Forming Disciples of Jesus

The Emmaus Road Story for Post-Evangelicals (Luke 24:13-35)

Note to Readers: I preached this sermon yesterday at Genesis Church in Royal Oak, Michigan. My assignment was to talk about how to create an ethic around the person of Jesus and how to do that in community. So even though this was Epiphany Sunday, I chose a text from the other end of the Jesus Story: Luke 24:13-35 — the Emmaus Road story. As it is a resurrection appearance, it is usually preached around Lent or just after Easter. But I think it has potential at any time, including the first Sunday of the year. These are sermon notes, rather than a fully polished manuscript.

We encounter one of the grandest texts of the Bible.

This is in fact a short story, in three acts.

Act I: I call it “Walking Away.” It covers Lk 24:13-24.

Act II: I call it “Best Bible Study Ever.” It covers Lk 24:25-27.

Act III: I call it “Heartburn at Dinner.” It covers the rest of the story, through v. 35.

Act I: Walking Away. Lk 24:13-24

13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

13 --Same day = Easter Sunday. It is Easter Sunday. But these two are walking away from Jerusalem, all the way to Emmaus, which was 7 miles away.

14 – These were disciples. They had been with Jesus. How long had they been with him? Had they seen it all? Teachings. Miracles. Exorcisms. Healings. Feedings. Walking on Water. Raising from dead. Huge crowds. But then…crucifixion. They had a lot to talk about. Many precious memories. But also the most severe trauma. And now also fear. Because if they could kill Jesus, what about them? Note their direction of travel. They were walking away.

This passage so far already makes me think about post-evangelicals, or post-churchgoers, or post-Christians of any type. It speaks to anyone who followed Jesus – in community – who experienced all the highs and the good things about that – as well as all the challenges and the struggles – and then decided to walk away.

Jesus is such a compelling figure that it takes something really bad to walk away. And a lot of times – most of the time – what we are walking away from is not Jesus, but the community that went with him. At least – that community. That church. Those friends. That family.

15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

Jesus comes near out of nowhere and joins them in their walking. They are walking away from him and yet he goes with them in their direction of travel. Isn’t this like Jesus, to walk with us even when we are walking away from him? Has this ever been your experience? It has certainly been mine.

But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. In the Greek here, this is intentional. The word is krateo – restrained, hindered, suppressed. Jesus does not want to be recognized. This is Jesus incognito. Jesus hidden from recognition.

It makes me think of great scenes from some of the world’s great literature – where Jesus shows up in human life but does so incognito. I refer you to “Jesus Christ in Texas,” a great short story by the black leader WEB DuBois. “Jesus Christ in Texas” is set in Waco, Texas. The story is about a mysterious stranger who appears in town and is very difficult for the local people to classify by their racial categories. In the end, he is eventually lynched. The story is a significant early foray by a major Black author into the idea of a lynched Jesus…lynched by good white Christian folk…

Jesus incognito. When does Jesus come to us and want to remain hidden from our sight? Why might that be? Here it was because he had something to teach them that could only be taught if for a time he remained incognito, hidden. Has Jesus ever taught you something at a time when he seemed hidden from your eyes?

And then, when does Jesus come to us and we work very hard not to recognize him – for example, when he comes to us in the distressing disguise (Mt 25:31-46; Mother Teresa) of the unhoused, the hungry, the sick, the immigrant, the prisoner?

Which is more likely or more often the case for us – Jesus whom we hide from, or Jesus who hides from us for a time?

17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.

There is a textual variant here – “while you walk along, looking sad?” That would be interesting because it would be Jesus not just initiating a conversation with a question – rather than a teaching – but also registering their emotions. Jesus – wonderful Jesus – engaging us, knowing how we feel, caring how we feel and what we are thinking about.

18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.

