Experience Emmaus Everyday, Everywhere!
Luke 24:13-35
April 14, 2002
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Last Friday on a clear morning before sunrise, while my plane was climbing to the cruising altitude of 31,000 feet, I noticed thousands of sparking lights on the ground below. With lights in the windows, I can almost sense people getting up for work and school. They were brushing their teeth, eating Cheerios, and grabbing their briefcases to catch carpools. I wondered with only five days after Easter Day if any of these people were still sensing the presence of Christ in their lives.
Soon my distance to the ground was so far away that I couldn’t see any lights any more. And my thoughts started to wonder about the people I will be meeting in Indiana. Was the youth convention scheduled the weekend after Easter because most high school students were off on spring break or were the planners trying to follow up on the excitement of the resurrection of our Lord? I wonder if the presence of Christ in the lives of Hoosiers was anything like I felt celebrating Easter with you two Sundays ago. Would 2000 miles away make any difference?
Walking to Emmaus
The Scripture for this morning is about two of Jesus’ followers on the road walking from Jerusalem to the town of Emmaus about seven miles away. A stranger joins them whom they didn’t recognize. But we know is the Risen Christ. He asks them what they are talking about. They say to him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there these days?”
They journey together for some time, conversing about various matters, including the meaning of Scripture. As they reach Emmaus, the stranger is about to leave them, but they say to him, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.”
The stranger agrees to do so. They sit down at a table together, and the stranger takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them—and then, Luke tells us, “they recognize him.” Then he vanished from their sight.
I have always wondered why these two followers were walking away from Jerusalem. Obviously they were struck by the dramatic events that just happened to Jesus. They knew that Jesus of Nazareth was a mighty prophet and how the chief priests and leaders handed him over to be crucified. They knew about how after three days from the cross some women did not find his body there in the tomb. So why were they going to Emmaus?
Were they trying to run away like the other disciples? Or has the presence of Christ already started to wane in their hearts and it was time to go back to business as usual? Might the seven miles from Jerusalem allow these two followers to put behind all their memories and experiences of being with Christ?
Today is two weeks since Easter Day. Are we still excited about Easter or has it been displaced by conversations about the IRS or when will Barry Bonds hit his next home run?
Living Presence
If these two followers, only mere hours after they heard from eyewitnesses that the tomb was empty and that Christ appeared to the women, were already starting to escape from Jerusalem to Emmaus, then how in the world can we believe today? We are not only thousands of miles away from Jerusalem but we are 2000 years away from the first Easter morning!
We know that it’s impossible for us to come up with conclusive scientific proof that Jesus truly resurrected from the dead. We wish that videotapes were invented in those days. We wish we can do DNA matching and carbon 14 testing so that we can be sure.
But the truth of Easter is not depended on scientific proof. It does not depend on the tomb being empty. It does not depend on whether it just happened hours ago. It does not depend on whether we can place our fingers on his nailed hands or pierced side.
The truth of Easter is very simple. For those who were there with Jesus as well as for us today, we become followers of Christ because we continue to experience Jesus Christ as a living God. We sense his presence with us today.
At first the two followers didn’t recognize him while they were walking and talking on their journey to Emmaus. They first saw him as a stranger. They experienced his teaching of Scriptures. According to Luke, Jesus explained the things about himself by leading a Scriptural study beginning with Moses and all the prophets. Although the followers felt deeply stirred by Jesus’ interpretations, this was not enough to make them recognize him.
But when the time came for Jesus to bless, and break and give the bread to these followers, they recognized him. They sensed the Living Christ.
Emmaus Everyday, Everywhere
The truth about Easter is that we experience Emmaus everyday and everywhere. The followers of Jesus, both then and now, continue to experience Jesus as a living reality after his death.
The apostle Paul experienced his Emmaus when he was on the road to Damascus hunting down Jesus’ disciples. Peter experienced his Emmaus when he saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet came down to teach him that all that God made is clean
and acceptable. Paul again experienced the living Christ when he was persecuted for his testimony in Corinth. John, the author of Revelation, experienced his Emmaus when Christ promised and reassured us that in the whole world, he is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.
And for the past 2000 years, the Christian community continues to experience the living Christ as a spiritual reality in our present day and not simply as a memory from the past.
When have you and I seen the living Christ today? When was the last time you experienced Emmaus in your life?
Three weeks ago, the Sojourners event was a hike in Mt. Tamalpais. Driving up to the park ranger’s booth to pay for our $5 park entrance fee, Joy said, “Pay for Wendy behind us.” I did. So, when Wendy came up to the ranger’s booth, she paid for the person behind her. And so it went. By small acts of caring, we started a chain reaction that probably led to an unsuspecting park visitor receiving grace with a message of “Someone cares.” By this simple event, the Sojourners experienced an Emmaus moment. Our spirits were filled with the living Christ while we hiked in the rain.
I firmly believe that everyone who joined us on the hike that day experienced the presence of Christ. We went out for coffee afterward and then some even went out for dinner that day. When the presence of the living Christ is experienced, you want it to last and last and last some more.
Today we are taking a moment to celebrate God’s magnificent creation and our responsibility for good stewardship. In rare places like the reservoir in Mt. Tamalpais where it is pristine and actually serves as our drinking water, we can appreciate and celebrate God’s creation of natural beauty. And after my plane had climbed to 31,000 feet, everything down below looks great. We do experience an Emmaus moment when we take time to praise God like the Psalmist did,
“Make a joyful noise to the Lord,
all the earth,
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.”
