Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Luke’s Gospel, the twenty-fourth chapter:
… 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. …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. …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 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.
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! And that’s what the disciples on the road to Emmaus are saying to the Apostles in today’s reading. They had met the risen Christ, and they were able to learn from Him and they ate with Him. They saw Jesus as He was, as He is, now glorified in His resurrection from the dead. This is the Jesus that is still with us. This is the Jesus that is still here. This Jesus, who disappears in the breaking of the bread, this is the Jesus we need and the Jesus we truly want.
Yet, like the disciples here on the road to Emmaus, perhaps this isn’t the Jesus we think we want, or the Jesus we’re unaware we need. You see, these disciples, even the Apostles, didn’t get what Jesus was or what He was doing. The angel, when he came to Mary and Joseph to tell them they would have a son, the angel had in mind the right Jesus, the Jesus who would save His people from their sins. Simeon had the right Jesus in mind, the same Simeon who had sung over Jesus, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Anna had the right Jesus in mind, who when seeing the infant Jesus in the Temple, told everyone about the redemption of Israel.
But somewhere along the way, these stories went away. These stories disappeared. Now, you might just chalk that up to the passage of time, or no one sharing anything. But one Church tradition takes this Cleopas, one of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and identifies him as the brother of Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus. What are the chances the family of Joseph and Mary hadn’t heard the stories of Jesus’ birth? Very low. More than that, actually. The family of Jesus knew the stories, they knew Jesus was important, after all, if this IS Jesus’ uncle, this uncle was following after Jesus and His teaching and was probably working to put things together.
But the problem for the disciples on the road is our problem, too. It’s our problem because we turn Jesus into the kind of Redeemer, the kind of King, we want. But that’s not necessarily who Jesus is. Jesus is not necessarily who we think He is. We put our own interpretations on it.
If I might offer an example of how we do this outside of Jesus. Some of you may have heard that nearly three weeks ago, nearly 230 girls in Nigeria were kidnapped from their high school in the middle of the night by the terrorist group Boko Haram. You may not have heard about it. It’s not a nice story, and it involves an Islamic militant terrorist group and the media tries to stay away from that. But if you did hear about it, perhaps you heard the media’s interpretation of the story. They have said, often, that these girls were taken away to be brides to the terrorists. Brides? They’re not brides! They’ve been kidnapped! They’ve been taken from their homes! They’ve been taken into slavery, not marriage! That’s not a bride. But do you see? The media has one perspective on them and this group, and it makes it sound nicer than it is. The media should be blamed, yes, for this awful treatment of the situation, but at the same time, it’s understandable given their biases because they just don’t have all the information, because they’re ignoring it.
For Jesus, the disciples had their perspective on Him, and it wasn’t the right one, but it’s understandable given their biases. You see, the disciples, even the uncle of Jesus, thought that Jesus was going to be the one to redeem Jerusalem and Israel, and they didn’t mean from their sins. They meant that Jesus would be a great military leader like the other “messiahs” in the past, and He would work to kick the Romans out of Jewish lands. They knew He was a prophet, they knew all the facts, yet, though the plain truth of Scripture was staring them in the face, they had their own interpretation. That interpretation was: Jesus is dead and all our hopes are dashed to pieces.
And perhaps just as the media has done with the sad case of these girls, and just like the disciples at Jesus’ time did with Him, I think we do the same with Jesus. You’ve seen those pictures online, right? The pictures that say something like, “Share this post and in 20 seconds God will do you a favor.” We’ve turned Jesus into some kind of dealer to give us the drugs of our materialism. The disciples wanted Jesus to be a warrior, we want Jesus to be our servant. The disciples wanted Jesus to crack that whip a little more, we want Him to wave His magic wand.
But all of this isn’t reality, is it? It’s not who Jesus is. Jesus is the crucified and risen victorious Lord who has saved all the people of the world from their sins. Jesus is the Lord of All Creation who spoke all things into existence. Jesus is the merciful and loving God who has given us all good gifts. Jesus is the undisputed and reigning champion over sin, death, and the devil. He isn’t a magic wizard, He’s not a bread king, He’s not a soldier, He’s not bound by whether we do or do not like a post on Facebook, retweet it on Twitter, or share it on Instagram.
