The King's Questions: What Things?

Notes:

Road to Emmaus: Preached it a year ago. Entirely different sermon

What are you talking about?

Where have you been that you haven’t heard what happened?

Causes them to stop and be sad.

What things?

Facts of What’s Happened

Jesus of Nazereth=prophet

Chief Priests and Rulers=Got Jesus crucified.

BUT, we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel

This all happened three days ago

Some women from our group said they met an angel who said he was alive! Peter and John went there and couldn’t see him.

Jesus Reveals the Gospel through the Word

You morons. Watch this.

But didn’t Jesus conceal himself? How could they see him if he concealed himself? How is that fair?

Jesus Reveals himself in the Sacrament

He took bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.

Their eyes were open (passive), they recognized him, and Jesus disappeared. What’s the purpose of Jesus disappearing at the very moment they recognize him?

Making Sense of it all

Now it all makes sense!

That’s why our hearts burned

When back to the disciples to corroborate the women’s and Peter’s stories.

“How he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

How does Jesus behave?

He conceals himself from them

He asks a question he already knows. Twice!

He calls them morons, criticizes their hearts and asks another really important question

Responds to their title of Jesus being a prophet. “Not mere a prophet! The prophets were talking about him!”

We had hopes that he would redeem Israel

Stays with them and they see who he is the moment he breaks the bread.

He vanishes.

What are you guys discussing?

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

Time to Open your eyes

Ford suggests, ‘that we cannot see the risen Christ, although he be walking with us, unless he wills to disclose himself’.

Focus not so much on communion but on Jesus being the bread of life??

v. 26: Question assumes a positive answer

Jesus meets the Broken-Hearted

He asks questions

Jesus Teaches:

Exposition

Jesus Hosts the Meal

Jesus takes the role of host.

Old Testament Undertones:

Sid: “And throughout the story, not only does Jesus explain to the travellers through the scriptures that their expectations for who the Messiah should be should be shifted, the story itself embodies Old Testament themes. It echoes Genesis for just as Adam and Eve ate from the tree and their eyes are opened to see good and evil, so too now does Jesus provide new food which opens these disciples’ eyes in a new way to once again commune with God. The story echoes of the hospitality of Abraham in Genesis 18 where he welcomes strangers who turn out to be God. It is also an exodus and exile story in that the discovery of God’s presence takes place away from the expected locations of where God would be.”

Themes in this Passage:

Jesus as Examiner

Two Travelers:

Cleopas.

Other: Luke? Wife?

Two travelers talking about the eventful weekend.

Key detail in the text: vs. 16: “Their eyes were kept.”

“Were kept”: Passive. Divine passive!

Doesn’t reveal himself right away! “Hey guys, check it out, it’s me!!” “I’m Jesus!”

They’re kept in the dark, and Jesus doesn’t reveal anything either. In fact, Jesus asks them questions he full well knows the answers to…

“What is this conversation that you are holding with each other?

1. Stopped and sad… They are despondent. They’re forced to now regurgitate the weekend’s events. Clearly loved Jesus. Out of town followers.

2. Sarcastic response is almost sarcastic in tone: Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

“Where were you, under a rock?”

Jesus: “You could say that.”

Again Jesus presses them, “What things?”

Rather detailed response:

Few important details:

“Jesus a prophet.” Not wrong, just incomplete.

“He was the one to redeem Israel.” Not wrong, just incomplete.

Came to redeem Jew and Gentile.

“But him they did not see.” Not wrong, just incomplete! Irony, there they are saying that the disciples didn’t see him while they are there seeing him in the flesh!

Application: Passage on Discipleship

Jesus Comes into Our Grief and invites us to Talk with Him:

Jesus is present amongst the grieving KNOWING FULL WELL THE HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION!

Jesus doesn’t play peek-a-boo, at least not yet. The Father has concealed the Sons identity.

But he doesn’t stay distant. He’s engaged. He’s walking alongside them. They are grieving. Sad. Sarcastic. BUT JESUS REMAINS WITH THEM.

