April 10, 2005

3rd Sunday in Easter

A pastor had just finished a sunrise Easter service. A couple came out of the church, and their little boy swung on the pastor’s arm as he greeted them. A little while later, the pastor was in his office preparing for the second service. He received a phone call from the couple. Their boy had climbed the ladder into his bunk bed for a nap, fallen, hit his temple, and died instantly. The pastor rushed to their home. The father met him at the front door and placed his dead son into the pastor’s arms. With great agony, he said, “Pastor, where’s the resurrection now?”

On Easter evening, that is a question two of Jesus’ disciples were asking. Where’s the resurrection now? Where’s that promise? Jesus is dead! And with Him, our hope. This news nailed them in the gut. But strange reports had started coming in. The body wasn’t in the tomb! Where was it? No one knew. So they watched. Waited. Sent Peter to investigate. Lingered some more. Nothing happened. So finally, these two decided to return home. Back to work.

Have we done the same? These disciples were filled with disappointment, confusion, and grief. They didn’t recognize a living Jesus. Is that true of us? In our disappointment, confusion, and grief, have we missed seeing a living Jesus and just gone home? What we all need is an Easter journey with Jesus! Because here is What An Easter Journey With Jesus Will Do: It will turn disappointment to hope, confusion to understanding, grief to joy, and apathy to zeal!

As these two disciples were on their way to Emmaus, they were filled with disappointment. They were hoping that Jesus was the One who would redeem them. But now He was dead. So they got into their first animated discussion of the day: investigating the events of the weekend, asking some hard, unanswerable questions, when a visitor joined them. No one they recognized. But he spoke up: “What are you talking about?” They stopped walking.

“What do you mean, what are we talking about!?” Haven’t you heard about all the stuff going on? Jesus was crucified and now we don’t know where his body is!” And then, the saddest phrase: “but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” Their hope was gone. On the TRIP TO Emmaus, they had no hope. They did not recognize Jesus.

Have you been on that TRIP TO Emmaus? The trip of disappointment? Disappointment with God, because you don’t think He came through on his promises? Disappointment because you don’t feel his presence? Disappointment because you don’t think He has helped you the way you need? Disappointment because you don’t recognize Him? What you need is an Easter Journey with Jesus! Because on the disciples’ TRIP FROM Emmaus, it was a completely different story! Now they recognized Jesus! Now they realized He was alive! Now they had real hope! Their Easter Journey with Jesus had turned their disappointment into hope!

The southernmost point of Africa experiences tremendous storms. For many years no one even knew what lay beyond that cape, for no ship attempting to round that point had ever returned to tell the tale. It was known as the "Cape of Storms," and for good reason. But then in the sixteenth century, Vasco De Gama successfully sailed around that very point and found beyond the wild raging storms, a great calm sea, and beyond that, the shores of India. The name of that cape was changed from the Cape of Storms to the “Cape of Good Hope.”

Until Jesus Christ rose from the dead, death had been the cape of storms on which all hopes of life beyond had been wrecked. No one knew what lay beyond that point until, on Easter morning, Jesus won the victory over our last great enemy. Suddenly, like those ancient explorers, we can see beyond the storm to the hope of heaven and eternal life with the Father. The risen Christ says to us, "Because I live, you also will live." Like with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus turned our disappointment to hope!

He also turned Confusion into Understanding. On the TRIP TO Emmaus, these two were confused. Why did Jesus die? Where is his body? Why did all of these things happen? They were confused and didn’t recognize Jesus. But He began to teach them. Haven’t you read all the Scriptures? Didn’t you know that the Christ would have to suffer and then rise again? And then, right there on the road, Jesus took them through a Bible Instruction Course called “Growing in Hope.” That’s right, He taught them what the Bible teaches about Jesus.

And their hearts were burning within them, because they were learning God’s Word! That prompted them to plead for Jesus to stay with them! He did. So on their TRIP FROM Emmaus, since they now recognized the risen Jesus, their confusion had been replaced with understanding! Now they knew why all of this happened! And how the story ended! Have you been on the TRIP TO Emmaus before? Confused about Jesus and who He is and what He has done? Doesn’t make sense? Why did He have to die? What is this forgiveness stuff? How can it be free? What does it mean for me? What can we be sure of?

A man’s wife had just died. He was driving home from the funeral with his motherless kids, and was thinking of a way to comfort them and help them understand what happened. Just then, a huge truck passed them by. As it passed, the shadow of the truck swept over the car. After it pulled in front of them, the man suddenly knew how he could explain it to his children. He asked, “Children, would you rather be run over by a truck or by its shadow?” The children said, “Well, of course, Dad, we’d much rather be run over by the shadow! That can’t hurt us at all!” Their father said, “Did you know that about 2000 years ago, the truck of death ran over the Lord Jesus…in order that only its shadow might run over us?”

