Surprised By Hope

A few pet peaves as a teacher, we have to write these goals for students. They are called individualized education plans. My students will not be meeting state standards this year so the plans is to develop what they will learn. It needs to be useful, move them to something important that will help them for their whole life. It also needs to realize that they can’t spend time learning everything so a focus needs to really be on what’s really important to enjoy life. So what is my pet peeve, what is my annoyance, when I get goals about teaching students how to read an analog clock. What is an analog clock, well look at your phone and unless you are fancy pants you have a digital clock. The analog clock is that clock you see in a hospital, a prison or a school and really only in those places anymore because they got a good deal on them.

This annoyance goes on when we deny our students tools like a calculator or other forms of technology. I’m all for understanding the basics of math, but that’s ridiculous.

You know what the comment every teacher who loves this says, rather than the truth. They say, but what if there aren’t any calculators, or any digital devices available.

I’m ready for this, I’m ready for this, If you don’t have the ability to find a calculator because there are no more calculators than addition and subtraction are probably not big issues. It’s probably food and water, because the apocalypse has happened. They got all that stuff in poor third world countries and you say we need to hope for a future that we will be poorer than we’ve ever been before so that a lesson plan you wrote is still valuable?

I’m an obnoxious jerk.

So I put hope that tech will be there in the future. Since I have this hope I’ve never bothered to learn how to grow cotton, never learned to use a loom, and still don’t know how to thresh wheat.

Instead I take that time and learn how to better communicate with people, better understand God, work with children.

So 40 years ago I could have learned how to really work an abacus well or really enjoyed playing with my friends. 40 years later the digital just got better.

Hope is in when faith is placed into action in the present for a future promise.

What does this have to do with you? What does is it have to do with God?

Today is Easter, when Jesus came from the dead. Alive, never to die again, and what many of you may have seen before is the first part of the day when Mary Magdalene went to the tomb really early in the morning and that’s why everyone has Easter morning Sunrise services, to celebrate this moment, when she went first thing in the morning, but I’ve always been like this is the greatest celebration of an impatient person ever. Mary knew Jesus was dead. Dead people don’t move and her impatience didn’t change that, Jesus would still be in the tomb at like 10:30. I;m kidding. It was the normal practice to put perfumes on a body and then allow it to decompose in a cave, and then eventually collect the bones in a pot. It wasn’t unusual. Mary didn’t go alone but she went with three women, to a tomb that was supposed to be guarded by soldiers. but God’s plans are impossible to change.

Luke 24:1–12 CSB

1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices they had prepared. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 They went in but did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men stood by them in dazzling clothes. 5 So the women were terrified and bowed down to the ground. “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” asked the men. 6 “He is not here, but he has risen! Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘It is necessary that the Son of Man be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and rise on the third day’ 8 And they remembered his words. 9 Returning from the tomb, they reported all these things to the Eleven and to all the rest. 10 Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them were telling the apostles these things. 11 But these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. When he stooped to look in, he saw only the linen cloths. So he went away, amazed at what had happened.

He has risen

But I wonder if your familiar with another part of the story.

For me its a great part of Jesus’s resurrection. It is the best joke of the day. Resurrected Jesus got jokes.

But It’s also about hope and its about despair. It’s about faith, and its all about what Easter means in our daily life. Becuase its about what do you do now? What do you make of all this and what will happen in your life in the future.

It is the joke of Easter.

Luke 24:13 CSB

13 Now that same day two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem.

That day is today, Resurrection day. two guys, just two guys walking home, no idea where Emmaus is just 7 miles from Jerusalem which is about the distance walking from here to the Walmart in Lodi. They were walking.

Luke 24:14 CSB

14 Together they were discussing everything that had taken place.

I’m in Jury Duty right now, and I can’t talk about it or anything. It’s killing me I spend all day and come home and nothing. It’s not like part of my day, like you know someone will want to talk to me as pastor confidentially, I can easily keep that a secret because later I get to go do something. I get to talk to my wife about something else from my day. But right now nothing.

Have you ever thought what it would have been with Jesus through this week the big entry, the turning over the tables in the temple, the teachings, the crowds, the garden, the arrest, the crucifixion and then that report from the women on the day you would go home, not as one of the twelve guys but as just a regular couple of guys who loved hanging out with Jesus. Maybe that got to see parts of it, not all of it.

You’d be talking about it like crazy and that’s exactly what they were doing. Everyone would be talking about it who experienced it or on the edge of experiencing it.

That’s why I love this part of the resurrection story, it’s so relatable to me. I can’t relate to the women at the tomb. If someone dies it’s the least likely thing for me to go deal with everything immediately, I’m procrastinating. Jesus would have been resurrected for days before anyone knew it if I was the guy having to go to the tomb. We’d be having worship on a Tuesday or something.

Anyway, they didn’t go to the tomb but they knew about all that took place, check this out

Luke 24:15–16 CSB

15 And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them. 16 But they were prevented from recognizing him.

That’s hilarious. The guy who can heal. The guy who rose from the grave, is like proving we all pretty much look the same. It’s just normal, people walking as they all did back then, walking home and the guy comes walking up just like them.

God wasn’t letting them see that He was right there. Jesus was the ultimate in undercover boss. So they just kept acting as they would normally.

Also notice they weren’t just talking about the resurrection.

Luke 24:15 CSB

15 And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them.

Why were they arguing? Because they had no clue what to make of all they experienced just a week ago, and for 2,000 years when friends experience something different, when things are intense, when things really matter, even friends see things differently. And so just like you and I when we experience some big trauma, some big deal. We talk, these guys had to travel home, they were walking, talking, arguing, enough of an argument for them to remember and tell everyone they were arguing when another guy showed up, Jesus.

