Risen Indeed!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Allelujah, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah! How can you say that? Who here has seen Jesus with their own eyes? I don't see many hands up. If that's the case, how can you say he is risen indeed? You're verifying it. How do you get to say that Jesus rose?

This story with the two disciples who are on their way to Emmaus is so interesting and wonderful because these two disciples, this is still Easter Sunday, hours after Jesus rose from the dead. It's right after the women come back to the disciples and report that they had seen the angels. I don't know what business these two disciples have in Emmaus, but for whatever reason, they're going to walk seven miles back to the city of Emmaus from Jerusalem. And on the way, who is it that joins them? Jesus, and they don't recognize him. In John's gospel, Mary Magdalene gets to see Jesus at the tomb and she doesn't recognize him either. So you have this phenomenon of people not recognizing Jesus until he reveals himself to them.

Jesus is walking with these two disciples, and these disciples have all the information. They have the report from the women, they have the report from angels, they know that the tomb was empty, they even have the scriptures. And they're even looking at Jesus with their own eyes, and yet they still don't recognize him. They don't recognize him because they don't understand scripture. Here's the wild thing: the Jews, including these disciples, did believe in the resurrection. They believed that the resurrection was going to happen at the end of time. Nobody, not a single Jew, was expecting the resurrection to happen early. None of them were expecting that the Messiah would come, and that the Messiah would die, much less that the Messiah would rise again from the dead. They believed that the Messiah would come and just live forever, no death and resurrection needed. So none of them were expecting this to happen to Jesus and for the Messiah to do it this way. And so for them it just doesn't compute. It's not making sense, it doesn't fit with what they were expecting. They don't recognize him, and they don't see the resurrection in scripture.

The resurrection is in scripture. And how do we know this? Because the incarnate word, Jesus, spends this whole journey, seven miles worth, with these disciples, opening up to them the scriptures and showing them, "No, the Messiah you're looking for should have done just what you've heard. He should have died and he should have risen again." And he opens up the scriptures to them so they might believe. Why does Jesus do this? Why does he do it this way? Why doesn't he just say, "Hey guys, I'm Jesus"? Because eyes don't see what hearts don't believe. Eyes don't see what hearts don't believe.

So look what Jesus does, verse 27 says that, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Jesus is showing that the entire Old Testament is about him, and that if you knew the Old Testament, you should expect that Jesus would rise from the dead. Now you fast forward a few verses, to verse 30, and it's remarkable what Jesus does next. He shows them himself in the scriptures without revealing himself, so they don't recognize him yet. He shows himself in the scriptures. They start to believe that this is maybe who Jesus should have been, is the one who dies and rises.  

And then what does he do next? Verse 30, "When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them." What does that sound like? To take the bread and bless it and break it and give it? Communion. Now it may not have been communion, but if Jesus is giving you a meal, it's probably tantamount to that kind of thing. Jesus gives them the bread, and it's through that that they receive Jesus. Jesus opens their eyes to the scriptures to see his cross and resurrection in the scriptures. And then after he opens to them the scriptures, when their hearts are prepared by the word, he gives himself in the meal, the breaking of the bread.

That's maybe important for us to think about too. In fact, Jesus comes to us the same way. And I wonder if that's why he did it for these two disciples before they actually recognized him, is because the rest of the Christian church would receive Jesus this way too. Because for us, we encounter Jesus in the breaking of the bread. At the very end of the story, the disciples tell the 11 disciples, these two Emmaus disciples tell them that Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. And how is it that we encounter Jesus in the breaking of the bread? In fact, that's the entire pattern of our church services, are they not? We come in the presence of God, we start to recognize God, and we recognize first that we are sinners and that we need forgiveness, and so we are forgiven. But then we hear his word. The scriptures are opened up to us. We read the scriptures, and then we hear about the scriptures explained to us, and it's after we are prepared by the word that we receive the word in the bread, and that word actually changes us and transforms us.

See what the story gives us is it tells us that the word is preached to the people and then received by the people. And why is it important to receive the word? Because you must receive the word to see. You must receive to see. And you see this with these two disciples, they see Jesus but they don't really see Jesus. And it's only after what? After they receive Jesus in his word and in the breaking of the bread that they actually get to then see, truly see Jesus.

It's remarkable, isn't it? If you hit the rewind button in the Bible, you go all the way back to the beginning, and you have Adam and Eve in the garden, and they eat from the fruit of the tree. That's the first recorded human meal, but was that a good choice for Adam and Eve to do that, to eat from the fruit of the tree? No. But what happened once they ate the fruit, that very first recorded human meal, what happened after they did that? Their eyes were opened and they saw. And it wasn't a good thing that they recognized. Their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked and that they were sinful and they felt shame. The world was transformed and the old creation fell.