Jesus isn’t any of things, because He tells us exactly who He is. He tells us He is the Christ. He tells us He is the prophesied One. He tells us that the Scriptures speak of nothing but Himself. He tells us that He is the long-awaited Messiah. And He tells us that He is in the breaking of the bread. For indeed, this is what the disciples share with the Apostles, that this Jesus, the same Jesus who held the disciples’ eyes from seeing Him, the same Jesus who walked on the road with them, the same Jesus who opened the Scriptures to them, the same Jesus who came and sat with them, the same Jesus who is found in the breaking of the bread.
And this should be for us good news. Jesus isn’t going to do you some kind of favor if you like a post online, but Jesus is going to be found in the breaking of the bread. Jesus isn’t going to wave any kind of magic wand to make your problems go away, but Jesus is going to be where He promises. Jesus isn’t going to be a bread king, a warrior against Rome, a grandfather who gives us all that we want, but Jesus is going to give us what He said He would, the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
For indeed, the one who conquered sin gives us forgiveness. The one who overcame death gives us life. And the one with the devil’s head crushed under His foot gives to us salvation. This is the Jesus we have, this is the Jesus that’s real. Any other Jesus isn’t the real Jesus.
But, please don’t hear me wrongly. Does Jesus still give us other gifts in this life? Of course, He does. He gives to us all things, house, home, money, food, clothes, family, spouse, car, friends. These are all wonderful gifts, and He delights in giving us the things we have and He delights when we steward them rightly. And so we should. And He delights when we come to Him with all that we need and ask for it according to His good and gracious will. He wants for us to pray, He wants us to bring all our concerns and needs and wants to our Father in heaven; that’s why He taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” But He doesn’t give us these things because we somehow did the right thing, said the right prayer. He doesn’t give us these things because we’ve earned it, because we deserve it. He gives us these things because He loves to pour out blessings on His creation.
And that’s all good. But, the point this morning is that, despite our expectations of Jesus, despite our ill-conceived conceptions of Him, He is still where He has promised to be found, in the breaking of the bread. It might be the least-expected place WE could think of to find Him, yet, for the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, it is no big deal. For God, it’s not big issue to be really present in every wafer, in every drop of wine. It’s not hard for Him to do that. It’s no harder than speaking a word and having the universe pop into existence. It’s no harder than it was for Him to take on human flesh, live a sinless life, be crucified and die, and on the third day be raised again from the dead. It’s not that hard for Jesus.
But it’s impossible for us, but that’s why He’s God and we’re not. It’s impossible for us to do these things. But they’re necessary for us; we need them. So God puts Himself where we need Him to be: in the breaking of the bread. God puts Himself before us, and so we have Him as both host and meal. This is what everything in the Scriptures has pointed to: the Passover Lamb, the goat caught in the thicket when Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac, the jar of flour that never ran empty, the burned sacrifices rising before God’s nostrils, the blood of the lamb sprinkled on God’s people, the priest eating the sacrifice after it’s been offered. All of these things and more point to our Jesus and it points to how it is that the sacrifice comes to us. We eat Him. We drink Him.
A couple weeks ago, we heard Jesus, the Risen Lord, has feet. But let us not forget, too, that He has power. He has divine power, power beyond all comprehension. And because of that, Jesus has promised to be in the breaking of the bread. He has promised to give to us with that bread true flesh, and with that wine true blood. He has promised to give to us forgiveness for sin, life for death, and salvation for the devil. He has promised to free us, to redeem us, to redeem His people, to buy them back from their sins. And so He has. He has bought these disciples, and He has bought you back from the devil and your sin, and He has bound you to Himself.
That is why we receive the Supper today, for in this meal, we find we are Christ’s. We find we are forgiven. We find His life. And we find eternal salvation. Come and eat, take and drink, for this meal is the breaking of the bread, and it is where we shall find Jesus together today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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