These illustrations are for Luke 24:13-35
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Sermon Opener – The Road to Emmaus - Luke 24:13-35

A friend shared with me a beautiful legend about a king who decided to set aside a special day to honor his greatest subject. When the big day arrived, there was a large gathering in the palace courtyard. Four finalists were brought forward, and from these four, the king would select the winner.

The first person presented was a wealthy philanthropist. The king was told that this man was highly deserving of the honor because of his humanitarian efforts. He had given much of his wealth to the poor.

The second person was a celebrated physician. The king was told that this doctor was highly deserving of the honor because he had rendered faithful and dedicated service to the sick for many years.

The third person was a distinguished judge. The king was told that the judge was worthy because he was noted for his wisdom, his fairness, and his brilliant decisions.

The fourth person presented was an elderly woman. Everyone was quite surprised to see her there, because her manner was quite humble, as was her dress. She hardly looked the part of someone who would be honored as the greatest subject in the kingdom. What chance could she possibly have, when compared to the other three, who had accomplished so much? Even so, there was something about her the look of love in her face, the understanding in her eyes, her quiet confidence.

The king was intrigued, to say the least, and somewhat puzzled by her presence. He asked who she was. The answer came: “You see the philanthropist, the doctor, and the judge? Well, she was their teacher!”

That woman had no wealth, no fortune, and no title, but she had unselfishly given her life to produce great people. There is nothing more powerful or more Christ-like than sacrificial love

The king could not see the value in the humble lady. He missed the significance of the teacher. Often we miss the value of those around us. I think it would surprise us to know how often we miss the presence of Christ just as Cleopas and his brother missed the significance of the stranger on the road to Emmaus.

It is likewise easy for us to miss the significance of the resurrection. So on the road to Emmaus…

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Second Sight - Luke 24:13-35

This past week alone, I noticed at least 20 things I never noticed before. I saw a momma squirrel protecting her baby in the tree outside my porch. I met neighbors I never saw before. I took walks and noticed new buds, types of trees, all manner of railroad ties, how trains are constructed, found countless new places driving about in the area outside of town. The list could go on.

I also noticed new things about myself, my likes and dislikes, and about others around me, especially at places such as the grocery store. I noticed the way people are creating their own style of masks, some colorful, some plain. I noticed the way people I never met say hello just to connect with another human being. I notice how food tastes especially good when it’s scarcer to get hold of.

We value things more when we pay closer attention to them. Right now, in our world, it’s as though COVID-19 has enabled us to take a closer look at everything and everyone differently. For some, it has meant, finding more to critique. For many however, it has meant, finding more to cherish about our communities and relationships. Paying more attention to the little things, realizing that little things matter.

Often as human beings, we can get streamlined into seeing only one way, seeing only certain people, seeing only from one perspective, as though we all wear a certain prescription of glasses for the way we view the world and each other.  We all view the world through our own unique “lens.” Like any lens, it is selective. It helps us to view things in the way we are used to seeing them.

If you wear glasses or contact lenses, think of how the world looks different when you have them off. You feel, you can’t see things clearly. For some, you may notice things look fuzzier, or stranger. Put those glasses back on, and the world comes into focus.

However, one day, you go to the optometrist and discover that you haven’t been seeing as well as you thought you were.  The doctor changes the lens, and suddenly things come into a sharper view. You notice things you were missing. The world as you see it, changes....

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Peace Is a Possibility

Lucy of Peanuts cartoon fame, pictured with an air of discouragement, questions, “Do you think that life has any meaning when you have failed nine spelling tests in a row, and your teacher hates you?” While most likely for very different reasons, I rather suspect that most of us gathered this morning for worship have experienced our own times of despair, a time when it feels as if all of life is falling in upon us. Each of us has known times of anguish and despair, times when we have felt all alone, times of confusion and pain.

John Wesley spoke of his experience of encountering the grace of God firsthand as a time when his heart was strangely warmed. Burning hearts, hearts strangely warmed — are these not indications of an Easter power and presence within us, the gift of the risen Christ’s Spirit? Burning hearts, hearts strangely warmed, are hearts ablaze with the promise of resurrection and new life, with the good news that fear and death do not have the final word, that love is stronger than hatred, that peace is indeed a possibility.

Joel D. Kline, Hearts Strangely Warmed

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Feeling It in Your Heart

In the greatest movie of all time, “It’s a Wonderful Life” – you remember at the end of the movie, Burt the cop brings Harry home, through the snow storm. And the Bailey living room is filled with friends, there to help George in his time of need. And Harry offers a toast – “to my big brother George, the richest man in town.”

Right there – that’s what I’m talking about. In those words, in that moment, we know the truth of that word in our guts. George is the richest man in town – not in money – but because of his many friends, whose lives he has touched, and who have touched his.

What we feel from that movie we also know in our lives. When we hear something that is true and right, we feel it deep down - there is a kind of bodily resonance that occurs. We even respond with the words, “that really moved me.”

Luke refers to this as heart burn:

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

Kenneth J. Hockenberry, Holy Heartburn!

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Slow to Recognize Greatness

Karl Barth, one of the twentieth century’s most famous theologians, was on a streetcar one day in Basel, Switzerland, where he lived and lectured. A tourist to the city climbed on the streetcar and sat down next to Barth. The two men started chatting with each other. “Are you new to the city?” Barth inquired.

“Yes,” said the tourist.

“Is there anything you would particularly like to see in this city?” asked Barth.

“Yes,” he said, “I’d love to meet the famous theologian Karl Barth. Do you know him?”

Barth replied, “Well as a matter of fact, I do. I give him a shave every morning.”

The tourist got off the streetcar quite delighted. He went back to his hotel saying to himself, “I met Karl Barth’s barber today.”

That amuses me. That tourist was in the presence of the very person he most wanted to meet, but even with the most obvious clue, he never realized that the man with whom he was talking was the great man himself.

It reminds me of Mary’s reaction on Easter morning. In her grief, she thinks the man she is speaking to is the gardener. It is not, of course. Until he called her name she did not realize that she was speaking with the risen Christ.