They may not experience Jesus as present, but he is, and that’s crucial to understanding this passage!

They may not know he’s there, but he is…

How true is that for us!

Grace to Share with him our perspective, even if it’s incomplete.

Our perspective is incomplete.

How would you have finished this statement:

“We had hope that Jesus would...”

“Give me an easier journey.”

“Wouldn’t have allowed that abuse to happen to me.”

Jesus invites us to talk with him, even if what we say is made up of incomplete truth or without a true understanding of what has happened.

Jesus as Expositor

vv.25-26: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Seems strange that Jesus would respond to these guys this way… Two grieving guys.

Response: “You guys are fools!”

Foolish= without+mind. “You numbskulls!” Or, “You’re thinking without a brain, you know that right?”

Again feels so out of place!

Honest Preacher:

Preacher walks up to the pulpit and says, “The word this morning comes from the Book of Proverbs...” But he can’t get himself to read and collapses his head on the pulpit and make a long grunt. And he just unloads on the people:

“If I can divulge from my prepared message… “You guys! BE GOOD! I’m in my office every day, and they’re like, ‘oops,’ I’m like ‘Don’t’.

Dan, what is your deal. If everybody doesn’t know, but Dan is the worst! I took a vow to say who wasn’t the worst, but it’s Dan! Your making me look bad in front of GOD!”

How inappropriate would that be. Jesus response feels just as inappropriate, which obviously can’t be the case because, well, he’s Jesus. So let’s parse this out a bit...

Jesus isn’t giving us a prescriptive way to do pastoral care here.

When people are grieving, you don’t call them numbskulls. That’s bad form. That can cause just terrible consequences…

But this is no ordinary pastoral care situation, is it?! They’re grieving the death of the very person they are talking to! We ought not grieve over LIFE. It’s not that Jesus’ response is inappropriate. Their GRIEF is inappropriate!

So he calls them mindless, like, they are out of their minds because they are out of touch with reality! Their sadness is about his death when all along they should have seen this coming! This is not about meeting people in their sadness over just any death, they are grieving over a death they should have expected. The crucifixion should NOT have been a shock to them.

No, this isn’t a matter of pastoral advice, but about plugging their ears and closing their eyes to Scripture.

They’re literally blinded to who Jesus is right in front of them, AND they are blind to the Jesus who has been revealed to them for centuries.

So Jesus rebukes their spiritual blinders. Away with the blinders. Stop being brainless!

And so what does Jesus do??

So what does Jesus do? He fills their brains with biblical interpretation.

He shows them that they ought not grieve without hope, without purpose.

He opens their eyes to the necessity of the SUFFERING as revealed through Moses and the Prophets, and he preaches to them CONCERNING HIMSELF!

He takes their mindless reflections, and fills them up with Scripture!

He takes their blindedness, and opens their eyes to the necessity of the CROSS.

You see this passage in Genesis, about the seed of Eve crushing the serpent’s head? Yeah, that was about Jesus.

You see in Isaiah about someone preparing the way for the Messiah? That was John the Baptist, and the guy he was preparing the way for was JESUS!

Flip a few pages, and you’ll see phrases like “By his stripes, we are healed.” Or, “like a sheep led to the slaughter,” or “He bore the iniquities of us all,” or “Cursed is the man who is hung on a tree,” or let’s turn to Exodus and learn about the paschal lamb, the building the temple, the whole administration of killing bulls, sheep, and pigeons. That was all about Jesus, guys!

And what makes this so beautiful is how Jesus INTERPRETED the Scriptures for them! Oh to be a fly on the wall listening to Jesus preach on the Old Testament!

Lessons we learn:

Jesus wasn’t being inappropriate, Cleopas and his compadre were! Grief had no place in that moment!

Jesus fills their minds with Scripture. They ought not grieve without hope! They ought not grieve without the encouragement Scripture gives to us.

