Luke 24:13-35

Our gospel reading from Luke is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. The story is known as the Walk to Emmaus. Here is a brief summary: on the same day as Jesus’ resurrection (the first Easter), two of his disciples were walking on a road to the village of Emmaus. Naturally, they were talking about what had happened – Jesus’ betrayal, his arrest, the lies told about him, his crucifixion, death, and the strange news they heard earlier that morning from some of the women that Jesus’ tomb was empty. According to the angel who met them at the tomb, Jesus had risen from the dead.

They were discussing all of these things when the risen Jesus comes near to them and starts walking with them. Except, here is the irony: they don’t know that it’s the risen Jesus. Luke tells us that “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” Which implies that something or Someone, – God, working the Spirit, or their own forgetfulness – was preventing them from seeing the Lord in their midst.

Seeing them deep in conversation, the risen Jesus asks what they are talking about. And the two disciples answer almost sarcastically. You can’t be serious, they wonder. ”Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place?” they ask.

“What things?” Jesus replies. 

“The things about Jesus of Nazareth,” they tell him. And then they proceed to recount the events of the past week, how Jesus was betrayed, arrested, put on trial, and sentenced to death by crucifixion. And how they heard the most unbelievable news that morning from some of the women in their group who were saying that an angel told them that Jesus had risen from the dead.

The two disciples still do not realize that it is the risen Lord Jesus himself walking beside them. Jesus sort of chastises them for their unbelief. “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have told!” the Lord tells them. And then the risen Jesus begins to teach them about the Bible. Luke refers to this as Jesus opening up the books of Moses and the prophets to them (Moses and the prophets is a reference to the Old Testament since Moses is said to have written the first five books of the Bible – Genesis through Deuteronomy, and the prophets are the biblical names we’re familiar with like Isaiah and Jeremiah).

The two disciples still do not recognize that it is the risen Jesus in their midst.

The story takes another twist as the daylight is fading and evening is drawing close. The two disciples were getting ready to find lodging for the night, but the risen Jesus (still a stranger to them) continued on like he was going to continue traveling down the road. When they realized what was happening, the two disciples urged him to stay with them. And they have dinner together.

And then the most amazing thing happens while they eat dinner. Luke tells us that when the risen Lord Jesus was eating with them, he took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them. We’re told it was during this blessing and breaking of bread – a clear reminder of the Last Supper, eucharist, communion – only a few days before for them, that their eyes were opened and they recognized for the first time exactly who had been among them – the risen Lord Jesus.

The story ends rather suddenly. Jesus vanishes from their sight. But they make a comment that still gets me every time I read it. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening (teaching) the scriptures to us?” Almost immediately, the disciples decide they will no longer stay the night in the village, but instead will get back to Jerusalem as soon as they can to tell the others the incredible news that “the Lord has risen indeed!” and they’ve seen him.

There are so many directions this story can lead us. One of the first questions it brings up is has Lord been in our midst and we’ve missed him or failed to see him? One of the most difficult things in the Christian life is that we can get so busy or so caught up in our day to day living that we forget about God. Like these two disciples, our eyes can literally be kept from seeing the Lord. We can get so distracted that we miss God’s presence or God’s work in our lives. So one of the ways God’s grace shows up sometimes is that we are jolted or shaken out of our distraction. Something moves us and we are made alive (in the words of Scripture, our hearts burn inside us) to the Lord’s presence in our lives.

One of the other questions it brings up is how well do we actually know the Scriptures? In our story, this was a key part of Jesus’ ministry to the two disciples. He had to teach them how to read the Bible. He had to teach them how to understand the Scriptures so that they could really know that it was him who was in their midst. 

There are a lot of people in our day who claim to know the Bible and claim to be acting on God’s behalf. They will use the Bible to justify all sorts of things like war, being cruel to others, and getting incredibly rich while others are suffering. As the Pope said this week, woe to those who misuse and abuse the Christian faith. Jesus makes it clear over and over again in the gospels that there is a difference between knowing what the Bible says and what the Bible is actually about – God’s love, truth, justice, mercy, and peace that has come in the kingdom of God. Put another way, there is a difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. The two disciples had head knowledge. They knew what was in the Bible. But their heart knowledge had gone into hiding. They needed Jesus to open their hearts, to warm them and light them on fire, so that they had heart knowledge too and didn’t just know about God, but knew God personally.

The last question this passage brings up is the importance of food and prayer in Jesus’ ministry. I don’t just say that because I like to eat. Instead, when we read the gospel and encounter Jesus in them, oftentimes he is eating with people. And not just people who are worthy to eat with him or people that he likes. Instead, he eats with sinners, tax-collectors, and other misfits. So much so that the religious leaders of Jesus’ day accused him of being up to no good and being drunk.