And, of course, it reminds me of that scene on the road to Emmaus, when later that same Easter day, two of the disciples walk for a while with the resurrected Jesus, and they, too, had no idea with whom they were conversing.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Recognizing at Last!

In the ancient Greek myth The Odyssey we read the epic tale of Odysseus. Odysseus was the valiant warrior who fought so bravely in the Trojan War. But, according to legend, his homeward journey after that war was interrupted for many years as the gods had decided to test Odysseus' true mettle through a series of trials. His journeys carried him far and wide as he encountered mythic beasts and lands, many of which have passed into common parlance: the Cyclops, the Procrustean bed, Scylla and Charybdis, the sirens' voices.

Meanwhile, back at his home, Odysseus' wife and family presume he must have died en route back from Troy. Finally, however, the day came when the gods released Odysseus and he arrives back home at last. But instead of simply waltzing through the front door and crying out some Greek equivalent of, "Honey, I'm home!" Odysseus decides that he wants to determine if anything has changed during his long absence. Did his wife still love him? Had she been faithful? In order to find out, Odysseus disguises himself so as to approach his home looking like a stranger in need of temporary lodging.

The housekeeper, Euryclea, welcomes the apparent traveler and performs for him the then-standard practice of foot-washing. As she does so, Euryclea regales the stranger with anecdotes about her long-lost master, Odysseus, whom she had also served as a nurse when he was young. She told the traveler about how long her master has been missing and she noted, too, that by then Odysseus would be about the same age and of about the same build as the man whose feet she was washing. Now when Odysseus had been a young boy, he was once gored by a wild boar, leaving a nasty scar on his leg. As Euryclea went about her servile task, suddenly her hand brushed against that old scar and instantly her eyes were opened and she recognized, with great joy, her beloved friend and master!

Recognition scenes like that have long exercised a strong pull on the human heart. Sometimes this can be used for comedic effect, as in any number of episodes on the old I Love Lucy show when Lucy would disguise herself so as to worm her way into one of her husband, Rickie's, shows. And you always waited eagerly for that moment when Desi Arnaz's eyes would widen right before he'd exclaim, "Luuucccy!" But such shocks of recognition are also the stuff of high drama, as in The Odyssey and any number of plays, novels, and films across the centuries. And, of course, in also Luke 24.

Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations

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Abide With Us

In the King James Version of the Bible, the invitation of the two travelers reads, "Abide with me; for it is toward evening and the day is far spent,"words which were the inspiration for that beloved hymn, "Abide with me/Fast falls the eventide." The hymn was written by Henry Francis Lyte, for 25 years the vicar of the parish at Devonshire, England. He was 54 years old, broken in health and saddened by dissensions in his congregation. On Sunday, September 4, 1847 he preached his farewell sermon and went home to rest. After tea in the afternoon, he retired to his study. In an hour or two, he rejoined his family, holding in his hand the manuscript of his immortal hymn.

Despite what most think, Lyte's "eventide" has nothing to do with the end of the natural day but rather the end of life. "Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day/Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away." The words are about the faith that face life and death fearlessly and triumphantly in the light of the cross and the empty tomb....East of Easter. Thus Lyte could conclude, "Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee/In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me." Vicar Lyte died three months later.

David E. Leininger, East of Easter

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Three Table Fellowships

"The Scriptures speak of three kinds of table fellowship that Jesus keeps with his own: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of the Lord's Supper, and the final table fellowship in the kingdom of God. But in all three, the one thing that counts is that 'their eyes were opened, and they knew him.'

"The fellowship of the table teaches Christians that here they still eat the perishable bread of the earthly pilgrimage. But if they share this bread with one another, they shall also one day receive the imperishable bread together in the Father's house."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954), 66.

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Filled with Fear, Accepted with Grace

Ernie Pyle was a WWII Correspondent. Pyle was known for writing about the average GI. He didn't write about the strategy and the campaigns. He wrote about the guy slogging through the mud and dodging bullets to get back home. He knew the GI's because he lived with them, and eventually died with them.

In one of his books, he tells the story of a German soldier who had been taken prisoner. This German soldier had been told horrible stories about what the Americans would do to POW's, and so he was scared. The German was wounded and was taken to the medical station. The medics tried to give him a shot of morphine so they could tend to his wounds; but, the German objected furiously, afraid that he was going to be tortured. After some time, after observing the attention given to the other wounded, and the other POW's, this soldier finally started to figure out that he was being treated like everyone else and his amazement grew. Finally, the chaplain, making his morning rounds, gave the German soldier cigarettes, candy, tooth powder, and soap just like everyone else. The German soldier started to grin and sat up playing with his new possessions like a little boy with new toys.

That's what Easter looks like. We are in the hands of a power that we think should destroy us. Instead, God meets us with resurrection.

J. Daniel Hester, Recognized in the Breaking of Bread

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Humor: What's His Number

One Sunday a vicar was doing a children's talk, using a telephone to illustrate the idea of prayer. "You talk to people on the telephone but you don't see them on the other end of the line, do you?" he began. The children shook their heads. "Well, talking to God is like talking on the telephone. He's on the other end, but you can't see him. He's listening though." Just then a little boy piped up and asked, "What's his number?"

We don't need a telephone number to get through to God. We just need to know Jesus. He walks beside us by his Spirit. We can talk to him at any time. He wants us to keep talking. He always listens. He always understands.

Jonathan Pryke

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The Resurrection Changes Everything

There’s a story about a young boy named Walter Elias. Born in the city, his parents one day moved out to the country to become farmers. Walter had a vivid imagination and the farm was the perfect place for a young boy and a wondering mind. One day in the apple orchard he was amazed when he saw sitting on a branch of one of the apple trees an owl. He just stood there and stared at the owl. He thought about what his father had told him about owls: owls always rested during the day because they hunted throughout the night. This owl was asleep. He also thought that this owl might make a great pet.