But they weren’t aware it was him. Now let’s give them some credit why would they expect it to be Jesus. They didn’t know a resurrected God would be walking with them. They weren’t a disciple and they weren’t a member of Jesus family, they were just dudes, like you and me, and then Jesus plays them. He, as God, doesn’t allow them to recognize him.

Luke 24:17 CSB

17 Then he asked them, “What is this dispute that you’re having with each other as you are walking?” And they stopped walking and looked discouraged.

One of the hard parts about trauma is having to repeat the bad news over and over and over. We had a miscarriage with our first pregnancy. As my wife’s first pregnancy and my love to people good news we told so many people so early in the pregnancy and then when it was no more so shortly into the pregnancy it was hard, because I had to say it over and over.

This word discouraged. It’s not like thy got a bad grade and didn’t know if they could stay in school. They were very, very sad. depressed. Gloomy, down, the kind of down that you can see over someone’s whole body. Jesus was dead and now they got to tell this guy about it. They are annoyed.

Luke 24:18 CSB

18 The one named Cleopas answered him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that happened there in these days?”

That’s right, someone is accused of being completely out of touch, doesn’t know what’s going on. Totally clueless. That person is the risen Lord of the Universe, the creator of all things.

Stay here for a second.

Have you ever, maybe you think right now, maybe right now you think God doesn’t know what is really going on in your life. That He is clueless, that God, Jesus, being nice is good for church but doesn’t matter in the real world.

You may not see God but God sees you.

Right where you are at, right in the midst of your life, God sees you. God is aware. This is always the case.

But here God is hiding himself from the men. And God is never changing, remember that, which means at times God can make it hard for us to see Him.

How does that make you feel?

See God isn’t selling himself to you. It’s not about me, it’s not about you. God isn’t a product and not a candidate looking for your vote. I apologize that we pastors forget Jesus did whatever the Father asked him to do, God isn’t begging for you to follow Him, He is inviting you to follow Him.

To move from picking parts of Jesus that we like to taking all of what He calls us to be. And he sees us even when we feel a million miles from Him.

Our challenge is to see the world as God sees it. God is communicating with His people. His message leads to worship of Jesus, to love, to good deads, to the way we see Jesus act. Let’s look and listen for God as we ask God to look at what we feel is important.

I’ve been working on my communication skills, getting to know people and to see people. As I study, You know, the most powerful tool for people to hear your thoughts, it’s being able to ask questions of them and listen to them first. That is exactly what Jesus does.

Listen or read carefully. Really listen.

Luke 24:19–24 CSB

19 “What things?” he asked them. So they said to him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him. 21 But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened. 22 Moreover, some women from our group astounded us. They arrived early at the tomb, 23 and when they didn’t find his body, they came and reported that they had seen a vision of angels who said 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 didn’t see him.”

Did you catch it.

In life there, as I said earlier there will be things you will accept will be there. You might not know if your loved ones will be here 5 years from now. You hope they will be but no one’s sure. Your not sure if you will have a good job in five years, you hope you will, some of you, some of you don’t really consider it because in 5 years time you know there will be schools. You know there will be roads. You know there will be trees.

Luke 24:21 CSB

21 But we were hoping that he was the one who was about to redeem Israel. Besides all this, it’s the third day since these things happened.

These men revealed their faith with their words. They were hoping, that Jesus would redeem Israel. They didn’t know that Jesus would redeem Israel. To them Jesus failed. They couldn’t see that the actions the women were talking about was Jesus buying back, paying the sin price, being the perfect sacrifice, the perfect redemption of all of Israel and the whole world. That he was resurrected!

There hope was never faith. It was a wish and this is when hope fails. If you are hoping that a chair holds you I bet you keep your weight not in your rear but in your feet so you can bounce up if the chair fails. If you put your faith in yourself and not God I bet you have a backup plan for what God would have you do.

Some of us are living right now, knowing what Jesus wants us to do but doing something different because we have determined it’s not that bad.

Faith my friends is the conviction of things unseen. The hope we are talking about it when God says Faith, Hope and Love but the greatest of these is love, is not necessarily knowing how God will do what He has promised but knowing that He will do it.

Otherwise, we risk missing God moving right in front of us, and the resurrection being told to us. Jesus keeps himself hidden as he keeps on talking

Luke 24:25–28 CSB

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures. 28 They came near the village where they were going, and he gave the impression that he was going farther.

When Jesus first comes upon these guys they are arguing about what is really happening in the world and not even able to see that God is walking with them, the risen Jesus. They think he is clueless. But Jesus asks a question and even when he points out that they just don’t get it. He reteaches it.

Some of you know you don’t know much about Jesus, God the Bible. But my friends don’t just rest there, recognize that God is always willing to teach you. Seek after his teaching. Make it your goal in life to move closer and closer to Jesus, not just understanding his words, but like all of us, learn by doing. Do what Jesus calls you to do. Do it, put full hope in it, count on it, That’s what this man was telling the guys who had lost hope.

They thought this wise man would leave, but as good Jews, good followers of Jesus they had to show him hospitality, they had to ask him over for dinner.

Luke 24:29–36 CSB

29 But they urged him, “Stay with us, because it’s almost evening, and now the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 It was as he reclined at the table with them that he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?” 33 That very hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and those with them gathered together, 34 who said, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they began to describe what had happened on the road and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. 36 As they were saying these things, he himself stood in their midst. He said to them, “Peace to you!”