Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

By the Third Sunday of Easter, the Alleluias can already begin to sound like they are flattening out. Easter Sunday they are loud and clear, accompanied with trumpet. The next Sunday they are still plentiful but more settled in than celebratory. And now by the Third Sunday we begin to question “How long do we do this for?” The larger congregation that we saw at Easter is dwindling back down to its regular size.

 

Well, it was more than just the waning of Palm Sunday enthusiasm that led two of the disciples to leave Jerusalem altogether. Their Lord who had been welcomed to the city with palm branches and “Hosannas” had ended up crucified and in a tomb. Even the close disciples, who boldly followed Jesus around the city during the week and stood beside Him as He taught in the temple rousing the ire of the chief priests and elders, were now hiding away in a locked room.

 

Despite the perplexing news from those who went to the tomb in the early morning, that “they had seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive,” there seemed to be little reason to hang about. They had not seen Jesus, and all of this running about in secret was not what they had signed up for. What good could come from locking themselves away until another one turned traitor? So they staged a walk out.

 

They left the group of disciples behind in Jerusalem and made their way out of the city to the village of Emmaus. Whatever all of this meant, with the palms and thorns and nails and angels, it was not what they had expected and didn’t seem like it was worth staying.

 

Many people feel that way about the church services they attend. There is a lot of stuff going on, but when it doesn’t appear to solve their immediate concerns, they walk away to Emmaus or to Welland or Virgil or Niagara Falls. And they may talk with each other about all the things that happened. They might speak of the stuff that seemed mysterious to them or extraordinary, even strange. They may share with one another what they had expected, what they had hoped to receive, and their disappointment and even sadness when they heard such good things about Jesus from the Bible and some talk about angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, but Jesus they did not see.

 

If your exercise program is not giving you the results you expected, then you leave it for something else. If your diet is not resulting in the changes you want to see, then you look for a different answer. It often seems like people view their life with Jesus’ disciples in the Church the same way. If it hasn’t fixed your marriage or your children’s behaviour or your addiction or your attitude about the world, then why stick around?

 

Off you go on your way to Emmaus, pondering, wondering, saddened that despite how promising everything sounded, your expectations were not fulfilled. This doesn’t just happen to C and E Christians who only show up on the two great festivals of the Church Year. It also happens to long-time regular and active members who have attended through thick and thin for years. And so it can also happen to you if it hasn’t already.

 

There are times throughout life when you are tempted to walk out, walk away, and leave the fellowship. It may be one particular incident that strikes you the wrong way, or the lack of something happening that you think should be happening, and it causes you to feel that this just isn’t the place where Jesus is. Or it may happen over a stretched out period of time where the burdens and trials of life just seem to smother out anything that you may be receiving with the gathered disciples. Your walk out may not be any kind of protest, just a decision that it is time to go somewhere else. Such was the walk to Emmaus.

 

It used to be a popular part of spiritual retreats to include an “Emmaus walk,” a time for the participants to break away out of the large group and go off in pairs to talk and discuss something from the Scriptures. Note that this is not something that is encouraged or praised in the Gospel of Luke. In fact, it was quite a dangerous thing for Cleopas and his companion to leave the fellowship of the disciples and go off on their own.

 

The angel had told the women that Jesus was going to meet with His gathered disciples. They would see Him in Galilee as He promised. In other words, they should stick together and gather where He promised to come to them. It was a rejection of this promise from Jesus that turned the two to take the road to Emmaus. So it is never good for you to leave the fellowship of Jesus’ disciples. It is not even good to leave the gathering of the disciples to do your personal contemplation of Jesus. That is exactly what these two disciples were doing, and Jesus had to turn them around.

 

Jesus pursued those two disciples, and He silenced their debate and discussion with each other. They were caught up in how recent events had disappointed them and did not seem to live up to their understanding of the promises of God to send a Saviour. Jesus had to get them out of that head space in order to see that what happened did indeed fulfill all of God’s promises of the Saviour.

 

We need to be pulled out of our own expectations as well. For God is often active for our salvation in ways that we do not expect, even though the Scriptures have been plain and clear about how God does act. Jesus needed to point out to these two disciples caught up in their own thoughts: “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?” (Luke 24:25-26)

 

O foolish ones. Do not leave the fellowship of the disciples who are gathered together. Do not take that Emmaus walk. Do not give in to those straying thoughts and deceptive feelings. Jesus will come to His disciples as He promised. It does not excuse the two who walked out, that Jesus went after them. It is not to give us permission to walk out as well if we feel like it. Rather, Jesus pursued them in order to turn them around and get them back to the fellowship gathered to receive the Lord’s promised presence.

 

It was at supper with the two disciples in Emmaus that Jesus revealed to them that the Scriptures were indeed fulfilled. The Christ had suffered, died, and was raised in glory. Jesus revealed Himself to them as He repeated the actions that He had taken on the night when He was betrayed when He instituted the new supper of His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.

 

In Emmaus with just those two disciples, “He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them” (Luke 24:30). It was not a complete repeat, but enough to suggest to them and to us that Jesus comes to His disciples in the supper that He instituted where He is the host and where He is revealed to be present in body and blood with His gathered disciples.

 

In Emmaus the Lord’s Supper was not celebrated in its entirety. Rather, Jesus compassionately pointed them back to the fellowship of the gathered disciples, where His supper would be celebrated in its entirety; not just to point to the fellowship, not just to point to Jesus, but to be the place where the crucified and resurrected Jesus keeps His promise to be present with His disciples.

 

It is only where Jesus is present with His disciples as He promised that the promises of Jesus are received. He is present with us who gather here in response to His promise that in the supper He is with us in His body and blood. Despite what we may feel or what our expectations might be, this is where we have the promise of Jesus fulfilled. His body and blood are given for the forgiveness of sins.

 

Last week we heard how Thomas needed the presence of Jesus for the forgiveness of his doubt and unbelief. All of the disciples needed that as none of them at first believed the message of Jesus’ resurrection that the angel had given to the women. We don’t know if they would have been able to follow Jesus’ direction to go to Galilee where He promised they would see Him, if He did not first come to them when they were locked in the upper room. The two disciples on the way to Emmaus certainly would not have turned back if Jesus had not come to them.

 

It is clear that Jesus is the reason a walk out turns to a walk back to the fellowship. It is not because anything different is offered or highlighted. It is not because we throw out some new bait that is more in line with expectations or desires of those who have at some point walked out. It is only because of Jesus that they will turn back. It is only through the Word of God revealing to them the truth of who Jesus is and what He does among the gathering of His disciples that turns us and brings us running back to the gathered church.

 

May our merciful and gracious Lord, who suffered these things and has entered into His glory, pursue us when we forsake the gathering, and turn us back. And may this also drive us to pray for all of those who have had a place in our fellowship and walked off to Emmaus. The Lord desires for them to be where He has promised to be, with those who gather in faithful expectation that there is forgiveness for us, and there we will see Him.