Being careful not to make any noises he stepped over sticks and leaves. The owl was in a deep sleep because it never heard Walter Elias walking toward it. Finally, standing under the owl, he reached up and grabbed the owl by the legs. Now, the events that followed are difficult to explain. Suddenly everything was utter chaos. The owl came to life. Walter’s thoughts about keeping the bird as a pet were quickly forgotten. The air filled with wings, and feathers, and screaming. In the excitement Walter held the legs tighter. And in his panic, Walter Elias, still holding on to the owl, threw it to the ground and stomped it to death. After things calmed down, Walter looked at the now dead and bloody bird and began to cry. He ran back to the farm, obtained a shovel, and buried the owl in the orchard.

At night he would dream of that owl. As the years passed he never got over what had happened that summer day. Deep down it affected him for the rest of his life. As an older man he said he never, ever killed anything again. Do you see it? Something significant happened after that event. Something that Walter didn’t miss. Something which transformed Walter Elias, something that redeemed him from the pit of despair, something that resurrected him, something that made Walter Elias Disney give life to thousands of animals on the big screen.

The resurrection changes everything. It transforms us. It moves us from despair to new possibilities of life. It takes us in our blindness and opens our eyes. It transforms ordinary bread into a holy meal. It takes two sad and lost brothers on the road to Emmaus who had lost the only the world they knew and gives it back to them. Jesus comes to them and says see I am not dead. I am alive. Now tell the world.

Brett Blair,www.Sermons.com

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ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS NOT IN OUR EMAIL
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The Life of Your Table – Luke 24:13-35 by Leonard Sweet

How many of you here this morning remember “Stone Soup”? No, I don’t mean the magazine. No, I don’t mean the recipe.

I mean the story. “Stone Soup” is an old folk-tale, told and re-told with slightly different details in dozens of countries and cultures. In case you’ve forgotten it is a fable that focuses on the ingenuity of some weary travelers who arrive at a small village with nothing. No food, no money, nothing. All they have is a large cooking pot. The travelers are met with suspicion and surliness everywhere they go. No doors are opened to them. No invitations of hospitality are extended.

The travelers then build a fire in the commons of the village square. They fill their cauldron, their big pot with water and one large stone, and place it over the fire. They sit around the pot rubbing their hands in expectation, talking about their anticipation of a great delicacy — “stone soup.”

The villagers grow curious and one by one come out to ask the travelers what they are doing. Most importantly, what are they cooking that is exciting them so much? The travelers reply to each villager who approaches that the “stone soup” they are cooking is absolutely the most exquisite soup anyone could ever taste.

But the best could be even better if it received just one more ingredient. To one villager they mention carrots. To another villager they suggest potatoes. To a third villager they muse that a big beef bone would add much to the mixture.

As more villagers approach and more ingredients are suggested, the cauldron of “stone soup” gradually takes on the identity of a rich, thick stew — a stew capable of feeding all of those who contributed to its creation and then some. At the end of the story, all of the villagers and the travelers sit together on the commons and enjoy an unexpected and hearty meal together.

“Stone Soup” is not a story about how to get a “free lunch.” “Stone Soup” is a story about the transforming power of hospitality, but a reverse hospitality. It is the weary travelers with empty hands who invite the first wary villager to join them in their watery wares. It is the strangers who offered hospitality to the inhospitable hosts.

“Stone soup” is the story of a gift of calories and community to a village that was too scared to share…

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Sermon Opener - The Gospel According to Winnie the Pooh

Transition times.

Life is full of them . . . times of transition.

As Eve allegedly said to Adam as they were leaving the Garden of Eden, “We are living in a time of great transition.”

Transition times. No times are more filled with possibility and promise. No times are more filled with peril and despair. In transition times, everything is possible, and everything could fall flat and fail.

Think about every time you started a new school.

Think about the first time you moved out of your parent’s home. Think about the SECOND time you moved out of your parent’s home. (Maybe DON”T think about the third time you moved out of your parent’s home!)

Think about when you graduated from high school or college.

Think about when you got married.

Think about when your first child was born.

Think about when your first child got married.

Think about the first day you were officially “retired.”

Think about the first day that is tomorrow.

But let’s not get too flowery too soon. The rabbi and novelist Chaim Potok (1929-2002) summed it up in his autobiographical novel In the Beginning (1975): “All beginnings are hard.” It is hard to be a new baby. It is hard to start a new school. It is hard to move to a new home. It is hard to be a new teenager. It is hard to be a new husband or wife. It is hard to be a new parent. It is hard to be a new widow or widower.

It is even hard to be a new convert, a new disciple, even of Jesus the Christ.

The truth of our text this morning is this: these two disciples traveling to the village of Emmaus were basically rats fleeing a sinking ship. The tumult and tragedy of that transition week in Jerusalem had deeply traumatized them.

Talk about “difficult.” Jesus had been arrested, convicted, condemned, tortured, crucified, and entombed. Adding insult to injury was the disturbing report they had received from some women in their group, a report that Jesus’ body was no longer in its tomb. Here was a transition had left the disciples in the throes of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Shock Disorder).

It was then they admitted their own faithlessness. ‘Some women of our company have astounded us: they went early to the tomb this morning and failed to find his body . . .’ They were neither cheered nor bewildered by this account. Nor had they gone to the tomb themselves to find out if it was true, They had simply and sadly tramped home. What, we might ask, had they been doing in Jerusalem all day? The women had gone to the tomb at break of day and now it was late evening. It was about seven miles from the city to their village, about a two-hour walk. Probably they had lain low until it began to get dark, scared of being picked up by the police (Ronald Blythe, The Circling Year [Norwich: The Canterbury Press, 2001], 75)

But as darkness began to fall in earnest, these two slithering disciples invite a stranger to stay with them, a companion who had been offering them surprising solace on their journey. In their honesty about their confusion and depression, their “slow hearts” (v.25) began to beat faster with a cadence of hope. They began to hear a song of divine possibilities and dreams. As they walked and talked with the unrecognized resurrected Jesus, they received their own personal (remedial?) instruction. They began a new way of understanding scripture, a new way of understanding the Messiah, a new way of understanding suffering love, a new way of understanding true redemption. The Emmaus Walk is the journey that walked the disciple-community into its new identity as the body of Christ.

