Pastor Mark Nieting
Luke 24:13-35
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I love to walk. Most mornings I try to walk at least 2 miles. It’s one of those times when, even though my body is moving rapidly, my life actually slows down. I take the same route almost every day, so I see the same houses, wave at the same people, chat a bit with some of the other morning walkers, and get a chance to observe all the subtle changes in peoples’ lawns and homes. Each mile I walk is supposed to add a minute to my life, which means I can enjoy many months of a nursing home someday at $8,000 a month!
Jesus was an epic walker. As a young boy, Jesus walked 400 miles coming back from Egypt. Every devout Jew would travel to Jerusalem 3 times a year. Add this up for Jesus between ages 5 and 30, he would have walked 18,000 miles just to and from Jerusalem. Add his known ministry trips and his pedometer would have hit almost 25,000 miles! That’s a lot of sandals…..and a lot of time for both observation AND conversation along the way. His lifetime of long walks allowed him to meet people, hear stories, experience the hospitality…..or hostility….. of strangers and make plenty of friends. For 3 years Jesus led his disciples on a “ministry of walking around.”
All of this is prelude to today’s text, which takes place on the evening of Easter Sunday. Two disciples, one named Cleopas, were making the seven mile walk to the village of Emmaus, most likely their homes. They were leaving Jerusalem after the disaster of Good Friday, the tears of Saturday and the strange stories they heard on Sunday morning. Most of the other disciples had hunkered down in locked rooms, but these two, because home was so close, had left. The risen Jesus, still walking, comes up behind them and quite obviously makes a bid to become a part of their conversation. These two men had walked with Jesus before, as every disciple had.
They thought back then they were really going somewhere, Jesus was worth following and that He was going to take them, and their nation, somewhere.
No one wants to see their hopes and dreams dashed, but on Good Friday theirs were. Scripture is clear that even though they knew Jesus, this time they didn’t recognize Him, so Jesus tweaked His way into their conversation by asking what they were talking about.
“Where have YOU been?” Cleopas responded. “Have you been living in a cave? Are you the only one who doesn’t know what happened in Jerusalem this weekend?” Jesus, who was both BORN in a cave and was BURIED and ROSE again out of a cave, kept listening. “We have been following Jesus of Nazareth. He was a powerful prophet in word and deed and we hoped He was going to be the one to redeem Israel; until our leaders had Him put to death! 3 days later our women came back from his grave with stories of angels who said he was alive!”
Now these two men, who at one time thought they were really going somewhere with Jesus, probably thought and felt they were on a dead-end road. Imagine if Jesus had just walked on by? It would have been a sad and lonely trip.
Instead, this stranger began to tell them about an even longer journey they’d ALL been on, starting at the time of Moses; and how God led his people to freedom and brought them “home.” Jesus laid out for them God’s entire plan of salvation. He told them about “Christ” and how the Christ had to die and rise again. He told them HIS story……in the 3rd person singular.
They kept walking and He kept talking until the seven mile mark, the village of Emmaus. The two men invited this stranger to stay with them, perfectly acceptable hospitality in anybody’s culture, and to have dinner with them, and then, when Jesus broke the bread……….they knew who He was!
What if they wouldn’t have invited Him in? What if they had “been too busy?” Would they have ever known the “rest of the story?”
If there’s anything the Emmaus Road story teaches us, it’s that the disciples of Jesus……that’s US……are at our best when we keep on walking with Jesus.. We’re at our best when we slow down and invite Him into our homes, and our hearts. We’re at our best when we sit down with Him at the table and “break bread” with Him……literally!
True Christian discipleship is never a drive-by, never a fly-by, never a text-by process in which we look for instant results with little effort on our parts, and make shallow, if any, commitments to the people around us. Disciples of Jesus enjoy a life-long relationship with Him that begins with our baptism and ends with our own resurrection that has been made possible by His resurrection.
Given the pace at which most of us live and the fear of intimacy that many of us, especially us MEN, have, true “Emmaus Road” experiences may be few and far between…..but they still happen. Our youth group participated in a “30 hour famine” this weekend; imagine teenagers going 30 hours without food, so they can go “deeper with Jesus?”!? That’s an Emmaus Road Experience. Christian Marriage Encounter, Via de Christo, Crucillo, and the Walk to Emmaus movement all offer opportunities to slow down and go deeper with Jesus, as do home groups and studies like BSF. Some of us at Hope have participated in these and been blessed!
Twelve years ago I was offered the opportunity to participate in a 72 hour Walk to Emmaus weekend and honestly, I didn’t want to go. Who could teach me ANYTHING about the faith…. I was a seminary-educated LCMS pastor!!
I went, kicking and screaming and knowing it all…..as most pastors do, reluctantly even obeying the “no wristwatch rule.” And somewhere well along in the course of that weekend, Jesus came alongside me and opened my eyes.
I’m not sure when…..and I’m still not exactly sure how…..but I know WHY He did, and I’ll share that with you today: He loved me enough NOT to want me to continue life as I was living it. He wanted a deeper relationship with me. He had greater plans for my life……..but He had to slow me down, break me down, create a moment of true vulnerability, and then, only then, could He “open my eyes” to the depths of His love for me. I’ve never been the same since.
For Cleopas and his friend the road to Emmaus wasn’t the end of the story. It wasn’t the finish line of their faith…..like far too many view Confirmation today. They were SO excited about what happened that they turned around and ran the seven miles BACK to Jerusalem, found the disciples in their locked room and began telling them their story when, surprise, surprise, Jesus showed up AGAIN!
The living and resurrected Jesus showed up 11 different times between Easter and Ascension…….and through the Holy Spirit continues to reveal Himself to one disciple after another, one century after another, if only they will walk with Him, listen to His Words, and break Bread at His table.
The Road to Emmaus……it’s well worth walking!
