"Weren't our hearts burning?"

So, loved ones, “Were you there when they crucified (our) Lord?”

That’s where we left Jesus, wasn’t it, when we last travelled together, in faith imagination, to Jerusalem, to that place outside of Jerusalem, to Golgotha?

Remember? Together with the little girl and her father of our Good Friday morning sermon, together in the crowd, looking up to the Cross, where we heard Jesus cry out: “It is finished! Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit.” And saying this, he breathed his last (Luke 23:46).

That was Friday. Good Friday! And Jesus died! But we came to understand that His death was a fulfilment of the prophecies, which from the beginning, said that One would come, to die, on our behalf, so that we could live again! Truly, LIVE again! – Even as we face death at every turn in this life! Even when we die, truly LIVE, again!

Then came Saturday, yesterday, by our calendar!

And the disciples were scattered. Any were in hiding. They were afraid, confused, in doubt about what had happened these past days.

And now it is Sunday. Easter Sunday, by our Calendar. A Sunday not unlike another Sunday, three days after Jesus death, and burial.

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Join me, loved ones, as we take to the road again. On this Sunday, let us join, at a short distance away, two disciples, who have been visitors to Jerusalem over this past Passover festival. We will stay a little behind so that we can observe, can eavesdrop, listen in, see with our own eyes, and, I pray, understand what Luke will have us understand!

Towards that hope, let us pray together:

“Father God, give us eyes to see what we should see, ears to hear, and hearts and minds to understand that which we read now as Your revelation, Lord. Father, we pray, let us see Jesus!

In His name we pray – Amen!

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Luke 24: 13-35.

13 Now that same day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14 Together they were discussing everything that had taken place. 15 And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them. 16 But they[b] were prevented from recognising him. 17 Then he asked them, “What is this dispute that you’re having[c] with each other as you are walking?” And they stopped walking and looked discouraged.

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?”

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.”

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow[d] 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. 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 recognised 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.

It is Sunday, three days after Jesus’ death on the Cross. His death, which should not have come as a surprise for the Jewish believers in those days.

They had the prophets, who had for centuries been foretelling the good news that one would be born, born of a woman, who would overcome sin and death so that God’s Creation would be freed from the rebellion of the Evil One!

It had been foretold, since the beginning of time, ever since mankind first started recording the words of our forebears.

Genesis 3: 15

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

On that Sunday morning, this very verse may well have been part of what those travellers to Emmaus, were “arguing” about!

14 Together they were discussing everything that had taken place.

Perhaps, something like: “What strange darkness came over the earth as Jesus was dying on that Cross” one would say, perhaps Cleopas.

“O, please,” remarks the other, “I know it’s not common, but it is not the first time that an eclipse has happened on earth.” Give me something I can count as gain from the fact that it was someone more than a man who died on that Cross. In any case, he is dead and buried. End of story!

Yes, says Cleopas, but what do we make of the story that some of our friends, disciples all of us, went to the grave in which he was laid, by their own hands, and had arrived there and found the grave empty!

Well, says the other disciple, you know the explanation of all that of the Chief Priests: they claim that someone had stolen the body.

11 … some of the guards came into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 After the priests[a] had assembled with the elders and agreed on a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money 13 and told them, “Say this, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him while we were sleeping.’ (Matthew 28:13)

But, what would they gain from stealing the body of Jesus? Could they sell it? Or, what else? Why? Why would they steal the body and hide it? It just does not make sense?

15 And while they were discussing and arguing, Jesus himself came near and began to walk along with them (Luke 24:15).

But the two men do not recognise Him (verse 16).

Jesus has joined their journey, He is walking along with them, and He is listening to what they are saying, one could cheekily imagine, with a bit of a smile on His face … and now, Jesus becomes quite provocative!

“What is this dispute that you’re having[c] with each other as you are walking?” He asks.

The two travellers are perplexed: Trying to be as polite as possible, they choose their words well, trying to hide their grief and their disappointment:

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?”

They may as well have broken out in song, in remembrance: “Weren't you there when they crucified our Lord?

- And you, loved ones, were you truly there (last Friday, as we remembered) when they crucified our Lord?

What did you make of it all?

I hope with all my heart that you, with me, saw anew how Jesus’ death on the Cross was a fulfilment of the prophecies of thousands of years, testified to by the unfolding of world events, all pointing to the fact that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah!

It is He who was to come, to save this world from its death and dying, its wars, its hate, its jealousy, its family violence, its depression, its suicide, its sin. Abortion, euthanasia, the destruction of the concept of family. Disease, death, loneliness - all of this so powerfully illustrated in our day by our of felt loneliness and isolation, as a poor remedy and by-product of the brokenness of this world.