It is hard to be a “new” anything. Including being a new, or I should say, an “always new” disciple of Jesus.

Yet as we go along in life, even new beginnings take on a rich patina from our past. After two years we do understand gravity. After five or six years we do know how to read. After a few more years we do figure out a few things about interacting with other human beings. The most basic skills for dealing with these new beginnings are part of our childhoods.

In the nineteen-twenties a wannabe poet/writer decided to put down a few stories and verses about his young son, a four year old named Christopher Robin. Like all four-year-olds, Christopher Robin doted on a large collection of stuffed animals.

You now know the rest of the story. A.A. Milne’s remarkable collection of novels known as “Winnie the Pooh,” “The House at Pooh Corner,” “When We Were Very Young,” and “Now We Are Six.” Unlike today’s “series stories,” where writers stretch out their characters to fill three, or seven, or even ten volumes, Milne only devoted two books to the special relationship between the little boy, Christopher Robin, and his beloved stuffed bear, Winnie the Pooh. The “Winnie the Pooh” volume introduced readers to the world of childhood. “The House at Pooh Corner” was the opposite of an “introduction,” or what the wise Owl informed Pooh was a “contradiction”, the end of the story.

In the final chapter of “The House at Pooh Corner,” Christopher Robin is preparing for a transition: he is being sent away to school. It will be an ending, and it will be a whole new beginning.

Christopher Robin understands this; his simple stuffed animal friends, not so much. But as the one who knows, and the ones who don’t know walk forward towards this new future, they find their feet guided by four simple steps: Participate, Anticipate, Relate, and Liberate. These four steps of transition — to emigrate you must first participate, anticipate, relate and liberate---are the same four stages outlined in the Emmaus Road encounter of Jesus and his disciples.

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Hope to Carry On - Luke 24:13-35

It is perhaps one of the most compelling narratives in all of the scriptures. So fascinating is this scene, in fact, that the gospel writer Luke includes it in detail near the end of his gospel writing. It is a story known well and beloved in the church — the story of two disciples walking down a dusty road to the village of Emmaus, the evening of that first Easter day.

Their talk centers around the crucified, dead Jesus. Their words come out slowly, almost painfully, as they trudge their way along, their feet heavy and their hearts broken. "I can hardly believe it," one of them says. "In fact, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. He is dead. He is really gone." "What should we to do now?" the other asks. "Life seems hopeless." And just then a stranger joins them — perhaps he has come up from behind, unknown to them. Perhaps he has walked along with them for a while without their noticing. But suddenly he is there. "I'm sorry," he says, "but I couldn't help but overhear you. What are you talking about?"

They stop and turn to him. Other travelers step around them, anxious to reach their destination before night falls. The three of them stand there in the middle of the dusty road and talk. "Where have you been the last few days," one of the disciples asks the stranger. "How is it you haven't heard anything about Jesus of Nazareth?" And so the two of them tell the stranger what they know.

I don't know about you, but this story has always fascinated me — this scene between two beloved disciples of our Lord, filled with sadness and despair, grieving at the death of a friend, telling that stranger how the last nail has been driven into their hope for the future. And our Savior himself, unknown to them, patiently listening to them, his nail-scarred hands undoubtedly buried deep within his robe to keep them from recognizing him. As he heard those words of grief and sadness, no doubt his heart must have been touched by their pain.

Do you hear what they are saying? Can you understand what is happening here, for there is a message for us today….

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From the Confessions of St. Augustine

One of the greatest voices of the church was St. Augustine. He lived between the 4th and 5th centuries in Rome and was a Bishop. After Rome fell and faded into dust it was largely Augustine’s writings that kept Christianity alive and made it the most influential movement the world had ever known. It is remarkable that between the 8th and 12th centuries his writings were more widely read than any other. And that was 400 to 700 years after his death.

But he was not always a saint. Before he was converted at age 29 he lived to fulfill every lust and pleasure. But Augustine had one great quality that saved his pitiful life—a praying mother. She never gave up on him until one day he stopped long enough to listen to the voices around him. Augustine had just heard a sermon by Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.

We are told in public speaking and preaching classes not to read long quotes but I’m going to do it anyway and read something that Augustine wrote. These two paragraphs shaped the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of people throughout history. He is looking back on his conversion to Christianity and the convictions of his heart. Here’s the quote:

“One day, under deep conviction: I cast myself down I know not how, under a certain fig-tree, giving full vent to my tears; and the floods of mine eyes gushed out…So was I weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting and oft repeating, "Take up and read; Take up and read." Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words; nor could I remember ever to have heard the like.

So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find... Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius (his friend) was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: ‘Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh...’ No further would I read; nor needed I for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.”

Adapted from St. Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine

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Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow.
Don't walk behind me; I may not lead.
Walk beside me and be my friend.

Albert Camus

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Optical Illusions

I love optical illusions. There are two pictures which are classic optical illusions where your mind plays tricks on you. In the first, some people see an old woman; some people see a young woman. In the second one, some people see a rabbit; some people see a duck. Physicists say that optical illusions prove that our brains add substantially to the visual input from our eyes. What we see is actually made up by our brains.

In our Scripture passage today, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus did not see Jesus even though they walked with him and talked with him on the road. That simple puzzle has amazed Biblical scholars for ages. We assume that Cleopas and the other disciple (who some say was Mrs. Cleopas) knew Jesus well enough that they should have recognized him. But verse 16 says, "...their eyes were kept from recognizing him."

How did that happen?

Mickey Anders, An Optical Faith

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Do You Know the Way to Emmaus?

Do you know the way to Emmaus? It should be relatively easy to find because the text locates the town "seven miles from Jerusalem." But no one has ever been able to identify an "Emmaus" seven miles from Jerusalem. Perhaps there is confusion because two different numbers appear in ancient manuscripts at the point at which Luke gives us the location. Some texts say "60 stadia," and others say "160," which works out roughly to be either 7 miles or 18 miles. Although there are indeed many references to Emmaus in ancient sources, none of them give us any specific directions. Because of this, the unlikely village of Amwas (20 miles from Jerusalem) is currently a popularly recognized site for pilgrimage, even though other towns have stronger claims to be the historical town.

