All That You Can't Leave Behind
Luke 24:13-35
I’ve been waiting three years to preach this passage, ever since I saw that glorious stained glass window we have depicting this very scene of the two disciples encountering the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus. At last, the Lectionary has granted my wish!
Of the thirteen Tiffany stained-glass windows that adorn this sanctuary, the Emmaus window is the only one that predates this building. It was originally installed in our previous building down on Clinton Street and brought up New Main Street on a horse-drawn carriage once construction of this building was complete.
The window is dedicated to Rev. Dr. Amasa Freeman, the founding pastor of this church. Rev. Freeman led Central Presbyterian Church for 52 years, from 1846 to 1898. He arrived as a twenty-five-year-old fresh from seminary and served until his death at age 77. “Abide With Us.” That’s the caption below the window, or as the translation that we read has it, “Stay with us.” With Rev. Freeman having devoted his entire ministerial career to Central, it’s no wonder that the congregation, and indeed the greater Haverstraw community, would honor him with a stained-glass window depicting the disciples wanting just a little more time with Jesus.
For a few weeks following Easter Sunday the Gospel readings from the Lectionary allow us to dwell with the risen Jesus. In the Gospel of John, Jesus returns to the eleven disciples, and Thomas in particular, and bestows upon them his peace. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus commissions the disciples to make disciples of all nations. And here in Luke we have the famous story of the disciples walking along the road to Emmaus.
Emmaus was a village some seven miles from Jerusalem. Of little or no repute, this one reference here in Luke is the only time it’s mentioned in the Bible. Luke doesn’t tell us why these two disciples are traveling to Emmaus, but what is significant is where they’re coming from. They have just left Jerusalem, the city where Jesus had been crucified only days earlier. It is now nearly evening on Easter Sunday. Rumors are swirling. Some women who had gone to the tomb to anoint the body have reported that they found the tomb empty. What’s more, they were greeted by an angel who—as impossible as it might sound—claimed that he was alive.
As the two disciples are making their way toward Emmaus and discussing all that has happened over the past few days, they encounter a familiar presence, yet one that in the moment they don’t recognize. Cleopas, as the one disciple is called, and his unnamed companion, are not among the twelve disciples that Jesus specifically called to follow him, but they are among the many who were drawn to Jesus as they observed his ministry of teaching and healing, of signs and wonders.
Now, you might wonder, if these two men are disciples of Jesus, if they’ve seen his face and heard his voice, then why don’t they recognize him? We must understand that no one was expecting the resurrection. No one! Not Peter, not Thomas, not any of the other disciples. Even though Jesus three times told them that he would be arrested, handed over to the authorities, and killed, only to rise again on the third day, it didn’t register. How could it? The disciples had no frame of reference for such a preposterous claim. People simply didn’t rise from the dead.
Cleopas and his unnamed companion have heard about the empty tomb, but that doesn’t mean that their minds are going straight to resurrection. Perhaps the body was moved, as some feared, or even stolen. They’re not sure what to make of what they’ve heard. But beyond being confused or uncertain, the disciples are said to be sad. When Jesus asks them, “What were you talking about while you were walking?” Luke writes, “They stood still, looking sad.”
They stop in their tracks and quickly replay in their minds all that’s happened. They’re sad because Jesus is dead and buried (or at least was), and so are their hopes for the redemption of their nation. He failed. And they failed for putting their faith in him. How could they have been so wrong about him? What signals had they missed? His words were full of divine wisdom. His signs and wonders spoke for themselves. They had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. They had staked their lives on it.
And now their lives may be at risk, because Jesus didn’t simply die, he was crucified as an enemy of the state. As his associates, there’s a chance that they might be arrested next. That’s why they’re not just leaving Jerusalem, they’re getting out of Dodge. They’re walking away from their fears, their failures, their regrets. They want to put distance between themselves and their past before it catches up with them. Who wouldn’t?
They want to put distance between themselves and their past before it catches up with them. Who wouldn’t?
“What were you discussing with each other while you were walking?” Jesus asks them. What kind of question is that? Has this man been living under a rock? Well, actually, yes, now that you mention it. For three days he lay in a tomb that was sealed with a large stone. But the two disciples truly are incredulous that this man would ask such a question. “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”
Now, most of us don’t consider the Gospel to be all that funny. Salvation is serious business. And I don’t want to diminish for a second what Jesus endured on the cross. But I don’t know how to read Jesus’ response to whether he’s heard of the things that recently took place in Jerusalem as anything other than the height of comedy. “What things?” he asks.
What things? Did something happen in Jerusalem over these past few days? I must have missed it. Why don’t you tell me about it?
And that’s just what Cleopas and the unnamed disciple do. They proceed to explain to Jesus everything that happened with regard to…wait for it…Jesus of Nazareth! How he was a prophet mighty in deed and word, how the chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned and crucified, and how they had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Oh, how they had hoped…. But clearly they were mistaken.
And yet the women who went to the tomb early this very morning found it empty. Moreover, they said that they encountered angels who asked why they were looking for the living among the dead, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for someone to rise from the dead. It seemed too much to believe, so some of us went to the tomb ourselves and found it just as the women had said, but there was no sign of him.
“What things?” you ask. Those things.
Now, of course Jesus doesn’t need a recap of last week’s episode. He lived it. And he died it. And yet he stands before these two disciples. Not to shame them. Not to scold them. Not to rebuke them for their lack of faith. Rather, Jesus asks them the question he knows well the answer to…not for his benefit but for theirs. He leaves room for their sorrow. He meets them right in the midst of it, even though they are unaware of his presence, even as they are doing their best to leave all that baggage behind them.
What are you trying to walk away from? What would you sooner leave behind? What wound from your past lingers still? What regret? What grievance? What disappointment? What unfulfilled hope? Whatever it may be, know that you do not walk that road alone. Jesus walks with you. Like Cleopas and his companion, you may not recognize him in the moment. Nevertheless, he is there.
He is there to meet you. He is there to accompany you. And most important of all, he is there to instill in you a hope that is not of this world. It is not of this world because it is a hope that is grounded in his resurrection from the dead…something that cannot be and yet nevertheless is.
it is a hope that is grounded in his resurrection from the dead…something that cannot be and yet nevertheless is.
And not only is it so…it had to be this way. “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Jesus asks. Was it not necessary? Life breaking through death. Hope breaking through despair. Redemption through rejection. Salvation through suffering. This was always the plan. The prophets foretell it. All of scripture speaks of it.
Despite what the twelve disciples imagined, this was always the road that Jesus was on. The road from his hometown of Nazareth to the holy city of Jerusalem was leading directly to the cross. Had the disciples understood this, it’s fair to wonder whether any of them would still have chosen to follow him.
Look at Cleopas and his companion. They believe that death has had the last word. And because of that, they’re taking the road out of Jerusalem. They want to walk away from the stench of failure.
But Jesus, in meeting them on the Emmaus road, in opening the scriptures to them, in revealing himself in the breaking of the bread, reframes their expectations and reorients their hope. For this reason they can return to Jerusalem, and we can return to our Jerusalems—not with fear and dread but with a faith that proclaims, “The Lord has risen indeed.”