Trauma on road to Emmaus

Scripture

Luke 24:13–35 NIV

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” “What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.” He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Introduction

Well how are things with you? Yesterday, luke asked to climb into our pack-n-play....things are weird

Kelly Glowacky cut my hair in her driveway.

Grocery store roulette....

The one redeeming thing about Sunday morning right now is I get to leave the house, but being up here on Sunday and not seeing you is like ripping off a band aid every week.

And I know there are even more serious complications that are taking place....jobs, fear, teachers and students mourning the end of a school year. Cancellations keep rolling. And while there is beginning some talk of what is next we know that there has already been a toll in this season.

This is where we are in the story. Trauma around. Hard weekend and confusion abounds...

A popular text to look at following Easter is the Emmaus text and it is one of my favorites. It is in this text that for once in the gospels, the reader has more information than the characters. I also enjoy us looking at this text today because the main point here is the doubting of these men in the resurrection.

Remember the state of the followers and those that had hope in Jesus to be the messiah. There was an incredible amount of grief and probably numbness in being unable to process this magnitude of events over the last few days.

These two were leaving Jerusalem. They had probably made the trek for the passover festival and they were no doubt trying to process together everything they had witnessed.

And Luke tells us that even though they did not realize it was Jesus, he caught up to them and joined their journey. I love that.

So overwhelmed with their doubt and even the trauma of what they had experienced, they are not even aware that Jesus is with them.

Resurrected body

but they cannot even sense that something important is going on

Where are you right now in all of this COVID stuff?

What is the big deal about Emmaus? (Ryan)

Resurrection (and Christianity) is not so much something we “try” but it finds us, especially if we are walking on a certain path.

How do we believe in the Resurrection?

What do we do with doubt and uncertainty and even trauma?

1. Do not go alone?

The first few verses tell us they are on this journey travelling home after witnessing all of this on the passover pilgrimmage. It would be customary for them to travel together. The road can be lonely and dangerous so having a companion makes sense, but even more I love that they are discussing all that they had just witnessed with each other.

It was so important for me to have someone to wrestle with things as God was leading me on this journey. My roommate in College Station, Tommy, was someone that helped me do that. I stayed up late and asked questions and listened to him ask questions.

Whether you find yourself wrestling with doubts of belief in God or doubts in faith just in the day-to-day right now. Do not go alone. The road is hard and can bring about hardship, but it is the right road to be on.

and I want you to see something here....it is in their doubting that Jesus first appears even if they did not realize it.

Prevenient grace......

Meeting with couples getting married.

2. Look to the Scriptures

Jesus then walks them through the scripture. Here is what is important to see.... As Joel Green puts it,

“The cross and resurrection are not self-interpreting but require elucidation. In chapter 24, then, Luke highlights the necessity of interpretation while at the same time indicating the sources and countours of valid interpretation.” -Joel Green

This is what this means....there are many people that witnessed the cross and resurrection and would not get it. They would not understand it. There are many people today that just do not know what to do with all of this. And I understand that…the “just have some faith thing” does not help me understand how a man walks out of a grave. These disciples do not have a category for what they have seen....the disciples do not have a category for what has happened.

So Jesus begins to interpret what has happened. Look at the scripture again:

Luke 24:25–27 NIV

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Jesus begins to open up the scriptures to them because the cross and the resurrection are not just a single event that was dropped in a weird time and place....they are the culmination of the living God’s pursuit of the redemption of the world.

He probably would have talked to them about

Deuteronomy 18:15–18 NIV

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.

Isaiah 9:6–7 NIV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah 11:1–2 NIV

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—

Isaiah 52:13 NIV

See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

Isaiah 53:4–6 NIV

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Psalm 110:1 NIV

The Lord says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

Psalm 118:15–17 NIV

Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things! The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!” I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done.

Daniel 7:13–14 NIV

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

He would have talked about how the promises to Abraham to multiply the earth with his family has now come true

He would talk about the Mosaic promise of covenant faithfulness to his people, but also to be a true moses.

The son of David the one who will reign forever

The law- What it looks like to be truly human in relationship to God

The priest interceding for humankind

The temple, the location of God and the place to go

The sacrificial lamb for atonement

The heel to crush the serpents head in Genesis 3

The bringer of good news

the light that dawns in the darkness...

It is in this context that the cross and resurrection begin to makes sense.

Engaging with Scripture is where the emotion of Easter becomes the truth of Easter

We are an easter people.

What about doubts of faith in this time we are in....Luke is trying to communicate something about revelation here

Darrell Bock describes this tension well,

Karl Barth:

The relation to the Bible is a living one. The spring does not flow of itself. It has to be tapped. Its waters have to be drawn.