Ironically, the seemingly superficial mystery regarding the actual location of Emmaus fits in nicely with the deepest meaning of this passage. Do you know the way to Emmaus? Emmaus may be here, or there, or anywhere. The site of the original episode is irrelevant. Christ will travel wherever his followers are going. Christ will appear wherever they break bread. Even here. Even now.

David E. Leininger, Do You Know the Way to Emmaus?

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Out of Context

The last time I couldn't recognize a familiar face was because that person was out of context! I was at a ball game and there came a man who was searching for his seat about three rows ahead of me. When the man saw me, he immediately flashed a smile, waved at me, and said, "Hey, Donovan." Well, he obviously knew who I was, but who was he? I didn't recognize him. He looked familiar. He wasn't in my church. Maybe he was a member of the Rotary Club. Who was he? It was driving me crazy. Later in the game I had an opportunity to catch up to him, and I said, "I apologize, I know you. I know I know you, but I don't know you. Who are you?" He said, "Donovan, I'm Dr. First, your dentist."

Of course! If he had come to the game wearing some scrubs and a mask with goggles, and if I had a numb lip, maybe I would have recognized him.

Is that the trouble Cleopas and his friend were having on the road to Emmaus? They remembered a crucified Jesus. They remembered a dead Jesus. He was dead. Period. A risen Jesus is out of context. Is that why those two did not recognize him? It sounds good, but I don't know. What I do know is that I want Jesus to let these two in on his identity. "Come on Jesus, tell them who you are!"

Donovan Drake, Gaining Recognition

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Lunch in the Park with God

There was once a little boy who decided he wanted to find God. He knew it would probably be a long trip, so he decided to pack a lunch—four packs of Twinkies and two cans of root beer.

He set out on his journey and went a few blocks until he came to a park. On one of the park benches sat an old woman looking at the pigeons.

The little boy sat down beside her and watched the pigeons too. When he grew hungry, he pulled out some Twinkies. As he ate, he noticed the woman watching him, so he offered her one. She accepted it gratefully and smiled at him. He thought she had the most beautiful smile in the world. Wanting to see it again, he opened a can of root beer and offered her the other one. Once again she smiled that beautiful smile.

For a long time the two sat on that park bench eating Twinkies, drinking root beer, smiling at each other, and watching the pigeons. Neither said a word. Finally, the little boy realized that it was getting late and he needed to go home. He started to leave, took a few steps, turned back and gave the woman a big hug. Her smile was brighter than ever before.

When he arrived home, his mother noticed that he was happy, but strangely quiet. ‘What did you do today?’ she asked. ‘Oh, I had lunch in the park with God,’ he said. Before his mother could reply, he added, ‘You know, she has the most beautiful smile in the world.’

Meanwhile, the old woman left the park and returned to her home.

Her son noticed something different about her. ‘What did you do today, Mom?’ he asked. ‘Oh, I ate Twinkies and drank root beer in the park with God.” And before her son could say anything at all, she added, ‘You know, God’s a lot younger than I imagined.’”

Jef Olson, Hearts Burning Within

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Superman

In Superman: The Movie, Superman first reveals his powers to the world with a dramatic rescue of Lois Lane. Lois is dangling from a cable high above the Daily Planet building. She is screaming at the top of her lungs. Just as she begins her long fall toward earth, Superman changes into his power suit and swoops up to catch her in midair. "Don't worry, Miss," he says. I've got you."

"Thanks," says Lois. "But who's got you?"

Just then a helicopter that has been parked on the edge of the building starts to fall straight toward them and the crowd below. But Superman simply grabs it with his one free arm and gently sets both it and Lois safely back on the landing pad. When he turns to leave, Lois stammers out the words, "Who are you?"

Superman says, "A friend" and flies off just before Lois faints into a heap.

That's how we would like Christ to come to us. And that's why we often aren't paying attention when he comes in less spectacular ways.

M. Switzer, Were Not Our Hearts Burning Within Us?

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Why Didn't They Recognize Jesus?

I was reaching for the handle of the lobby door when I saw the back of his head through the glass. I gasped for breath and my heart started beating faster. I was elated and scared all at the same time. The split-second sight of Phil touched an emotional response deep within me, and it took a couple more seconds for my intellect to catch up. My mind collided with my gut when Phil turned around.

It wasn't him. It was someone else entirely. That made sense, and I felt better, even though the exhilaration drained from me.

I had been "seeing" Phil everywhere. Even though he had been dead for a month, I didn't want to believe it. He committed suicide when he was so vital and strong. Phil was at the beating heart of every party, so I couldn't quite imagine him, still and lifeless, in the bottom of that Jeep. When his life was cut short like that, it was so tragic that my head kept playing games on me. I would recognize him in a crowd moving onto the elevated train, or he would be standing at the back of the bus during rush hour, or he would be waiting in the lobby of our apartment building. Just as quickly as I would recognize him, his face would vanish and morph into another man's visage.

This time in my life always comes up when I read this passage of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. I imagine Jesus' friends with that same trauma, the disorienting grief, not quite believing the reports of the women who bravely watched Jesus die. Then the men weren't sure if they could believe the women when they said the tomb was empty either. The disciples seemed to be confused, afraid for their lives, missing their friend, and realizing that his life was cut short, along with their hopes for the Messiah.

Carol Howard Merritt, Why Didn't They Recognize Jesus?

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Humor: Between Belief and Disbelief

It should not come as a surprise to us that the disciples struggled to believe in the Resurrection. We understand them, don't we? We want to believe, but we live somewhere in between belief and non-belief. In fact, we may feel more like the family of actress Helen Hayes. Her husband and her son wanted to encourage her desire to try her hand at cooking her first Thanksgiving Dinner. So in the days leading up to Thanksgiving Day, they gave her words of encouragement telling her that they were looking forward to the big event.

She had never cooked a turkey before, and before serving it, she announced to her husband and her son that if the turkey wasn't any good she didn't want anyone to say a word. She said, "We will just get up from the table, without comment, and go to a restaurant to eat."

