Luke 24 31-32 LWML Sunday 2008

Pentecost 20, LWML Sunday, September 28, 2008

Luke 24: 31-32

“Opened Eyes”

Introduction: Have you ever witnessed an AHA moment, in your own life or in someone else’s life? Do you know what I mean? Let me explain. A young child looks at letters on a page. After listening to their parents read and then looking at the words, they connect the dots and they have an AHA moment…spoken words can take form on a page in the written word, and as those words unfold a story emerges…and in those words are countless worlds to be explored. At first the child is blind to the meaning of the words on the page…but then their eyes are opened and they can see. With some work the child begins to read. It is a wonderful and glorious moment that many parents look forward to, when they see their children reading on their own for the first time…AHA! Of course AHA moments can occur in many things in life.      Teachers understand this. They struggle teaching to what appear to be deaf, dumb and blind children…only fit to play pinball, or perhaps video games. Then, all of a sudden they witness a miracle. A light bulb goes off in a students mind…and amazingly they …get it!

            Of course, sometimes it takes time. Back in Seminary, my professors would teach day in and day out using all kinds of new words, some English, some Greek, and some in Latin. If I was a dog, I know that I would have been turning my head in a way that said…huh…what are you saying? In time, after days, after weeks and yes even after I had completed the class…AHA! I understand what they were trying to teach me.

            Unfortunately, in life, no matter how much we want it to, the AHA moment never comes. We all have experienced this frustration when we have tried to teach somebody something and they just don’t get it…ever.

            The AHA moment really can be described in this way… a person that was blind, begins to see.

            There was a person named John Newton. He was known as a great blasphemer. He could curse like a sailor and he cursed at God. John Newton was a sailor. His business was transporting humans being from one place in the world to another. These were very special human beings. They were worth a lot of money. That is because they were slaves, someone’s property, something to be sold, and kept and worked anyway the owner saw fit.  

            I don’t know how it happened exactly. One day John experienced a violent storm at see. I’m sure it was one of many violent storms that he had seeing. Anyway, he was on deck, another man relieved him of his duty so that he could rest. As he left his position, the man that had replaced him was washed by a big wave into the see. John thought to himself “that could have been me”. Then and there he realized his own helplessness.

            He began to read the Bible. He tried to live a better life, but then…AHA! He really got, the lights went on. He saw Jesus Christ, he saw Christ’s cross…and yes, he believed in Jesus Christ as his Savior from sin. After that he wrote the words you know so well: Amazing grace-how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, Was blind but now I see!

            John Newton was blind…but then God opened John Newton's eyes and set his heart ablaze for Jesus Christ. Blindness, we live in a world full of people who are spiritually blind. Some of those who are stumbling around in spiritual darkness are obvious. Some people wear their blindness on their shirt sleeves when they call themselves Atheists. Some people express their blindness through the way they live their lives. Of course we see this parade of people almost nightly on our television sets. It’s obvious, or at least it should be, that these people are stumbling around in the dark. They just don’t get it. They don’t understand what life is all about.  

            Of course, we really don't have to look any farther than next door, or down the street, or in our own families to find people in the dark and who need the Light of Jesus Christ. People who are blind to God's Truth are very near to us, they are people we know and love very much.

            Toward the end of his life, John Newton wrote, "When I was young, I was sure of many things; now there are only two things of which I am sure: one is that I am a miserable sinner; and the other, that Christ is an all-sufficient Savior." God opened John Newton's eyes. Through God’s Word and Baptism God opened our eyes. But some­times, even Christians are blind and need to have their eyes opened.  

            The disciples on the way to Emmaus could not "see" Jesus, even when He was right under their noses. Their faces were "downcast" when Jesus asked what they were discussing as they walked along the road (Luke 24: 17).

            These two disciples weren't unbelievers or ignorant. They knew who Jesus claimed to be. They even knew about the report from the women, that they had been to the tomb and it was empty. In their words they said, "They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive," yet they still did not recognize Jesus as He walked along the road with them. (v. 23).

            Even in the presence of Jesus they were discouraged. And what does Jesus say? "He said to them, 'How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ 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' (Luke 24:25-27).

            Through the power of the Gospel in Word and Sacrament, God the Holy Spirit opens our eyes so that we can see Jesus. He then reminds us, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9).

            God opened the eyes of the Emmaus disciples so that they could see Jesus and realize who had been talking to them and teaching them, and who was ready to eat with them. How did they react? Did they simply continue their meal and retire for the night? No, they looked at each other and said, AHA…"Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" Didn't we get excited when we heard God's Word? Now that’s a real AHA moment.