But what is it that happens on this Easter Sunday when Jesus appears to these two Emmaus road disciples? They journey towards Emmaus, they get there seven miles, and they get there and they sit down, and what are they? They are hungry. And so the very first recorded human meal after the resurrection, what happens to the disciples? They eat and their eyes are opened and they see Jesus. In this first recorded human meal after Jesus is risen, they see the creation being transformed. In the first human meal ever in Genesis, they saw the creation transformed in a bad way. And now these two disciples, receiving this meal, see Jesus, and they see the world being transformed into the new creation. The first meal opened their eyes to shame, and the first meal after the resurrection opens their eyes to salvation.

Friends, by hearing and receiving the word, the eyes of these two disciples are opened to God's work of new creation in Christ. And not only that, but they receive the spoils, they receive the spoils of the cross and the resurrection. So it's also for them, so that just as Adam and Eve were transformed by that terrible first meal, these two disciples are transformed by the glorious first meal of Jesus's resurrection. And they're part of it. They share in the resurrection.

And this is so important for you and for me because the gospel is not just information. The gospel is not just seeing Jesus with your own eyes. The gospel is transformation. It's not enough for it to only come up here. Jesus transforms you by what he does on the cross and resurrection, which is why he keeps their eyes closed from recognizing him. Because simply recognizing Jesus as risen would not be enough. Jesus transforms them with his word and he transforms them with this meal. And the same is true for you and for me. It's not just learning information. You are participating in the resurrection that we will one day see in full at the wedding feast of the lamb in his kingdom.

And then this wild thing happens, they recognize Jesus. And then what happens? He disappears. Wouldn't that be so frustrating? And he's gone. He disappears. Why? Well, it's not because he's gone, that's the whole point. It's not because Jesus is gone, it's because his presence has transformed. His presence has changed. What Jesus spent the entire day, the entire seven-mile journey teaching them, is that he is present with them not by sight any longer, but by something maybe even more powerful. He is present with them in scripture and supper. Scripture and supper. And Jesus disappears not to abandon them, but to teach them how he will be with his church from now on.

Dear Christian, you may not have seen Jesus with your own eyes, but he is present with you in the same exact way that he was with those disciples on that seven-mile journey to Emmaus. He is present with you in scripture and in supper. He is with us. He is with you. Unseen, but still received. Which means that faith sees what eyes cannot. Your faith sees what your eyes cannot.

And that is why those two disciples, they run all the way back. Did you catch that detail? They had spent the entire day journeying to Emmaus, seven miles. Anybody walk seven miles on a regular basis? They got there and it was evening. They were having dinner. And it was not because they had seen Jesus all day long with their eyes. It was because they saw Jesus in scripture and in the supper that he shared with them. And that is why that very night, what do they do? They run back all seven miles to Jerusalem. They spent the entire day walking there, and they run back seven miles to Jerusalem because they need to say to the disciples, "Allelujah, Christ is risen! Is risen indeed! Allelujah!" They needed to get that off their chest. And they run back seven miles. They were confident in that statement, "The Lord has risen indeed!" And they were confident because they heard the word and received the word. Not just because they saw the word with their eyes, but they heard the word and received the word.

And dear Christian, the same is true for you and I. We see Jesus the way that he wants to be seen. And how does Jesus want to be seen? Not just walking around. He wants to be seen and recognized in his scripture. And he wants to be seen and recognized in his supper for you. And boy would I love to see Jesus walking around. I would love that. And one day we will get to see Jesus. We will dwell with Jesus forever, and we will see him walking around. But what this tells us, the story of these two disciples tells us that for Jesus, you getting to see him in scripture and in supper is good enough. In fact, it's better. Seeing Jesus where he wants to be seen. And in fact, it's powerful to see Jesus here. It's powerful to see him in his scripture and his supper. It's powerful enough that you don't even have to see him with your own eyes. And it's even powerful enough that people who do not believe in Jesus come to faith in Jesus because of scripture and supper, hearing Jesus in his word and receiving Jesus on their lips.

So how can you say he is risen indeed without ever seeing him? The Emmaus disciples didn't say he is risen indeed simply because they saw him face to face. The Emmaus disciples saw him as Jesus himself wanted to be known: in scripture and in supper. And that's why you get to say it too. He is risen indeed, because you see Jesus in scripture, in supper. Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah! Amen.