Mrs. Hayes returned to the kitchen, and when she entered the dining room bearing the turkey on a platter, she found her husband and her son seated at the table with their hats and coats already on.

Randolph T. Riggs, When Faith is Not Enough

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Tell Others the Good Word

A 9-year-old girl named Erica was so filled with joy when she came to know Jesus that she insisted that all her friends know him too. One day she took me to her neighborhood to invite the children to a vacation bible school our church was having. We went with colorful flyers in hand. I expected that we would tell the children and their parents about the dates and time and place of the vacation bible school, leave them a flyer as a reminder, and be on our way. Erica saw our job differently. When we got to the first home and the door was opened she stepped right up and said, "We've got great news about Jesus and my pastor will tell you all about it." I stood there flabbergasted, but she was right. Our job was first and foremost to spread the Word, proclaim the Good News, tell others about our Risen Lord. Erica and I worked hard that day because she did not want any child in her neighborhood to miss out in hearing about Jesus and the vacation bible school. Erica knew in her own way, Jesus' claim on our lives and the magnitude of that claim. We are Jesus' witnesses and those who need to receive our witness is the entire human family.

Minerva Carcano, The Good News is for Everyone

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Opening the Door to Jesus

Is there any parallel between the experience of the followers on the road to Emmaus and our lives? Yes, there are times when each of us fails to recognize the presence of Christ or the Holy Spirit. Remember that the Scriptures promise us that Christ is with us—at least potentially—not just as an occasional, miraculous event but at all times. In Revelation 3:20, he tells us, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” So an experience like that of the disciples, who recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, is always available to all of us.

So it’s easy, even for dedicated Christians, to put off opening the door to Jesus. We want to be good Christians, but when it’s more convenient, at least not today. “Just wait,” we say, “until we reach retirement age—or our kids get out of college—or we make the last house payment. Then we’ll try to put into our lives the kinds of things we would want to do if Christ were here.”

But Christ is here, right now. And when we open our hearts to other people, particularly those who are different from us, we are opening the door to him. This is a practical way that Christians can take a major step toward realizing the constant presence of our Savior. He says so specifically: “As ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 2 5:40).

When we take such a step, our eyes are opened, as were those of the disciples; we expand our lives, escape from the cages we build around ourselves, and enter a new environment of surprises, adventure, and real gratification. This is some of what Cleopas and his brother learned on the way to Emmaus. Imagine their elation and excitement! I wonder how long it took them to get back to Jerusalem, to share what they’d seen and heard with their friends? They might have set a 10,000-meter speed record!

We are thankful that the miracle they experienced isn’t a mystery or a secret any longer. It’s a truth all of us can share. Our Savior lives, and if we let it happen—if we accept his presence—our lives will be changed forever.

Jimmy Carter, Sources of Strength, Times Books, 1997, p. 157.

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God is Watching You

“My great-grandfather, who was a Hassidic Rabbi, was once driving along a country road. The coachman saw an apple orchard, jumped out, and began to take some apples. The Rabbi cried out, ‘You are being watched! You are being watched!’ The coachman did not linger a second----he jumped back in the carriage and drove the horses as fast as he could. After a while, when they were a considerable distance away, he stopped and said, ‘But I did not see anybody watching!’ The Rabbi replied, ‘God is watching you.’”

Adin Steinsaltz, Simple Words: Thinking About What Really Matters in Life (NY: Touchstone, 1999), 46.

Leonard Sweet, Collected Sermons

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"On Sunday morning in contemporary America, modern disciples come straggling through the church door weighed down by cynicism, stress, and strife. We are too busy, too suspicious to recognize the risen Christ."

Susan Andrews

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And Their Eyes Were Opened

SOME YEARS AGO, a movie titled Zapata depicted the engaging story of the famous Mexican hero, Zapata. He was to the Mexicans what "El Cid" was to the Spanish: a redeemer of his people. Those who loved Zapata were radically devoted to him and his cause. At the end, when Zapata was ambushed by government troops, the white horse upon which he had led countless charges, escaped into the hills. The peasants violently refused to believe that their leader would have allowed himself to be ambushed and killed, and whenever they caught a glimpse of the white horse in the hills, they claimed that it carried Zapata, signaling to them that he would return. They fully expected the return, but in time, the expectation died.

Although Jesus attempted on several occasions to interpret specific events to his disciples, as well as to prepare them for his certain return, not one of them was prepared. As Carlyle Marney once said, none of them lay hidden in the shrubbery near the tomb ... waiting ... waiting. Judas had gone off somewhere and hanged himself. The others were scattered, afraid, stroking their wounds, trying to recover from the total collaspe of everything. They had not been prepared for the crucifixion, much less the Resurrection. The post-Resurrection appearances mentioned in our scripture caught them totally by surprise. Two observations about the particular appearance described in our text:

1. The two men were on their way to Emmaus, discussing events pertaining to the crucifixion. Jesus caught up to them in the midst of their own journey, becoming a part of it himself, and in the end, baptizing it with his blessing. Those of us in the church believe that this is still the way Christ often comes into our lives. Off on our own journeys, pursuing some goal or objective, totally submerged in our own concerns ... determined, ambitious, outrunning the spiritual life while in full stride toward that which we hope to achieve. And then, it happens. In half-step we are arrested by the sudden awareness of another presence; we had not expected it, nor do we always recognize it immediately. It just abides, and just as with the Emmaus travelers, it comes into clearer focus in due time. As the Holy Spirit accompanies us in our own journeys, it is hoped that somewhere along the way it may be with us as it was with them; "And their eyes were opened and they recognized him" (v. 31).

2. It is significant that Jesus was made known to them in the "breaking of bread." In the upper room Jesus had taken the elements of the Passover meal and transformed them into something completely different. The familiar ritual was changed from remarks about the Passover to references to the "body and blood" of the host. In a very real sense, Jesus’ messianic identity was uniquely made known to them in the breaking of bread in the upper room. Then, at Emmaus, he was again "made known" in the breaking of bread. There are other references to post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus at which his presence was made known around a meal (see Mark 16:14; John 21:9-14). Little wonder that early Christians quickly associated a mystical significance with the meal, more specifically, the Eucharist. Consequently, the church observed communion several times daily with the prayer, "Maranatha" (Come Lord!).

