sacrifice for sin. Again, think of Isaiah 53: “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities. . . . And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Now it says in our text that, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” In other words, Jesus gives them, and us, the interpretive key for understanding all of Scripture. He gives us the lens to look through to see the Scriptures aright. Here on the road Jesus gives the church a lesson in how to read the Bible--the overall way to approach the Scriptures, the way to interpret and understand the Scriptures correctly. That approach and that understanding has, as its heart and center, a suffering Christ. Jesus himself says that that is the way the Scriptures are to be understood. Jesus’ own interpretation of the Bible stresses the necessity and centrality of the suffering Christ.

Therefore any preaching today that does not have as its core a suffering Christ is not Christian preaching. Any church that simply doles out “principles for living” and panders to so-called felt needs--oh, they may tack a little bit of Jesus on the side--but a church that turns the Divine Service into entertainment, that uses puts the accent on our being ablaze with activism instead of on receiving God’s gracious gifts, a church that replaces the Passion of Christ with the programs of men--such a church, however successful it may look, is going in the wrong direction. The church that does not have the cross of Christ at the center of its life, Christ crucified at the center of its worship and preaching--that church has left the Emmaus road and has taken a wrong turn.

The Emmaus disciples had been looking for a “successful” Messiah, as they envisioned it. Therefore they thought that things had turned out rather badly, that this whole Jesus enterprise was a disaster, a failure. They had hoped that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel. And because he died, they thought that he had failed. Little did they realize that it was precisely in dying that he would redeem Israel! This was how he would redeem the whole world! It was a redemption far greater and far different than they were expecting. With his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death, Jesus Christ has redeemed us lost and condemned persons. He has purchased and won us, rescued us and set us free--from all our sins, from the death that sin brings, and from the enslaving power of the devil. Yes, our Redeemer died that we might live, really live, now and forever--just as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.

All that the Emmaus disciples knew, as they headed down the road that day, was that Jesus died, and they didn’t know why. “This is now the third day since all this sad business took place. Oh, some of our women went out to the tomb this morning and found it empty, and they came back with some wild story about Jesus being alive. But who can believe that?” You and I, though, we know that the women’s report, as amazing as it sounds, is true. It is true! Jesus is alive! God has vindicated his righteous Messiah. He’s walking right beside them on the road, and they don’t even realize it. But soon they will.

The three travelers come to the town, to Emmaus. It’s getting late in the day. “Stay with us, sir. Abide with us. Come into our home and be our guest for a while. Come, eat with us.” So the stranger enters their house. But while he is at table with them, the guest becomes the host! In some ways, what Jesus does here at this table is very much like what he had done in Jerusalem a few nights earlier: “He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.” And so now, in Emmaus, it is in the breaking of the bread that their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus for who he is.

Again, Jesus sets the pattern for the church. First there is the teaching and then there is the eating. There is the opening up of the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread. This then is what the church has always done, from the earliest days, when it gathers together on the first day of the week. There is the Word and the Sacrament, on the Lord’s Day, in the presence of Christ. The Divine Service of both Word and Sacrament--that is the normal, historic, biblically based, gospel saturated, Christian, Lutheran thing to do when the church comes together for its chief service of the week, every week. Not one or the other, Word “or” Sacrament, but both together, Word “and” Sacrament. Christ’s disciples want all of what our Lord has to give us.

Today as we have dropped in on this picture, the “Walk to Emmaus,” we have gone with Jesus “On the Road and at the Table.” And so the Emmaus disciples go from shattered hopes and shuttered eyes to burning hearts and opened eyes. They go from being slow of heart to having faith burning in their hearts. Their eyes are opened and they see Jesus.

Well, it’s a beautiful picture, isn’t it? “On the Road and at the Table” with Jesus. What a blessed experience that must have been! Too bad we couldn’t have been there to enjoy it. But wait a minute! How foolish we are, how slow of heart we are to believe! What has been under our noses all along? No, we can’t go back to Emmaus. But Jesus comes here to us! Jesus is with us, “on the road and at the table.” As we walk along the road of life, our risen Lord walks with us. “Surely I will be with you, all the days, to the close of the age.” Jesus is here now, in the gathering of God’s people. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I with them.”

Jesus is here right now, opening up the Scriptures to us. We even acknowledge his presence in our midst by standing up for the Holy Gospel, when we hear our Lord speaking to us. Here we receive his life-giving words to prepare us and strengthen us for our life on the road. Likewise at the table. Jesus is here, too, really present. Here at the table, our Lord receives foolish and slow sinners like you and me into fellowship with him. The crucified yet living one gives us his own body and blood to eat and to drink, for the forgiveness of sins. In this breaking of the bread, our eyes are opened, the eyes of faith, for here we see our Lord face to face.

This Emmaus story has a wonderful message for you today, my friend. It says that Jesus will be with you “on the road and at the table.” He has been with you, ever since the day of your baptism. He will continue to walk with you, as you travel along your own Emmaus Road. As you encounter your own set of disappointments and unmet expectations, when your hopes are dashed and your dreams are shattered, Jesus will be there with you, walking right beside you. Week after week, Jesus will open up the Scriptures for you, the Scriptures concerning himself, the one who died and rose to give you life and hope. Time and time again, Jesus will host you here at his table, where we enjoy sweet fellowship with him. Truly Jesus is abiding with us.

You know, somebody ought to do a painting called the “Walk to Bonne Terre”! Because, like that “Walk to Emmaus,” our risen Lord Jesus goes with us, too. Jesus is with us, “On the Road and at the Table.”

Luke 24:13-35 (ESV)

That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 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. 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?” 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, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 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. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 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. 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.” And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 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. When he was at table with them, 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. 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?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

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