Our faith is not just therapeutic, to make us feel a little better. It is our hope and salvation. This is what frames everything else. To know that God has spent all of time securing all of eternity for. To know that God cares for the hurting and the lost. To know that God loves you enough to suffer. To know that Christ overcame all of the struggles and brings us with him.

3. Intellectual and Experiential Faith

In the middle of their doubts, Jesus invites them to engage with their minds and their actions.

After opening up with scripture Jesus gives them the opportunity to invite him home. Jesus invites them to mission, gives them an opportunity to serve here.

in the midst of doubting, you must act. Serve. do. press through paralysis.

Then as they are still engaging with their mind and actively engaging with their doubts and all this man has just said....Jesus takes bread and breaks it before them. and lights go on in the story....

Luke 24:30–31 NIV

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

This is an ordinary event, but when it happens they hear the words different. They immediately hear last supper language, Jesus multiplying bread language, they see Jesus right in front of them in the ordinary.

Let me repeat this again, as they were engaged with their doubts and engaged in fellowship they saw Jesus in the ordinary

John Wesley, Luther’s preface to Romans....a dad gum bible commentary

For me it was reading a verse that I had always known on a mission trip. 1 John 4.

doubts and uncertainties…do not run from them but serve, worship, pray in the middle of them. It does something to our attention. The resurrection means that Christ is present.

4. Community

Then I love that when they encounter Christ in the middle of their struggle they immediately go and share that with community. They run to the disciples and everyone begins to share of their witness.... look at it again

Luke 24:33–35 NIV

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

In this time my friends it is vital to share your God breakthroughs with people around you.

in your house

MTL groups

One group pages and pages of answered prayers

We are learning that social media is not enough

Close with this story:

A HOMELESS GUY AND A FEAST

I met a guy this week we’ll call Dave (changed to protect his privacy). I was spending time at a homeless shelter and was introduced to him as a former resident and current cook. This isn’t an ego-stroking charity job. He’s a paid worker, a central part of feeding a whole lot of men a whole lot of food 21 times a week.

We got to talking and Dave told me his story.

He isn’t much older than I am, but he’s experienced much more. He described how he began drinking around age 5. He started weed at 8, about the time he concluded he was a full-blown alcoholic. The relatives he lived with were rarely around so his house became the place for school-skipping buddies to hang out. Soon they graduated to harder drugs, and to the crimes needed to sustain their habits.

By the time he was 13, he’d had enough run-ins with the law that as terms of his probation, he was banned from Kansas. Dave joked that “he was the youngest dude in the history of Kansas to be banned from entering the state.”

As he walked me through the steps of despair from there, it wasn’t surprising that he ended up homeless (for decades), or that he had some moments where suicide seemed like his only plausible way out.

But the story didn’t end in those moments. He came into contact with some gritty souls at the shelter who didn’t just smell his stench and turn away; they looked into his eyes and told him they’d help – if he wanted it. He’d grown up around a bar, so he believed he could add some value in a kitchen. Fast forward: After three failures at in-patient rehab, volunteer labor eventually became a real job; broad-shouldered-intervention led to regular attendance at AA; and now he’s landed in an apartment paid for...by his own paychecks. He has his own place – and he has a place.

It was amazing to hear him talk. He’s been beaten and humbled, but he’s a man. He referred to himself multiple times as “a drunk, a druggie, a liar, and a thief” – but in saying this, he wasn’t cowering; he was owning it, as the kind of human who knows how to tell the truth. Importantly, he also called himself “a worker.”

Read this part:

He unfolded this journey for me for 30 minutes. As we parted, I asked him, “Next time I come back here, what's the best thing I can do to add real value for you as you lead your kitchen? I don’t want mere busy work; I’d want to be tackling actual needs you have as the boss.”

I’d had tears in my eyes a bunch already this day, but here’s where they almost spilled out. Dave matter-of-factly announced, “Listen, you could obviously dish out meals. You could plate desserts. You could come early and open the vegetables. [There were crates of cans behind him.] You could help clean up.”

“But…when I look out the serving window at these guys, I see myself ten years ago. And you know what they actually need? They need humanity. They need touch. They need you to look them in the eyes and see them – not just look at them. They need you to want to be there.”

That is what Jesus is doing. Luke is up to something with this story.... showing that Jesus is doing this very thing. He is bringing dinner to you.

He wants to be there. He touches. He is appearing to the disciples in the middle of their trauma and anxiety.

When we gather again we will break bread and share with one another in Holy Communion. But when you eat lunch today, know that you are in the fellowship of the risen one. Because he cares....