Sermon 4-19-26

Sermon 4-19-26 Luke 24: 13-35

A few years back one of my nephews died. He was forty years old. When he was in high school he worked at Long John Silver's.

We have big fish fries at our house during the summer. I love Long John Silver's fish. I looked on the internet for the Long John Silver's fish batter recipe, there were 37. They all said “This is the real Long John Silver's fish batter”.

I asked my nephew how they made their fish batter. He said, “Uncle Danny, I can't tell you that, I'd get fired. Besides, the batter comes in big bags, we don't make it”. I said, “Hector, you know what it is, but you don't understand what the ingredients are?” He said “That's right”.

Our Gospel reading, from Luke, is about two of Jesus disciples walking home to their village of Emmaus. It was Sunday afternoon. Easter Sunday afternoon. The story is only in Luke's Gospel. They have given up hope. Three days before, Jesus had died a horrible death on the cross. Horrible.

How many times have you heard someone say, “I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy”. That's what His worst enemies wished on Jesus. And they used their connections with the ruling Roman government to make it happen.

By this time Jesus had a large following. Remember the Palm Sunday procession into Jerusalem, just a week before Easter? The road was lined with people, both sides. That was one week ago. Then He gets arrested.

Arrested, tried and convicted to death on a cross, in a manner of hours. The followers headed for the hills. Even His closest friends, the twelve, have disappeared.

It's no wonder these two followers, these disciples, have given up hope and started for home. The man who they knew as a great prophet, and spoke the Word of God, has been condemned and killed by the leaders of their own church. And the method in which it happened was reserved for the most heinous criminals. The shame would have been unbearable.

Think of yourselves as card carrying members of a group whose leader turns out to be Hannibal Lecter. That's how low they felt.

So they're going home. Sunday afternoon. Easter Sunday afternoon. Three days after Jesus is put to death. And just as you or I would be doing, they're talking about what has happened. A stranger catches up with them on the road. They have no idea that this stranger is Jesus. I don't know why. His picture would have been all over facebook.

The story would have been the lead on Fox News. He's only been dead for three days. If George Washington, Davy Crockett or Amelia Earhart walked up to us on the sidewalk, dead as they are, we would know who they were and call them by their first name wouldn't we? Sure we would.

Jesus asks them what they're talking about. They're incredulous. They can't believe He doesn't know what's been going on. So they added Him to their conversation and caught Him up. They said, “We had hoped that He would be the one to redeem Israel”. They don't believe the rumors about the resurrection.

Now Jesus is the one who is incredulous. “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!” Jesus is intent upon teaching these travelers the correct meaning of God's Scriptures.

As they walk along, He starts at the beginning of the Old Testament and works His way to the end, explaining as He goes. Luke says, “He interpreted to them the things about Himself in all the scriptures”. They know what the thing is, now Jesus gives them the list of ingredients.

There is no need to feel abandoned, no need for guilt or shame. It was all planned ahead of time by God Himself, and it worked out perfectly. The early Christians insisted Jesus was the one who would fulfill scripture, by being raised from the dead He did just that.

The walk home for these two disciples and the teaching lesson ends at the same time. It could be said that Jesus preached the very first Easter sermon.

Then Jesus reveals another one of God's gifts, a perilous one at that, free will. He acts as if He would keep going and not force Himself on them.

The disciples urged Him strongly to stop and stay with them. He did.

The Mediterranean people of that time usually had two meals a day. They had what we would call lunch and their main meal, in the evening, supper. Eating is the one thing all God's people have in common. Luke consistently portrays Jesus and His followers unified in belief and at the table.

This supper in Emmaus has overtones of our Eucharist. “When He was at table with them, He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight”.

Their eyes were opened. They know the ingredients now, they can make their own batter, and it's good.

They beat it back to Jerusalem to tell the others what has just happened to them. The Lord has risen indeed.

As an aside, this reading ends with verse 35. In verse 36, these two disciples from Emmaus are still standing with the Apostles in the upper room, when Jesus appears to the whole group.

One of the first things He does is ask them if they have anything to eat. I always wondered if that was because He didn't get to finish supper in Emmaus.

Amen.