Cleopas takes almost a scornful tone with the hidden Jesus. Hey stranger, how are you the only one who does not know what has been going on in Jerusalem? Notice the past tense, and thus the interpretation they have already put on the event. They have registered him as a mighty prophet but a murdered one. A hoped for messiah but a failed one. Because messiahs don’t get murdered. Biblically, messiahs don’t get murdered. Right? They take power, they triumph, they win, they free Israel, they might even transform the world. The hope of redemption, of freedom, is gone now for these two. And that is why they are walking away.

Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.”

Notice that they do include the rumors/reports of an empty tomb. And a vision of angels saying that Jesus was alive. And the report – from women only – note that – was then confirmed by other male disciples who went and found it just as they said. But no Jesus. And so, all things considered, for us at least, that is not enough. Not enough. We are walking away.

If you walked away from faith, church, Jesus, what was it that finally died in you, or for you? What hope had faith nurtured that finally became past tense only? We had hoped…I had hoped. But they killed that hope. It now exists only in the past tense. And encountering people who tell us that the tomb is empty, that angels have spoken to them, that they have seen Jesus, that there is reason to hang on to the hope we once had – they don’t persuade. They don’t keep you – they didn’t keep you – from walking away.

The latest stats say that 20 million US evangelicals have left the evangelical churches/movement. Whatever it was they had hoped for is dead. They do not believe the promises of resurrection. They do not see any angels. They do not see Jesus setting anyone free.

Some of these folks are in this building today, though. At one time you experienced the death of your hope. At one time you had walked away. But on this first Sunday of the year, you are in this space. You may be hoping against hope that Jesus will show up, even incognito, even as a mysterious stranger. You would like a reason to hope again.

Act II: Best Bible Study Ever (Lk 24:25-27)

²⁵ Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! ²⁶ Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” ²⁷ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

I call this brief section the “best Bible study ever.” Jesus himself, still incognito, challenges their interpretation of his story. Which they do not know is his story. He chastises them as foolish and slow of heart for how they are interpreting what they have experienced. He is now interpreting what he has experienced. He is doing a complete reframing as he introduces what is an entirely new idea for them – a crucified Messiah.

He says that this is what the prophets have declared. It was necessary – says incognito Jesus – that the Messiah suffer and die before entering into the glory that the shattered disciples assumed would be the direct path. Jesus says yes to messianic glory – but only by way of suffering, torture, a cross, Calvary. And then he offers that best Bible study ever – covering Torah and all (!) the prophets – that he argues teaches a suffering Messiah. That would be passages that became crucial in Christian OT exegesis – like Numbers 21 (serpent lifted up), Psalm 22 (My God my God, why have you forsaken me), Isaiah 53 (by his stripes we are healed), Zech 12:10 (they will look on him whom they have pierced), Dan 7 (Son of Man comes riding on the clouds). Etc.

Let me suggest one crucial lesson. Incognito Jesus offers a Bible study here that completely upends their traditional, settled way of interpreting scripture. Messiahs don’t get crucified. But Jesus and then the church finds a great red thread of warnings and confirmations of a suffering path to messiahship. We see these texts identified and interpreted in the rest of the NT and alluded to here.

We don’t know everything that we think we know. Sometimes our settled interpretations of scripture are just wrong, and Jesus shows us. Maybe the way Jesus shows us is incognito, showing up at our Bible study and at our dinner table in the form of, say, a lesbian daughter or an undocumented immigrant. It is when we listen to Jesus, incognito most of the time, that we realize how very foolish and slow not just of mind but heart that we have been.

How do we build a community ready to build an ethic around the person of Jesus? Be ready to encounter him incognito. Be ready to be surprised by what he teaches. Be ready to find new hope when all seemed lost.

III. Heartburn at Dinner (Lk 24:28-35)

²⁸ As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. ²⁹ But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰ When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.