One of the most important acts that we do in worship is communion, sharing in the eucharist together. We don’t celebrate communion weekly like many churches do. There are lots of historic reasons for that a few hundred years ago, but the earliest Christians celebrated communion weekly every time they gathered for worship. And so it could be that one day churches like ours return to doing weekly communion to join the hundreds of millions of other Christians who share communion weekly. I say all of this because something unique happens in communion. The Road to Emmaus reminds us of that, that in the blessing and breaking of bread, we see Christ, we know Christ, we feel Christ, we experience Christ in a unique and powerful way that is different from a lovely hymn, or powerful prayer, or a good sermon. When I was in Iraq, we had communion every week at the chapel and in the field services because we never knew who would be there. It was one of the most powerful weekly experiences of my life.

Here is where we will close: as I was finishing up my work on Friday afternoon and thinking about this passage (and frankly struggling with what to say), the words that came to me were spiritual renewal. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had an awakening. They had an encounter with the risen Lord Jesus. And their hearts and minds were opened and changed and renewed. 

My guess is many of us are skeptical of the phrase ‘spiritual renewal’. Here in America, we are right to be. The church in America has often become like a spiritual shopping mall. We buy what works for us, what makes us happy, and what brings a little spiritual thrill. And if it’s not working for us, we return it. There was a time in my life where I felt that my faith wasn’t adequate enough because it wasn’t emotional enough. So, I went shopping at the spiritual mall. I tried different churches from what I was used to. I once visited a church when I was in college and the service included a light show, a fog machine, and a really loud rock band for music. It was weird for someone who was raised in a liturgical church like this one, but there was a thrill to it. Looking back, the church was trying to manufacture that ‘were not our hearts burning within us’ experience the two disciples had on the road to Emmaus.

First, some good news. It is not up to us to produce spiritual renewal and spiritual vitality. We can’t manufacture faith. God doesn’t work that way. Instead, faith is a gift from God. 

And so, if your heart, mind, and spirit feels dead or on life-support, or if that is too strong, just weary or confused, you are in good company with countless Christians throughout the world and history. Take these two disciples on the road to Emmaus, for example. Luke tells us they were on the road out of Jerusalem. This indicates that they weren’t planning to stick around with the rest of the disciples for much longer and had given up on the whole Jesus thing. In the story, when the risen Jesus asks them about what they are talking about, their response was to first stand still and look sad and then tell the risen Jesus (who they don’t recognize) all of the terrible, tragic events of the week before. So it is a great comfort that God doesn’t require us to have our act together before he starts doing something with our lives. Instead, spiritual renewal is something that the Lord begins in us. But the critical part for us (and for these two disciples) is that we have to be willing to keep walking, not give up, and to learn. Otherwise, our hearts can become so closed off that they harden and our spirits whither to nothing.

Let’s go back to our story. The risen Lord Jesus comes alongside these two disciples and travels along with them on the road. The road can be a metaphor for life. The Lord just kind of shows up and comes alongside us.

And then the Lord begins teaching them the Scriptures. We don’t know the details of what he taught, but he likely touched on the laws given to Moses and how they were given to create a holy community. He probably taught them about the prophet’s calls to turn back to God and to leave behind greed, warmongering, and lying and instead (in the words of the prophet Micah) ‘do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” He probably talked about how those Scriptures, those words of God, came to be real flesh and blood in the Messiah, who suffered and was crucified and entered glory. It’s as if to say that a really important way that God works renewal and reformation in us and in the church is through going deeper and learning about the Scriptures. That is not to say that every Chrisitan needs a bible degree. But it is to say that reading the Bible regularly with both your head and your heart is very important to our soul. It’s how we learn truth from lies, justice from injustice, and the virtues of faith – faith, hope, and love.

The other thing that the risen Lord Jesus does with the disciples is bless and break bread. And it’s in the blessing and breaking of bread that their eyes are opened and they recognize the Lord Jesus who was in their midst. It’s as if to say that prayer, fellowship, and communion are not just religious rituals, but actual real ways that God reveals himself to us. We deal in our faith with what is real. And the most real thing is the truth that God is and has created the world and all that is seen and unseen.

Friends, if there are two things that I can encourage you to do, they are: keep walking on the road, keep putting one foot in front of the other, and be willing to learn. The second is, read the Scriptures regularly. Pray. Be ready and willing for the Lord to come teach you and work on your heart and make it strangely warm.

Amen.