You see, Jesus’ disciples, in those days, had put a lot of faith and trust in Jesus, while He was still alive. Also the two on that road to Emmaus that Sunday.

And now, Jesus was dead! Buried! And even His closest disciples did not know where his body was. They had found the grace, empty! And the Emmaus travellers are left disillusioned.

Along with most of the disciples, it seems.

Luke 24: 9-11.

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.

The apostles, Jesus closest companions, His disciples, “did not believe” what the women came to report, on how they found the grave – empty!

“Old wives’ tales,” we can accurately imagine the attitude of the men – because, in those days, a woman could not even testify in court. Women were culturally considered unreliable in the setting of this account of the life and times of Jesus, the Gospel.

Most found it too much to believe!

Most, but not all …

And these days, friends?

What do you make of this historical account of Jesus birth, life, death on the Cross … and His empty grave?

Have your hopes died with Jesus on the Cross? Did we not, just a few days ago, stand around a grave, in fellowship, if not physically present, in Spirit and in Faith of the truth that Jesus grave was empty on that Sunday morning the women arrived there? And that because that is so, we know that our hopes of being together again in the fullness of time, is real?

Most, I believe, still find it all hard to believe.

Sometimes, I dare say, we all find it hard to believe.

Like Peter, on that Sunday morning, when the women came to tell that they had found the grave empty.

They did not offer an explanation. They were simply relating the facts: that the Tomb was empty, that two men (for some reason, a real reason, otherwise why would they report it, they thought they were angels!) had said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24: 5)

They understood the empty grave! Sure, they were angels, so they may have had an unfair advantage … but they had exactly the same source for the truth that we have even today, the Bible. And they knew the Word of God, and are now able to quote from it, for the sake of the women, for the sake of all who would take note of their interpretation of Scripture:

Luke 24: 6, 7.

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’?”

“Rise … on the third day”?!

Loved ones, the full impact of that statement may not immediately have been evident to all of the disciples, to all of us, but it certainly caught Peter’s attention!

How many of us are Peter on this Resurrection-Sunday, friends?

Are you Peter?

Will all the Peters please stand, and be counted, now?

Luke 24:11. For most of the disciples, 11 … these words seemed like nonsense to them, and they did not believe the women.

But, not all!

Not Peter!

Verse 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!

Amazed, friends! Not perplexed! Not afraid! Amazed!

Because Peter, just like the travelers on the Emmaus road, had to that point been wondering about “all that had happened.”

All! - how he thought he was infallible to love the Lord, yet had betrayed Him three times before the rooster crowed;

him, who had a faltering faith, who failed so miserable to walk on water when the Lord urged him to have faith;

and now, this! That empty grave!

And suddenly he understood, he knew, that Jesus was alive! (That is what all of Scripture had been saying! How could I have missed it!) That is what the Passover pointed too; that is what the Day of Atonement was all about. And it all … leave him - amazed!

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But, back to our disappointed, surprised travellers, on that road to Emmaus … At this point in our story, we find them … disappointed,

Disappointed that the one that they had counted on, had died on that Cross;

and surprised

surprised to hear that some did not even know what happened there at Golgotha, there, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, in that “uninhabitable place …” (c.f. Leviticus 16: 21, 22).

But, soon, their disappointement and disbelief, too, was about to turn to faith! To amazement!

After offering the disciples a stern encouragement:

Luke 24: 25.

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow[d] 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?”

Jesus invites them to participate in a focused Bible study: 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures.

O, friends, how great the value of Bible Study, of reading God’s word together, as individuals, as families, as church!

Jesus relied on the Bible, to make Himself known! Shouldn’t we, too? It is for teaching, and rebuking, and our encouragement!

And then, they too – were amazed!

That is what happens’ loved ones, when we “see” Jesus for the first time. It leaves us – amazed!

So, let me ask you, on that Friday, “were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

Well, were you?

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

“Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh! sometimes, it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble!”

“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

And on that Sunday, this Sunday:

“Were you there when the stone was rolled away (Ooh sometimes it causes me to tremble) tremble Were you there when the stone was rolled away”

No wonder, after all this had taken place, there, that day on that dusty road to Emmaus, at the end of the day, after they had broken bread with Jesus …

Luke 24: 31

31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised 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?”

Get it, loved ones?

After “he took bread, blessed it and gave it to them … (this is my body?!)

Verse 31: then their eyes were opened, and they recognised Him!

And the result?

(Then) 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?”

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Has your heart been burning within you this Easter?

Let us pray …