The long walk is ending. Cleopas and his companion – a friend, a wife? – have reached their home at last. Night is falling. The stranger is going to keep walking. But they implore him to accept their hospitality and stay with them. The hospitality norms of the ancient world had to do not just with custom but with safety. You just didn’t keep walking at night, certainly not alone. Jesus incognito, the mysterious stranger, accepts their offer and goes in with them.

Dinnertime. Notice the inversion of the roles of guest and host. They offer bread, but he is the one to bless it, break it, and give it to them. This is the Eucharistic rite. This is the Last Supper reenacted, and perhaps a hundred other dinnertime rituals reenacted. They remembered how HE used to do this. Now the stranger follows the exact same paradigm and at last their eyes are opened and they recognize him. Then he vanishes. Gone.

³² They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” ³³ That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. ³⁴ They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵ Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Heartburn at dinner is not generally a good thing. But here of course it is a matter of celebration. Were not our hearts burning within us when he was opening the scriptures to us? Opening their hearts. Opening their minds. Re-opening their understanding of the meaning of his life and his death. Re-opening their understanding of their Bibles.

I want you to notice that Jesus is recognized at the Eucharist. He who was sacrificed and whose sacrifice was foretold and then ever after remembered at the Eucharistic table is present at that table – not only for these two disciples but all future believers.

Classic Christian theologies of worship have emphasized Word and Table, Scripture and Eucharist. Jesus is proclaimed, revealed, and experienced through both Word and Sacrament. Notice that here it is only when he reenacts the Eucharist that the revelation offered in his words on the Emmaus Road becomes clarified and confirmed.

I want to suggest that if we are aiming to be a community gathered around the person of Jesus and listening closely to his word we also need a robust practice and theology of the Table – the Holy Eucharist. Even the middle of the road part of the Christian tradition emphasizes the real presence of Jesus in and through Communion, the Eucharist. We experience the real presence of Christ in the Word read, the Word proclaimed, and the Word tasted, at the Table.

And so, the breakthrough complete, and throwing caution to the wind, Cleopas and his companion rush back to Jerusalem at night -- the whole 7 miles. There they join the group in the upper room celebrating the appearances of the risen Jesus. And there they are able to add their own exciting story: how Jesus had appeared incognito as the authoritative expositor of the Hebrew Bible passages pointing to a suffering and murdered Messiah. And “how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

Takeaways

1. Jesus is prepared to walk the journey with us even when our journey is away from the church community, understanding of scripture, and vision of himself/God that we once knew. He does not give up on us. He journeys with us.

2. Jesus offered numerous teachings such as the Sermon on the Mount that we know he intended to be charter teachings for his disciples. It is always right to be called back to these teachings. They do not disillusion. They should be centrally emphasized in any community of faith that wants to be organized around the person of Jesus.

3. But sometimes we need fresh understanding of other scriptures that have taken us away from the true way of Jesus. These disciples needed the best Bible study ever to come to understand that not only could there be a crucified Messiah -- there must be one. Some of us have needed such transformational encounters with Jesus incognito to shake loose from our own traditional understandings of scripture in order to learn something new and essential. LGBTQ inclusion offers a crucial example of this.

4. This is a reminder that we need not just great studies of great texts but encounters with the living Jesus, who opens our eyes, opens our eyes, opens our Bibles, opens our hearts. The Risen Jesus, who lives, who breathes the Holy Spirit on us, is the center of our faith. We need to be ready to meet him – even in the most unexpected places, through the most unexpected faces.

5. We need a robust practice and theology of Eucharist. One thing that Eucharist does is keep us focused on the Cross. This is my body, given up for you. This is my blood, shed for you. Jesus was not just a great moral teacher. He was the incarnate God who came from glory to earth and died on a miserable cross at the hands of those he came to save. The formation of followers of Jesus includes regular encounter with the terrible grandeur and mystery and meaning of the Cross. The discipleship meanings of the Cross are inexhaustible. One of them is this: if God loved the world this much, so must we respond in gratitude – to love God, love one another, and love our neighbors as ourselves.