This should haven’t come as a surprise!

Same is true for us today:

When suffering hits, our minds can hardly make sense of it.

We forget that suffering is part and parcel of our story.

When suffering happens, we can’t help but question the Lord’s existence.

Why are you surprised that life can get hard?

The cross makes sense of our suffering, and the whole Old Testament, the suffering of Israel, the deliverance of the Exodus, the redemption at the Red Sea, the wrestling with God in the wilderness: they are proof texts of the CROSS.

Scripture remains a source of hope in our suffering…

New Testament:

Jesus as Experience

28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

They invite Jesus into their home, but Jesus becomes the HOST

Jesus stay, and takes on the role of host with undertones of the Lord’s Supper:

He took bread, blessed it. Broke it. And gave it to them.

It’s once they EXPERIENCE Jesus as the HOST at this special meal, that their burned hearts transform to OPENED EYES.

And it’s a way in which Jesus bring the concept of suffering into this moment of revelation. The suffering Jesus experienced in his own body is now handed to the first generation of Christians.

“I have suffered, and you will suffer, and in so doing, you are

Romans 8:17:  “And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

True Christianity, then, expects suffering, and see it as a way in which we participate with Christ!

Summary: Experiencing Jesus is more than a warm heart. It’s more than a feeling.

Last year’s Review: Do you experience the heartburn of Christianity, or have you actually encountered JESUS!?

When you do, don’t expect for life to get easier? Stop thinking about blessings in merely physical form, but in spiritual awakening.

Second Really Important aspect of this text:

Divine passive: Eyes were closed

Second Divine passive: Eyes were opened!

BUT, what I didn’t focus on last year was two important parts:

Undertones of the Last Supper can’t be overlooked.

Obvious things missing: No wine. No cup. Not a perfect parallel, but I do think that Luke is trying to get us to see the connection between Jesus as the Bread of Life offered to them that opens their eyes to WHO’S in front of them.

Communion is a Means of Grace, it’s a way of Experiencing the Real presence of Jesus. He is the host and he also offers himself for us. Something SPIRITUAL is happening in that moment of communion.

Experiencing Jesus requires our eyes to be opened...

Passive voice!

THE REASON WHY THESE TWO TRAVELERS DIDN’T RECOGNIZE JESUS WAS BECAUSE THEIR EYES WERE SHUT TO JESUS. THEY DIDN’T EXPERIENCE THE FULLNESS OF JESUS BECAUSE THEIR EYES WERE CLOSED AND THEN, CATCH THIS, THEIR EYES WERE OPENED!

No technique.

No musical cretendo

No mystical experience

They didn’t have their eyes open while Jesus was walking with them. They didn’t have their eyes open even after begging him to stay with them.

You can say, Jesus stay, Jesus come, you can even here a sermon exposited by Jesus and still not get it.

This text teaches us that there is nothing, absolutely nothing that will insert faith into your life other than God opening the eyes of your heart.

Seeing Jesus required God opening their eyes to see Jesus as more than a feeling. In order to experience Jesus, we need God to open our eyes to see him.

Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Look for the passive in Scripture. It’s all over the place! Things that HAPPEN TO US by God.

Problem with Wizard of Oz

Dorothy, Scarcrow, Lion, and Tin Man:

Veil is accidently removed, and who do they see? They see a technicial, not a magician. They see someone who’s contr

SUFFERING DOESN’T HAVE THE LAST SAY:

The already but not yet...

This story is an illustration of that phrase.

While we go through life, there’s going to be suffering, BUT Jesus promises to be with us each step of the way.

v. 31: “Their eyes were opened...” Passive. Divine passive!

God removing the veil from their eyes: He’s finally revealed who is behind the curtain, and it’s no wizard of Oz using technique

You were able to fix your own problems...

That’s not how salvation works!

Their eyes were opened for them. They didn’t fix their situation, they

So yes,

Go to Jesus! Meet him, the bread of life, undertones of Communion.