And then they ran seven miles back to Jerusalem to tell their friends that they had seen Jesus! It was already night, but they didn't even wait until the next day. That's how excited they were. God had used His Word to set their hearts ablaze.

            Dr. Robert Roegner of LCMS World Mission shares about one of his experiences in India.

            On a summer Sunday in 2004, after I had worshiped with a Lutheran congregation in Nagercoil, we traveled to a village where a new church had been started. They were going to baptize the first new believers there. About 40 people were to be baptized. The baptisms began. A woman came forward. A pastor announced her name, and she was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Then she began to cry. Even as other people were baptized she continued to cry. After the service, I spoke to her. I said, "I couldn't help but notice after baptism that you were crying-a lot. I guess those tears are because you are so happy that you were bap­tized and have become a child of God."         She said, yes, she was happy that she is a child of God that Jesus is in her heart, that she has received God's free grace, and that she has forgiveness for all the sin and bad things she had done in her life. This brought tears of joy to her eyes. "But," she said, "While I have tears of joy flowing from my left eye, I have tears of sorrow flowing from my right eye." So I asked, "Why so sad as well 7"

            I'll never forget her face. She looked at me square in the eye and said, "While I have received Jesus in my heart today and His grace and forgiveness, my husband, my mother and father, my brothers and sisters, my aunts and uncles, and all of my cousins do not know God's grace and forgiveness because they still live in the darkness of all the Hindu gods."

            That's when I turned in the Bible to 1 Peter 2:9 and read, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." I challenged her to not let God's love, grace, and forgiveness be only for her, but to go and tell her husband, her mother, her father, and her other family members about Jesus.

            We left the village, and I returned to United States. I kept her in my prayers for a time and then I forgot about her. In January 2005, I received an e-mail from the pastor who had done the translating for me. He was so happy to tell me that he and the other pastors were returning to this same village on Easter Sunday and that the members of that woman’s family were to be baptized.

            This woman was spiritually blind, but God opened her eyes through the power of the Gospel. And His Word had set her heart ablaze! When she realized that God had called her out of darkness so that she could be a light to others, she acted. And as a result, many in her family also had their eyes opened and their hearts set ablaze.

            Ablaze!, as you may know, is the name given to the movement among Lutherans worldwide to reach at least 100 million un-reached or uncommitted people with the Good News about Jesus by 2017, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Its name is taken from the account of the Emmaus disciples, when they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

            It's God's Word that warms our hearts and sets us ablaze to tell others about Jesus, as it did this young woman in India. And like her, we have also been baptized. Our eyes have been opened to the Gospel, so that through our lips and lives, the light of the Father may shine for all to see. You are "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

            In His last appearance to the disciples on earth, Jesus told them, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1 :8). Our Lord gives you that same promise. It is your privilege to be part of His mission. Your mission is the same as the first disciples…to be Christ’s witness locally, nationally and yes even internationally…witnessing to Jesus Christ and what He has done for you and in your lives.

            Being Christ's witnesses "to the ends of the earth" means much the same today as it did in Jesus' day. From the beginning, the Christian Church sent missionaries to the far reaches of the world.

            This is what we do, as the Lutheran church Missouri synod. We do it as we partner with the churches of our synod to support LCMS World Mission, our Synod's global Gospel outreach arm. It is from us, the congregations of this synod that volunteer and career missionaries come. It is through us that these missionaries are sup­ported through prayer, encouragement, and generous giving.

            The Lutheran Women's Missionary League was founded for the purpose of "serving the Lord with gladness" by supporting Gospel outreach from local churches to the farthest corners of the earth. Untold numbers of people have been given the gift of faith in Jesus Christ. Our mission work continues as a result of the hard work and dedication of our women in the Ladies Aid and the LWML. This mission work continues because of the generous support given through that little but mighty and powerful mite boxes. Our women do not only help proclaim the precious gospel of Jesus Christ. They back up their words with actions. Many people have benefited from the numerous acts of charity, the quilts, the gifts of food and clothing, all lovingly supplied by the women of the LWML. We thank God for their work today! God is truly at work in them!

            We also encourage each other today, every one of us, to tell the Good News as we have the opportunity. By His grace and mercy, God has called us out of the darkness through the power of the Gospel. For the sake of the holy life and the innocent suffering and death of His Son, Jesus Christ, and sealed by Christ's resurrection, we are God's forgiven people. He has chosen us. He has made us His priests, declared us a holy nation, and made us His own so that we can declare the praises of the One who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light.

            We declare His praises whenever we tell others about Him and what He has done also for them. And we do it because He has opened our eyes and set our hearts ablaze. Amen.