Friends, there is the truth of Easter. Jesus stood right in front of the truck of death. He took on the worst kind of death, the eternal kind that separates you from God. He faced that so you wouldn’t have to. We might still face physical death. But in comparison, that’s like the shadow of the truck. Jesus’ resurrection means forgiveness and life for us. Join the disciples on the TRIP FROM Emmaus in understanding that! Let Jesus turn your confusion to understanding!

He also turned Grief into Joy! When Jesus began talking with them on their TRIP TO Emmaus, their eyes were downcast, the twinkle gone. Mouths bent downward. Foreheads wrinkled. Heads hanging. Shoulders slumping. Filled with grief because they didn’t recognize Jesus was alive. Have you been on the TRIP TO Emmaus? Filled with grief? Sad without hope over hardships because you weren’t recognizing Jesus is alive? Then take an Easter Journey with Jesus like these two did! Because once they recognized Jesus, their heads stopped hanging and shoulders stopped slumping! Their grief turned into joy!

A man named George was accustomed to driving his wife, Rosie, to church every Sunday. And every Sunday, they parked in the same spot. George and Rosie had been married forty years and they loved each other. They did everything together. They were inseparable in almost every area of their life, except one. When George drove his wife to church, Rosie went in and George remained in the car, reading the Sunday paper. Rosie died, and for many Sundays after, the congregation was sad since George's car was no longer seen in the parking lot. Several months later, on Easter Sunday, George's car again appeared, and George went into church!

The preacher delivered a stirring resurrection sermon. When it was the congregation’s turn to respond, George stood up and with deep emotion said firmly, "Rosie lives!" And then he began to sing: "My wild Irish Rose, the sweetest flower that grows…" One person joined in, then another, and another. Finally, everyone was joyfully singing what someone later described as "The most beautiful Easter hymn ever sung in our church." George came to recognize his living Savior! And it gave his life hope and joy. That Easter journey turned his grief into joy!

Finally, an Easter Journey with Jesus turns apathy into zeal. On the TRIP TO Emmaus, the two disciples had given up. Time to go home and back to the routine. Oh well. Have you been on that trip? Satisfied to remain in your comfort zone? Easter is over, so big deal. Let’s get back to life. We’ll talk about it again next Easter. We’ll invite people to church next year.

Well, notice what those two disciples did as soon as they recognized Jesus was risen: They got up right away to go and tell others about it! They didn’t finish supper. They made no excuses about having just walked seven miles. They didn’t excuse themselves because they lived too far away. They didn’t say “We’ll go back first thing in the morning.” They made sharing this news a priority! The feet that were so weary on the TRIP FROM Emmaus now barely touched the ground as they raced back seven miles to tell the good news!

When they got there, they got into their second animated conversation of the day! They related, explained, and acted out what happened on their Easter Journey with Jesus! This conversation was completely different from the one that took place before they had recognized Him! Instead of disappointment, confusion, and grief, their gestures and words were filled with hope, understanding, and joy! That’s what their Easter Journey with Jesus did for them!

Friends, an Easter Journey with Jesus will do the same for you and me! It will wake us up from our apathy, replace our disappointment with hope, our confusion with understanding, and our grief with joy! So take that walk with a living Jesus today! Say to Him as those two disciples once said, “Stay with us, Jesus!” Urge Him to stay with you with his comforting Word. His wonderful presence. His people’s encouragement. When He stays with us, we won’t even be able to contain our desire to go tell the good news that He is risen!

W.E. Sangster, a British pastor, noticed something didn’t seem quite right in his throat, and that his leg seemed to be dragging. He went to the doctor. Tests showed that he had Lou Gehrig’s disease. His muscles would gradually waste away; his voice would fail, and he would soon be unable even to swallow. He threw himself into his ministry, figuring once he could no longer stand or preach, he could still write. And pray. And that he did. As the doctors predicted, though, his legs wasted away, and he could no longer speak, but could still hold a pen shakily.

On Easter morning, just a few weeks before he died, he wrote a letter to his daughter. In it he said, “It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice with which to shout, ‘He is Risen!’ but it would still be more terrible to have a voice… and not want to shout it.” This deadly disease could not take the Easter joy from Pastor Sangster’s heart. And no one can take your joy, which comes from Christ’s resurrection, away from you! Friends, don’t just go home today. Take an Easter Journey with Jesus! Invite Him to stay at your house! Let his words burn within you! And use every opportunity to tell your friends about the living Jesus! He is risen! Amen.

 

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