The One to Redeem Israel

Introduction

There’s something melancholy and just a little depressing about the long trip home from a really special holiday or vacation. Usually it’s a Sunday afternoon, you’re tired from the whirlwind week you’ve had, and you’re thinking about returning to work or school on Monday. You’re coming off the mountaintop so to speak and you’ve got to return to the grind of everyday life.

But what makes a trip like that even more depressing is when you’re coming home from a holiday celebration or a trip that you thought was going to be a mountaintop experience and then it wasn’t. Maybe you were looking forward to time with family you hadn’t seen in forever at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but you ended up getting into an argument, and now you’re heading home with hurt feelings. Maybe you had a perfect vacation planned and you got rained out. You’re already worn out and disappointed, but there’s still a long drive home ahead of you, and that alarm clock is going to blare on Monday morning. It’s a pretty depressing feeling.

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were in just that situation. Probably far worse than we’ve experienced. As they made the gloomy trek home from the Passover celebration, they must have been having one of the most depressing and melancholy Sunday afternoon trips home of all time.

Eyes Closed

So as the pair are traveling along, of course they are discussing their whirlwind of a disappointing holiday weekend. But just what was it that happened this week? What made it such a disappointing trip? We the audience don’t have to wonder long, because suddenly a mysterious stranger catches them up and asks them that very question. “Why so glum?” And they answer, “Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard what happened to Jesus of Nazareth this week? They crucified him!” And then they say something very telling: “We had hoped that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel” Past tense. As in, we used to hope that, but no longer. A very disappointing weekend indeed.

That statement tells us something about what they had expected this holiday to be. You see, it’s no accident when a Jew says that they thought someone was going to “redeem Israel,” especially not during Passover time. To “redeem” in the Bible means to win someone’s release from slavery or captivity, and it’s exactly what God did for his people Israel in the Exodus. God defeated Pharaoh and all the gods of Egypt, saving his own people by the blood of the Passover lambs, and brought them out of slavery to the powers that held them captive. Redeeming Israel is what Passover is all about.

And God had promised in the prophets that he was going to redeem Israel again. The captivity of Israel was not over: they had been taken into exile long ago by Babylon, and even after they were allowed to return to their home, they were still almost constantly in a kind of captivity, first to the Persians, then the Greeks, and now finally in Jesus’ day the Romans. But they knew well that God had promised a new act of redemption and salvation. He would redeem them from slavery and captivity once again. That was what these two men were hoping for. They expected Jesus to do something to defeat the Romans and show his glory to the nations, just as God had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians long before. And what better time for a new Exodus than the Passover?

But then the exact opposite of their hopes had happened: Jesus, the prophet mighty in deed and word was killed by the Romans instead of killing them. So there went the hope. They were still captive and enslaved. But they didn’t realize that their greatest slavery was in their giving up on their faith in Jesus. They had misunderstood where the story of the Scriptures was leading, and how Jesus fit into it. They forgot that the real exile and captivity that they needed to be redeemed from was captivity under the devil and the fear of death. And so without faith in Jesus, they remained captive under sin and death. The text even says that their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus. You could just as easily say that their eyes were “arrested” or “held captive.” It was ultimately the natural unbelief they had given in to that kept their eyes closed until Jesus opened them. In spite of their hopes that Jesus would redeem, in spite of hearing of the empty tomb, even in spite of seeing Jesus, they still could not look with eyes of faith without Jesus’ help.

This is true of each one of us. Every human being has their eyes “held captive” by the devil and unbelief until Jesus opens our eyes to see him. As Jesus says, we are “foolish and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets said.” Like with those two disciples on the Emmaus road, this often takes the form of misunderstanding the story or purpose of the Scriptures, or misunderstanding what Jesus is about. One of the most tragic things is when someone gives up on their faith and hope in Jesus because they had built a false expectation of what Jesus, or the Bible or Christianity would give them. Too frequently we expect that the Bible will give easy answers to all our questions about philosophy or science. Or we expect it to be the perfect guidebook on how to solve problems in life and relationships. Some are led to expect that if they are a Christian they won’t have to face tragedy, so when they do their faith is shaken. We may be tempted to say something similar to these two disciples: “I had thought Jesus was the one to save me, but there wasn’t an answer to my question, or a solution to my problem, so I guess he wasn’t.” Oh how foolish and slow of heart to believe in what the prophets said! As much as you might want it to be, the Scriptures weren’t written to answer every question you might have about anything, nor to give an easy solution to every problem. The Scriptures are the story of God and humanity and how God solved our biggest problem in Jesus. That’s what we need our eyes opened to.