The expected return of Zapata was never fulfilled, and eventually the expectation faded. The unexpected return of Jesus of Nazareth took even his followers by surprise. Ironically, it seems that he must still catch us from behind.

Larry Powell, Glimpses through the Dark Glass

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An Agent of God, Changing the World

Dr. Tony Campolo, in his film series, You Can Make a Difference, tells the story of a Christian colleague with a PhD. in English Literature who quit his job and became a mailman because Christ opened up a new tomorrow in his life. Tony went to the man's apartment to try to persuade him to change his mind. Here is how Tony describes that encounter:

Tony says, "I couldn't change his mind, so I came back with the old Protestant work ethic thing. I said, ''Charlie, if you're gonna be a mailman, be the best mailman you can be.''

"He looked at me with a silly grin and said, 'I'm a lousy mailman.''

"I asked, 'What do you mean, you're a lousy mailman?''

"He answered, 'Everybody else gets the mail delivered by one o'clock; I never get back until about five thirty or six.''

"'What takes so long?'' I wanted to know.

"He said, 'I visit! That's why it takes so long. You wouldn't believe how many people on my route never got visited until I became the mailman. But I've got this problem, I can't sleep at night.''

"I asked, 'Why can't you sleep?''

"He said, 'Who can sleep after drinking twenty cups of coffee?''

"I began to get the image of this mailman on the job. He was no ordinary mailman. I could picture him going from door to door and at each home giving more than the mail. I could see him visiting solitary widows, counseling troubled teenagers, joking with lonely old men. I could see him delivering the mail in a way that was extra-ordinary for the people on his route. He's the only mailman I know that on his birthday the people on his route get together, hire out a gym, and throw a party for him. They love him because he's a mailman who expresses the love of Jesus everywhere he goes. In his own subtle way, my friend Charles is changing his world, changing the lives of people, touching them where they are, making a difference in their lives. It may not sound like much, but that man who is delivering mail, like Jesus would deliver mail, is an agent of God who is changing the world."

Tony Campolo, You Can Make a Difference, quoted by Eric S. Ritz, The Ritz Collection,www.Sermons.com

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Disappointments Transformed

The year was 1920. The scene was the examining board for selecting missionaries. Standing before the board was a young man named Oswald Smith.

One dream dominated his heart. He wanted to be a missionary. Over and over again, he prayed, "Lord, I want to go as a missionary for you. Open a door of service for me." Now, at last, his prayer would be answered. When the examination was over, the board turned Oswald Smith down. He did not meet their qualifications. He failed the test. Oswald Smith had set his direction, but now life gave him a detour. What would he do? As Oswald Smith prayed, God planted another idea in his heart. If he could not go as a missionary, he would build a church which could send out missionaries. And that is what he did. Oswald Smith pastored The People's Church in Toronto, Canada, which sent out more missionaries than any other church at that time.

Oswald Smith brought God into the situation, and God transformed his detour into a main thoroughfare of service. (Brian L. Harbour, Rising Above the Crowd)

The disciples expected Jesus to be the King of Israel and in that they were sorely disappointed. But what they could not see brought them so much more; he turned out to be the savior of the world and they became the ambassadors of the Great King!

Brett Blair,www.Sermons.com

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I Smell Bread

In one of the episodes of M*A*S*H, the sophisticated shell, inside which Major Winchester protects himself from the horror of the suffering and death with which he constantly deals, breaks; and he is left defenseless. He goes into a type of depression in which he struggles to find some answers to life’s most perplexing problem — death. Finally, in utter desperation, he leaves the base hospital and goes up to the battalion aid station where the wounded are first taken. Colonel Potter discovers where he is and calls him, ordering him to return to the M*A*S*H hospital. A medical corpsman interrupts the conversation and calls the surgeon over to a man who is dying. Winchester confirms the impending death with a glance. The soldier says, “I can’t see anything. Hold my hand.” The major replies, “I am.” “I’m dying,” the soldier moans, and this causes the surgeon’s unarticulated questions to surface: “Can you see anything? Can you feel anything? I have to know.” But the dying soldier doesn’t answer. Instead, he says, “I smell bread.”

You cannot miss the significance of the symbol. Bread is the symbol for Christ. It is a symbol for going home.

It is at the table that we are brought face to face with the person and mission of Jesus Christ. In that meal, we celebrate our death and our life in Christ. But Christ doesn’t allow us, any more than he allowed the disciples, to relax and enjoy the fellowship of his table, simply talking about the Lord and what the resurrection experience means to us as though that’s all there is to the Easter appearances of the Lord.

If we dare to say, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” We are enjoined to listen and respond to what else he has to say: “You are my witness (Luke 24:48).” Just as the disciples witnessed in the first century of the Christian era, it is our business to show the world by what we do and say that the Lord is really alive and that he is, indeed, the Lord of all. That’s a significant part of the continuing story about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those who hear it and believe that it is true are charged with the responsibility of passing it on to the rest of the world so that all people will have the opportunity to hear and believe.

Adapted from George Bass, The Tree, The Tomb, and the Trumpet: Sermons for Lent and Easter, CSS Publishing Company

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Straight to Your Heart

Every now and then, if you are really, really lucky, you hear something so right and true that it pierces through all your defenses and goes straight to your heart. It can make you drop to your knees. It can make you laugh until you cry, or cry until you laugh, but it is not a mental thing at all. It is a physical thing that requires a physical response. You have to do something about it; and sometimes you need help figuring out what that is.

