"We all have a Jesus story to tell" Deacon Holly's sermon from Sunday 4/19/26

We had audio problems with our livestream on Sunday so we are posting Deacon Holly's sermon from the 3rd Sunday of Easter

Luke 24:13-35 - Emmaus Walk

“I have seen the Lord,” Mary proclaims to the disciples on that first Easter day. 

We heard that lesson from John at our Easter Vigil on April 4. 

Last Sunday we heard the disciples confidently tell Thomas on that first Easter evening,  “We have seen the Lord.”

Today’s Gospel sounds a little more like 

“We have seen the Lord?” 

This wonderful story of Jesus appearing to two people on the road to Emmaus on that first Easter evening can only be found in the Book of Luke. 

There are three central characters, Cleopas, his unnamed companion (some scholars have wondered if it was his wife), and their unrecognized companion Jesus. 

We do not know Cleopas from any other biblical reference. But clearly Cleopas and his companion had been followers of Jesus who knew Jesus as a prophet and 

who they had hoped would be the Messiah.

So Cleopas and his companion are walking home from Jerusalem to Emmaus on that first Easter night.

 It’s about a 7 mile journey. They are feeling disappointed and dejected because they are no longer certain that Jesus was the promised one.

So on this Sunday evening, they were busy walking & talking, trying to understand what had happened. When suddenly a stranger joins them on the road. Luke says “Jesus came near and went with them.”

As you heard in the gospel–the travelers don’t recognize Jesus. In fact it says in verse 16 “but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”

The fact that there are multiple reports in the gospels that people didn’t recognize the resurrected Jesus implies that his appearance is changed in some way, but we don’t know how.

Perhaps in their grief, they aren’t truly able to see Jesus. 

Whatever the case, when Jesus appears –they mistake him as a stranger and can’t believe that there’s anyone within 20 miles of Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what took place there over the last week. Jesus asks what they were discussing and they stand there looking sad.

So they share that the prophet and rabbi Jesus was tortured and killed and there is rumor that his body wasn't at the tomb and people are saying he was raised from the dead.  They say, “but we hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.”

This is a risky conversation for them to have with this complete stranger.              

Political conversations are risky even in our time, but in the ancient world, such conversations could get you crucified. And yet they have this conversation with someone they presume to be a stranger. 

So why did Jesus not tell them who he was?

Why doesn’t he say–Hey you two, it’s me you are talking about!

But Jesus lets the conversation play out and then seems to admonish them for having their doubts that the Messiah would have to suffer. He then takes the opportunity to share the Messianic promises from the Hebrew Scriptures with them beginning with Moses.

Notice that even when Jesus shares all of Scripture to the 2 travelers, they still do not recognize him.

Isn’t this the way with us, too? 

We travel on our day to day roads, not expecting anything new or exciting to happen.

Perhaps feeling sad or disappointed by what life has dealt. 

We may fail to recognize what or who is staring us in the face.

These two walking companions were not expecting anything good to happen after witnessing Christ’s death. 

They don’t know if they can buy the story the women shared about the tomb being empty and a visitation by angels. 

By this time it is getting late and it seems that Jesus is going to continue on his way. 

But in true Middle Eastern biblical hospitality, Cleopas and companion insist that this stranger come in and have dinner with them and stay the night. 

When they were at the table the stranger,  Jesus, “took bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to them.”

Then Cleopas and his friend’s eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus and he vanishes from their sight. 

It’s an interesting passage. 

First of all, what guest presumes to offer the blessing and hold up the bread at someone else’s home?

But in doing so, they realize who Jesus is! After all, this is exactly what Jesus did when he fed the 5,000 and what he did at the meal the night before he died and probably countless other meals they had witnessed with him.

Luke has Jesus either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal throughout his gospel.

So it makes sense that it’s at the table that they recognize Jesus.

It is in this familiar experience that they recognize the one for whom they are grieving. 

He took bread, broke it and gave it to them.

Exactly what we do at this table every Sunday in remembrance of Jesus and believing he is truly present with us. 

He’s alive! We have seen the Lord! 

And it’s only then that they remember their hearts were burning on the road when talking with him. 

Isn't that often the case, we recognize the presence of God only in hindsight? 

As Margaret Aymer, Professor of NT studies at Austin Presbyterian Seminary states:

Luke’s story reminds us that our relationship with the resurrected Christ is a relationship of long walks, risky conversations, reframed traumas, and quiet dinners— an intimate relationship between Christ and the church, of words shared and bread broken.

Now, I want to draw attention to all this language of “seeing the Lord” and recognizing Jesus visually. As someone who herself is experiencing some vision challenges at present, I’m sensitive to the language of “seeing the Lord.”

When I’m using that term throughout this sermon, I hope you are able to translate that to “feeling or knowing Christ’s presence.”  It doesn’t have to be visual. 

If we expect to actually literally see Jesus, we may be greatly disappointed. 

But how do we experience Jesus, when have we felt Jesus draw near? 

How do we know we have seen Jesus? 

Right now in our nation, it is pretty confusing because there are so many mixed messages from the Christian Right and the Christian left. 

Messages about what Jesus “looks” like literally– is he a muscular boxer ready to fight or a loving shepherd taking care of his sheep?

     Is Jesus ready to wage war or to bring peace?

           Is he advocating for the privileged or for the marginalized?

                 Is Jesus standing with the oppressors or the ones being persecuted?         

I think we actually have a good sense for what Jesus “looks” like and what he stands for. The Gospels give us plenty of information for who Jesus is. Jesus always stands with the oppressed, the persecuted, and the marginalized. Jesus is always ready to show mercy and compassion.

So how do we know when he is near?

One such instance of Jesus coming near to me stands out.

One Lent when I was serving at Faith Lutheran in Lexington, KY, I had made a bunch of Lenten promises of things I planned to give up during those 40 days.

I wasn’t even a week into Lent, before I had messed up and failed to keep a couple of my promises. I had been mentally beating myself up for not even being able to keep my Lenten commitment for even a week. I can’t even remember now exactly what I had given up–I think one thing was beef of all things–that I don’t even eat all that often.

Anyway, it was a Sunday morning a couple weeks into Lent and I was the assisting minister. I was standing at the altar next to the pastor as he raised the bread and said “this is my body given for you.” And suddenly my heart felt strangely warmed–I’m not kidding you! I had this moment where I felt Jesus saying (not audibly), this is what this is all about Holly. It’s not about giving up beef or chocolate or screen time…

It’s all about grace–it’s about what I, Jesus, did for you–not about what you think you can do for me.

It was one of those stand out–aha moments that I have never forgotten some 20 years later. 

When have you felt your heart burning with the knowledge that you have seen the Lord?

Perhaps it was doing acts of service for someone else, or feeling heard by a friend. 

Perhaps it was an act of kindness done for you, or a song or hymn you heard in worship, or when you were on the beach staring at the ocean or in the mountains on a hike. Or at the Baptismal Font, or this Table?

Where and when have you seen the Lord?  After Cleopas and friend recognized Jesus, they hurried back to Jerusalem and Luke tells us

 “Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

Like Cleopas and his companion, we all have a Jesus story to tell. 

What’s yours?

Tell me. 

Amen.