Jesus Revealed

So Jesus opened the eyes of his dejected disciples to see what their real problem was according to the story of Scripture. Starting from the beginning, Jesus showed them how he fit into the story, and why it was necessary, an absolute must, that the Christ suffer death before he entered his glory. He reminded them what the real exile and captivity was that they needed to be redeemed from. The Letter to the Hebrews summarizes nicely why the Christ had to suffer: Heb 2:14-15

Hebrews 2:14–15 (ESV)

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Notice what the real problem is: the devil and the fear of death. According to Hebrews, the devil held the power of death, and he kept humanity enslaved through the fear of death. That’s the real slavery, the real exile. The Romans weren’t ultimately the ones keeping God’s people Israel in bondage. They were small time. The Romans were just using the same thing the devil did to keep people under their control: fear of death. That is why they crucified people publicly as a symbol of their power, to keep people afraid. Defeating Rome wouldn’t redeem Israel, the devil would just use another tyrant, another empire as his instrument to exercise the power of death. Jesus came to redeem his people by breaking that power.

So Jesus showed his two disciples how the whole story of Scripture led to that. They needed a reminder that the whole story began back in Genesis with an exile that still hadn’t been solved: The exile from the garden of Eden and the tree of life. That is, exile from God’s own eternal life and the union we were supposed to have with him. Jesus came to end that exile and break our yoke of slavery to the devil and to death.

And contrary to appearance, that had been exactly what he did that Passover weekend. Jesus went down into the captivity of death, and the most fearful kind of death. He let death and the devil exhaust their frightening power against him, and then he came out alive on the other side. He made a way through death for his people like Moses leading Israel through the Red Sea. Death has no more power, because it no longer has to hold any fear for Christ’s people. The tyrant the devil is left powerless on the other side. Peter tells it perfectly in our Epistle reading for today. He tells Christians how to conduct themselves in the time of their “exile,” knowing that they have been “ransomed” (that’s the same word as redeemed) by the blood of Christ “like a lamb without blemish or spot.” Like a Passover lamb. Jesus has redeemed his people from their exile with his blood.

That is the story that Jesus preached to his disciples from the Scriptures, beginning to open their eyes. But because they still needed one more reminder, when they got home, Jesus “took bread, and giving thanks he broke it and gave it to them.” Sounds familiar right? It must have reminded them that before that very weekend, Jesus had instituted a new Passover meal, offering his own body as the Passover lamb, and his own blood as the blood of a new covenant. A new Exodus indeed. And that’s when their eyes were opened. Jesus was revealed to them in those two things: the preaching of the story of the Scriptures and in the breaking of the bread that was given to them. Only then did they have eyes of faith to see him for who he is.

That’s the lesson for us: Jesus still reveals himself to you in the story of the Scriptures and in the meal he instituted where he breaks the bread and gives you his body to eat. He reveals himself as the one who has redeemed you from slavery to the devil and the fear of death. Jesus in his resurrection has shown you that he will lead those who trust in him through death and into life. That really is a powerful thing. There is ultimately nothing to fear from death if you are in Jesus. And who can enslave you or get any kind of power over you when you don’t have to fear death? Now I know, death is still a frightening thing, and there are lots of scary things in this world too. All those problems and tragedies and doubts may still shake you up sometimes. Christians are still human, and they are still going to be afraid from time to time. But you don’t ultimately have to be. Death isn’t the end. Resurrection and life in unity with God is the end for you. The teaching of the Scriptures, and the Sacraments Jesus has left us are what deliver that promise to you. He is revealed to you in the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread.

Conclusion - Run and Tell

Now what do you do when Jesus has been revealed to you? You go and tell others and gather together with them! The two disciples, even when it was already evening, went back to Jerusalem to tell others that they had seen Jesus. Their depressing trip home, turned into an exciting trip back to continue the celebration, to spread the good news, and to gather with Jesus’ disciples. Jesus was risen and they had to let the other disciples know how he had been revealed to them.

That’s what we should do too: tell those close to us what we have come to know about Jesus, and gather together with them to celebrate and to participate in the breaking of the bread. Telling others about Jesus might sound frightening but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to give people answers that you don’t know, or that the Bible doesn’t give. You don’t have to have the solution to every problem or be able to fix or explain the tragedies in people’s lives. All God calls you to do is tell them how Jesus has revealed himself to you. What have you come to know about him? It’s as simple and low-pressure as that. And what you know now from the Scriptures and from the Sacrament is that Jesus is indeed the one to redeem Israel. He’s the one to redeem all people. And that means you too.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.