Walking with the Risen Lord

Luke 24: 13-35

On the Road to Emmaus

Christ is risen, Χριστὸς ἀνέστη!

Now, on the same day when Jesus had risen, two of the disciples were going out of Jerusalem, heading to Emmaus, about 11km from Jerusalem. As they walked along, they were talking with each other about everything that had happened in Jerusalem.

Jesus came up and walked along with them, but their eyes ‘were prevented’ from recognizing him. The Lord Jesus turned from a stranger to become their fellow traveller in the journey.

Jesus asked them, “what are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

Jesus asked, “What things?”

They replied, “About Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”

‘To redeem Israel’ meant Israel would be liberated once and for all from pagan domination, free to serve God in peace and holiness. But now Jesus was crucified, dead and gone; and instead of having defeated the pagans, he had died at their hands!

Every Jew at that time considered Jesus a failed hero, and definitely not the God sent Messiah. Cleopas’ disillusion had been reversed later by the early church’s declaration of faith: “Christ crucified was indeed his way of redeeming Israel.”

The early Christian declared boldly that God had raised Jesus from death as a vivid sign of victory over death, and new life was given to Christ’s followers. This Jesus must be Christ the Lord because he has risen!

Cleopas continued saying: “And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”

So, Jesus patiently explained to them the Books of the Law of Moses and the Prophets, so that they could understand that the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ did not point to an end, but to a glorious new beginning. Everything that had happened was in accordance to the Heavenly Father’s plan of redemption.

This fellow traveller, Jesus, the Eternal Word, became the Bible teacher for the two disciples and fed them with the Word, so that they could be enlightened by the Word and break out from their old mind set.

The Jews had expected God to redeem Israel from suffering. But instead, the central theme of the Bible as Jesus espoused is about how God would redeem Israel through suffering; through, in particular, the suffering taken on by Israel’s representative, the Messiah—he himself.

The Messiah took Israel’s suffering, and hence the world’s suffering, on to himself, died under its weight, so that those who believe in him is made right with God and their sins are forgiven.

Three days later, God raised Jesus from death to mark the beginning of God’s new creation. Jesus, the first fruit of the new creation called together a community of followers who would go out to declare the Good News of Jesus’ salvation and start building for God’s new world, His kingdom on earth. Easter was the beginning of God’s new world, the long-awaited God’s renewal of creation.

As Jesus and the two disciples approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’

So he went in to stay with them. The scene switched from the road to the room. Jesus switched from being a fellow traveller, Bible teacher, to being their guest of honour now. His relationship with the disciples became even more intimate.

Then the two disciples had dinner with Jesus. Their guest of honour, Jesus, made a twist in His role. He took bread and blessed it, broke it and gave it to them.  This time, the eyes of the disciples were suddenly opened and they recognised that this person was Jesus, their Lord, and immediately he disappeared from their sight!

They asked each other ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’

So, in a state of ecstasy, the disciples reversed their original plan and immediately set out to return to Jerusalem and declared the good news of the Lord’s resurrection (v. 33).

Encounter Jesus in God’s Big Picture of the Scriptures

It seems that Jesus’ body, emerging from the tomb, had been transformed. It was the same, yet different – a mystery which we shall perhaps never unravel until we ourselves share the same risen life.

But the fact that the disciples could not recognize Jesus at first seems to result from their ignorance of the events that had just happened as the salvation plan of God revealed in the Bible.

Perhaps Luke is saying that we can only know Jesus, can only recognize him in any sense, when we learn to see him within the true story of God, Israel and the world. For that we need to learn how to read the Scripture in its grand narrative of the salvation plan of God; and for that we need the risen Lord himself as our teacher.

The risen Lord is ever ready to walk with us as companion, as teacher, as guest and as Lord in our everyday lives to comfort us and enlighten us. But the problem is: Do we long to be in the Lord’s presence and know him more?

Let’s pray for his presence and sense of guidance whenever we open the scriptures, individually, in small groups or seminars. And we need to be prepared for him to rebuke our foolish and faithless readings, and to listen for his fresh interpretation.

Many a time, we are puzzled and anxious over many things. The risen Lord Jesus, as on the road to Emmaus, will again and again come to surprise, comfort, and commission us through the opening of the scriptures.

Only with him at our side, will our hearts burn within us. He will lead and guide us when we walk through the valley of death, to the point where we see him face to face in his glory.

Encounter Jesus through the Breaking of the Bread

Luke also invites us to encounter Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

Think of the first meal in the Bible, Gen 3:6-7, “The woman took some of the fruit, and ate it; she gave it to her husband, and he ate it; then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.”

Partaking of the fruit of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” is the beginning of the woes that had come upon the human race. Death itself was traced to that moment of rebellion. The whole creation was subjected to decay, corruption, futility and sorrow.

Now Luke, echoing that story, describes the first meal of the new creation—the resurrected Christ: ‘He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them; then the eyes of them both were opened, and they recognized him’ (v.31).

The couple at Emmaus, probably Cleopas and Mary, husband and wife –discovered that the long curse had been broken. This bread, the body of Christ, liken to the fruit of “tree of life”. Partaking of the bread results in the fact that death itself has been defeated. God’s new creation, brimming with life and joy and new possibility, has burst in upon the world of decay and sorrow.

How could this happen? In Jesus’ death and resurrection, he acted on behalf of all of us and the whole creation. In dying he took upon himself the judgment of the world; in rising from the dead, he inaugurated the renewal of the whole creation.

Jesus had led the way for us into the age to come, marked our path into the kingdom of God. We can enter that kingdom as we follow him—first in foretaste on this side of the completed kingdom and at last fully in the new heaven and new earth.

The kingdom of God or the new creation is expanding even now as God’s people relentlessly, under the power of the Spirit, carry the gospel and God’s rule to every corners of the world.

Though Jesus is no longer physically present today, we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, people can still encounter him living with us and in us through the symbolic action of ‘breaking of bread’, practiced since the early church (Acts 2:42).

Scripture and sacrament, word and meal, are joined tightly here. Take Scripture away, and the sacrament becomes a piece of ritual. Take the sacrament away, and Scripture becomes an intellectual or emotional exercise, detached from real life. Put them together, we will dwell in the risen Lord’s presence.

Conclusion

In today’s passage, Luke has invited us to accompany him on the road to Emmaus –a journey of faith that the risen Lord will take us through disillusion, anxiety and sorrow.

Jesus died and rose from the grave. He has accomplished his Father’s work, and longs to share the secret of it with us, that is the gift of his own presence, a new creation, a new world of His kingdom.

In the face of so much that is wrong with the world, with the country, with the church and with us personally; the slow, sad dismay at the failure of human hopes; we are indeed weary and are at our wit’s end; we really can’t struggle anymore with our own strength.

Let us turn to our risen Lord— Jesus Christ. He is willing to help us to face and go through the turmoil of life and make right all the wrongs in us and out there. He wants to lend us a hand to carry us through.

We mustn’t give up. Let’s hear Jesus’ voice in the Scripture and in our everyday walk with him. Let’s experience Jesus in the breaking of bread. By these, God’s new world is revealed — God’s kingdom is unfolded before us, ushered in amidst us where life, new fellowships, love, joy, peace, and grace abound.

Jesus died for you on the cross and rose again after three days. When you come to him, he is ready to forgive your sin and give you eternal life. If you receive this gift of life from Jesus, you will become a new being in God’s kingdom. Welcome to God’s new creation, new world.

Christ is risen, Χριστὸς ἀνέστη. Come let us celebrate! God’s new creation has begun!