But unfortunately, in the real world—the places where we live and make our living is unlike the protected Mt. Tamalpais reservoir or how the earth looks thousands of feet from the sky or even how Yosemite will look next weekend. The world that we live has been put at risk. From the disappearance of the fragile rain forests to the expansion of unproductive deserts; from the breaking off of the polar glaciers to the mountain high piles of garbage; from the insatiable appetite for oil and energy to the unclean air that has no respect for nations’ borders and vast oceans, we see that we are out of ecological balance! When we should be interdependent and all connected, we have become fragmented and self-centered.
If we are to continue to experience Emmaus moments everyday and everywhere, we will also need to become better stewards of our environment. Our church community has made remarkable progress in the past few years with the leadership and visions of people like Albert Lee and the Sustainable Church Committee. We are using non-disposables whenever we can and recycling paper at church. Our next challenge is to complete the cycle by buying recycled paper and materials whenever we can. By doing this, we experience Emmaus because the presence of the living Christ is with us when we do God’s work.
When my connecting flight touched down in Indianapolis, the first thing I noticed was that spring was just breaking forth. In California, flowers and flowering bushes and trees seem to be blooming all the time. But in the east and in the Midwest, when the resurrection of the Lord happens at the same time as forsythias and daffodils are bursting out with yellow flowers, you are reminded that coming out of the dark, cold tomb is the living Christ!
In Terre Haute, Indiana, I experienced Emmaus too. At this Youth Convention, the entire event attracting about 600 high school students was completely planned and carried out by young people. On the first day when they discovered that someone overlooked a contract requirement made by a Christian music group that was performing that night, the chair of the convention was dejected and felt he let his team down. But then I saw his planning team, the youth leaders, his parents and friends all coming over to reassure him and to encourage him. This was an Emmaus moment that they experienced and that I observed—the living Christ offering grace and mercy to this young man and to the entire planning team.
The Lord’s Supper
Remember when the two followers who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus finally recognized him? After they arrived in Emmaus, the followers strongly urged Jesus to stay with them because it was already late. When he did, sitting at the table, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then the disciples’ eyes were opened and they finally recognized that the stranger was indeed the living Christ!
Jesus said that when two or three are gathered in his name, he is there among them. The living Christ was with those on the road to Emmaus. The living Christ was with us hiking in Mt. Tamalpais. The living Christ was with the young people in Indiana. The living Christ is breathing new life and renewal into the natural wonders and creatures on our planet. The living Christ is here—at FCBC when you and I gather in Christ’s name.
When we participate in the Lord’s Supper—the breaking of bread and the drinking of the cup, we believe that the living Christ opens our eyes and we can finally recognize him. Like the followers, we will realize that our hearts were burning within us when we walk with him. Like his followers, we will experience him when we open up the Scriptures to learn about him. And like the followers, instead of staying in Emmaus, perhaps trying to get away from the confusing events of the crucifixion and resurrection, now we will get
up and return to Jerusalem to proclaim and bear witness that the Lord, the living Christ has risen indeed.
Emmaus Today
Someone sent me this story that I would like to share with you.
Ruth went to her mailbox and there was only one letter. She picked it up and looked at it before opening, but then she looked at the envelope again.
There was no stamp, no postmark, only her name and address. She read the letter:
Dear Ruth:
I’m gong to be in your neighborhood Saturday afternoon and I’d like to stop
by for a visit.
Love Always,
Jesus
Her hands were shaking as she placed the letter on the table. “Why would the Lord want to visit me? I’m nobody special. I don’t have anything to offer.”
With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets. “Oh my goodness, I really don’t have anything to offer. I’ll have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner.” She reached for her purse and counted out its content. Five dollars and forty cents. “Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least.”
She threw on her coat and hurried out the door.
A loaf of French bread, a half a pound of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk…leaving Ruth with a grand total of twelve cents to last her until Monday.
Nonetheless, she felt good as she headed home, her meager offerings tucked under her arm.
“Hey lady, can you help us, lady?
Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans, she hadn’t even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway. A man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags.
“Look lady, I ain’t got a job, ya know, and my wife and I have been living out here on the street, and well, now it’s getting cold and we’re getting kinda of hungry and well, if you could help us. Lady, we’d really appreciate it.”
Ruth looked at them both. They were dirty, they smelled bad and frankly, she was certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to.
“Sir, I’d like to help you, but I’m a poor woman myself. All I have is a few cold cuts and some bread, and I’m having an important guest for dinner tonight and I was planning on serving that to him.”
“Yeah, well, okay lady, I understand. Thanks anyway.”
The man put his arm around the woman’s shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley. As she watched him leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart.
“Sir, wait!” The couple stopped and turned as she ran down the alley after them. “Look, why don’t you take this food. I’ll figure out something else to serve my guest.”
She handed the man her grocery bag.
“Thank you lady. Thank you very much!”
“Yes, thank you!” It was the man’s wife, and Ruth could see now that she was shivering. “You know, I’ve got another coat at home. Here, why don’t you take this one.” Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman’s shoulders. Then smiling, she turned and walked back to the street…without her coat and with nothing to serve her guest.
“Thank you lady! Thank you very much!”
Ruth was chilled by the time she reached her front door, and worried too. The Lord was coming to visit and she didn’t have anything to offer him.
She fumbled through her purse for the door key. But as she did, she noticed another envelope in her mailbox.
“That’s odd. The mailman doesn’t usually come twice in one day.” She took the envelope out of the box and opened it.
Dear Ruth:
It was so good to see you again. Thank you for the lovely meal. And thank you,
too, for the beautiful coat.
Love Always,
Jesus
The air was still cold, but even without her coat, Ruth no longer noticed.
Emmaus keeps on happening everyday and everywhere. The living Christ keeps on encountering us, revealing himself to us, walking with us, and breaking bread with us. Believe that the living Christ is with you today.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion on the way, kindle our hearts, and awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in Scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love. Amen.