Opening Minds – April 11, 2021

Isaiah 43:1-13, Luke 24:13-35
April 11, 2021

Today we continue with the Easter story!  And as I said, on Easter, the actual Easter story is fairly brief.  It consisted of the women at the tomb hearing the Good News, and going and telling the disciples.  (Or not, if you read Mark’s Gospel!)  Oh, and the disciples didn’t believe them, anyway!

Well, the Gospels do contain several more Easter Day stories that helped them to believe.  And this one, which continues in Luke, is the one we call “The Road to Emmaus.”  And as I always say about this story – and maybe you can say this with me by now – “God has a great flair for(?) the dramatic!” Because God doesn’t want just to teach us.  He wants to touch us!  He wants to touch our hearts!

Think about the Exodus.  I just watched “The Ten Commandments” over Holy Week, as I always do!  And as that movie tried to show, God didn’t just lead the people out of Egypt.  He led them out “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.”  And we read those words throughout the Old Testament!  That dramatic story touched the peoples’ hearts, and it has been the heart of their story ever since.

Well, in this story, these two travelers, one of them named Cleopas, the other, we’re not told, are walking back from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  Presumably, that was their home town, and they were in Jerusalem for Passover.  Every good Jew would celebrate Passover in Jerusalem as often as they could.  And everyone would try to do so at least once in their lifetime, if they lived far away.

As these men were walking, Jesus joined them.  But Luke tells us, “Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.”  And there has always been a nagging question about that.  How were they kept from recognizing him?  We usually think of that as being a supernatural thing – which is what I believe.  Jesus kept them from recognizing him – on purpose!

But some have said they were so utterly devastated, so overcome with their grief, that their state of mind kept them from recognizing him.  And yes, their hearts were devastated!  They were living in uncertain times, even fearful times!  (We’ve been going through some of that ourselves this past year, haven’t we?!)  But, was their state of mind enough to keep them from recognizing the very one who had been the center of everybody’s attention for some time, and definitely in the last week?  Personally, I doubt it!

Jesus asked them what they were talking about.  And they stopped, and “stood there looking sad.”  Luke adds that line.  Yes, they were feeling the sadness, the devastation, and the fear.  There is no doubt about that!  They answer him, “Are you the only one who doesn’t know the things that have happened there?”  “What things?” Jesus prods them further.  “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in word and deed, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be crucified.”

Notice, there’s no mentioned of the Romans!  Although they were the ones who crucified Jesus!  In fact, they were the only ones who actually could have crucified him.  No, these men were devastated by the fact that their own religious leaders had condemned Jesus and delivered him to death!  That was the huge thing for them!  As it was for everyone else, I’m sure.  Those religious leaders tried their best to “engineer” this whole thing so the people wouldn’t blame them.  But it really didn’t work!

I’ve talked about them before.  We often see those leaders, the Scribes and the Pharisees, as the antagonists.  We see them as being jealous of Jesus’ popularity, envious of his standing before the people.  Pilate saw that!  Matthew and Mark both tell us that Pilate saw envy as the reason they had brought Jesus to him.  But, as I’ve also said, they were the keepers of the faith!  It was their job to guard against anyone who would corrupt the faith, or lead others astray.  And they took that job seriously!

I’m sure people like Paul, who were persecuting the church, felt like they were doing the right thing.  Oh, maybe there were some who were angry and egotistical, and envious.  But I have to believe there were others who were sincere.  And I wonder what religious leaders today might do – what I might do – if someone like Jesus came along and drew a huge following.  And that does happen, by the way!  And when it does, we are sometimes critical of such people!  And sometimes rightly so!  We have a responsibility to be “keepers of the faith,” too!

Recently we’ve been watching a documentary series about a certain religious cult, and the people who have gotten out of it.  And I remember back in the 80’s being concerned about religious cults, along with the one in this series.  I won’t name it today, because we’re broadcasting on the internet.  (Ask me about it when we’re off camera.)

I hadn’t thought about that group in years.  And frankly, at the time, I was being told that I was “overly concerned,” anyway.  “Their leader is a good man, and he has a best-selling book, and he’s trying to do good in the world.”  Well, it turns out that it that cult has not gone away, and it’s way worse than we even imagined in those days!  And sometimes I wonder if the religious leaders in Jesus’ time may have seen his following in a similar light!

The other thing to remember here is that the Jewish people “steeped in their faith,” far more than us, I think.  Their faith was their whole life!  And those leaders were men they revered and looked up to all their lives!  And for Jesus to have questioned them, or criticized them, or publicly humiliated them as he did, would have been shocking to some, and even unacceptable!  And then to have them be the ones to deliver him up.  We can only imagine what they were all thinking!

So Jesus let these men talk, and then he answered them.  “O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe…” he began, “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory?”  “And then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all of the scriptures, the things concerning himself.”

Jesus opened their minds!  He got them past the upset over their religious leaders and showed them the larger picture.  “It was necessary for the Christ to suffer those things.” he said.  “Now try to see the greater glory!”

I wonder how we fit into this.  Are we not “set in our ways” sometimes?  And if “our ways” are challenged, do we ever let our upset about that get in the way of our seeing Jesus?  Do we ever need to have our eyes opened like these men?

How would we feel if we were in their shoes?  How would we feel if everything we had grown up believing was being challenged, and was changing?  And that’s been happening for us, hasn’t it?  We’ve watched the Church’s position change on various subjects.  And that’s hard for us, isn’t it?  It can be hard for us when the church reaches out to people it hasn’t reached out to before – even though that’s what Jesus did when he was here!  And it made people uncomfortable then!  I’ve often asked how it would be if we reached out and drew in a bunch of bikers!  We have some already, you know!

Do we ever have a hard time recognizing Jesus in our midst?  Do we ever need to ask God to open our minds?  And along with that, we also need to ask, what keeps other people in our world from recognizing Jesus?  Is it the antagonism that much of the world has about Christianity?  You know what they say.  “We’re exclusive in our faith!”  “We’re intolerant!”  That’s one of the worst things you can be accused of in the modern world!  “We think we’re the only way!”  Oh, and we’re hypocrites!  We don’t live what we say!  (Oooh, now it’s back on us again, isn’t it?)

We often think of evangelism as someone standing on street corners, or talking to people about God in restaurants or airplanes.  And that’s fine.  It’s good when we can relate what our faith means to us to someone else.  But I’ve always felt that it’s the way we live our lives that’s the most important form of evangelism.  When we know the peace that passes human understanding – no matter what the circumstances in our lives, when we know the joy that God wants for all of us, those things are compelling to the world.  People will want to know what it is we have!  I know you’ve heard this before, but everything we do in our lives reflects on the faith we claim to have!

In the end, Jesus goes in and eats with these men, and “their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.”  And in thinking back to the events of the day, they said, “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road?”  As we think about this story, as we try to put ourselves in these men’s shoes, as we consider all that God has done for us those three days, do our hearts burn within us?  And do we recognize Jesus in our world and in our lives.

Prayer

Eternal God, we ask for the touch of your Holy Spirit, that we may know of your presence and we may recognize your hand in our lives.  Help us to know the joy of your kingdom, that people will see your light in us, this Easter season, and throughout the year.  For these things we pray in the name of our Risen Lord, Amen.