Barbara Brown Taylor

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If You Have to Ask

Asked by a persistent reporter to define the meaning of jazz, legendary trumpeter Louis Armstrong is reputed to have answered, "If you have to ask the question, you'll never know." Something similar is true of Jesus' revelation of himself in our lesson. We do not reach Jesus by dint of our own effort. We know him only because he chooses to reveal himself to us. He does so not dramatically and with power, but humbly and personally. The risen Jesus does not appear to the rich and famous, the movers and shakers of that time. He does not show up before the throne of the emperor in Rome, demanding to be vindicated. Rather, he falls in beside a couple of dispirited wanderers who are wending their way home after having their hopes dashed.

David E. Leininger, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time

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Swimming Against the Current

The plight of the Pacific Sockeye Salmon is currently a hot topic in environmental advocacy circles. Did you know that in some areas of the world, the salmon population is at a critical point and facing extinction? This was deeply troubling for me to discover, and not necessarily because I am in touch with the critical environmental issues of the day. Frankly, this is of much higher concern for me because my very favorite thing to eat in the summertime is salmon cooked on the grill.

Nevertheless, I learned recently that this particular species of salmon is experiencing serious threat due to environmental issues in the rivers in which they spawn. Salmon, as you probably know, are born in fresh water streams and migrate to the ocean to live. When it comes time for them to spawn they head back, almost all of them, to the river in which their egg originally hatched. What’s notable about this migration is that it is undertaken for huge distances—scientists estimate 1200 kilometers in some cases—and, for most of that distance, swimming against the current of very swift-flowing rivers. Spawning salmon are so strong they can swim against the current and also use their bodies to jump over small waterfalls and obstructing rocks.

I doubt that the early Christians knew about salmon, but I do know the symbol of the early church was a fish, and maybe rightly so. By establishing themselves as followers of this man Jesus, a man who proclaimed unusual messages of love, peace and justice, the early church had set themselves firmly against the scripts or messages of the culture in which they lived, and as a result found themselves swimming, with urgent and trying effort, against the current.

Those men on the way to Emmaus had begun the trek upstream, against their culture.

Amy Butler, Scripts of the Exile

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COMMENTARY

Call it what it is: street theology. It isn’t the kind of righteous religious talk that is popular in the synagogue or temple. Jesus is rather rude. Yes, that’s how I’d put it. Jesus is rather crude and even rude at times. He uses common metaphors: "Salt is good: but if salt loses its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor the manure pile" (Luke 14:34-35). Flavorless salt can’t cover up the smell of one’s manure. Was I too crude? No apology from me. Jesus definitely had a street theology. It startled the people in the streets. They turned out in droves to hear him speak. They thought he was more interesting than scribes (editors) and lawyers (conference delegates). Jesus had a greater sense of authenticity, a fleshly power which could "make sense” of human needs and cut through the theological jargon or rationalization.

"You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Matthew 5:27-29

The theology of Jesus seemed to take root among the ordinary people, the people who understood the street. It didn’t play very well in the temple. It seems that Jesus was never able to accomplish much with the people in the temple. He made an important declaration and read some Scripture. But he met more resistance than hospitality. Perhaps that is why most of Jesus’ miraculous healings and transformations happened out in the streets. Did not Paul the religious prosecutor encounter the risen Christ on the Damascus Road?

On the very first Easter day the risen Christ could not be found in a temple or church. He was out walking on the Emmaus Road, out walking with two of his disciples who did not yet recognize him. But their eyes would be opened.

The Ethiopian had a life-transforming encounter with Jesus on the Gaza Road.

Blind Bartemaeus experienced Jesus’ healing touch right on the berm of the Jericho Road.

Jesus had a market-place theology. He met people where they lived. He walked where they walked. While out in the streets, his message didn’t play very well in the temple or the academy.

Adapted from Michael Slaughter, Out On The Edge, Abingdon, 1998, p. 44-45

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The Story of the Phoenix

Mythology still speaks to us today. Take for instance the story of the Phoenix. This is an early Egyptian tale. A god in the form of a bird comes back to life after being destroyed by fire. It rose out of the ashes to a new life. The Phoenix has become a symbol, a sign of immortality. The Phoenix points one to hope when only despair exists.

And despair was all that remained for the disciples of the Crucified One. There hope had turned to ashes. They were crushed under the weight of disappointment. Their Messiah, their friend, their hope had been put to death. They had even heard the women who said that an angel declared unto them that He lives! Peter had been to the tomb finding nothing but discarded burial cloths. And the two, who had set out for Emmaus, reported that the Lord had made himself known to them. And still, after all these reports the followers are found skeptical and disbelieving.

Greg McDonell, Out of the Ashes

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When the Circus Comes

I am reminded of the story of the little boy whose grandmother regularly took him to her weekly prayer meeting. He was bored silly, but being a good lad he endured it.

One day he was invited to attend the circus. He had never been to a circus before.

He came away from this experience anxious to share with his dear grandmother what he was feeling. "Grandma," he said, "I went to the circus today, and let me tell you, once you have been to the circus you'll never want to go to another prayer meeting."

And so it will be when God opens our minds to understand and experience God's marvelous, incredible risen presence. Something happens that sets us free, which renews and refreshes our sense of God's love, grace, and forgiveness that simply cannot be contained.

Greg McDonell, Out of the Ashes

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The Gospel Evidence

Christians resonate with statements concerning the evidence for the resurrection like this one from an English lawyer, Sir Edward Clark. "As a lawyer I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the events of the first Easter Day. To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. Inference follows on evidence, and a truth witness is always artless and disdains effect. The Gospel evidence for the resurrection is of this class, and as a lawyer I accept it unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts they were able to substantiate." [Cited in Stott, Basic Christianity, 47]

Robert S. Rayburn, The Resurrection Appearances

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Jesus' Post Resurrection Appearances

To Mary Magdalene Jn 20:14-18; Mk 16:9

To the women returning from the tomb Mt 28:8-10

To Peter later in the day Lk 24:34; 1 Cor 15:5

To the disciples going to Emmaus in the evening Lk 24:13-31

To the apostles (except Thomas) Lk 24:36-45; Jn 20-19-24

To the apostles a week later (Thomas present) Jn 20:24-29

In Galilee to the seven by the Lake of Tiberias Jn 21:1-23

In Galilee on a mountain to the apostles and 500 believers 1 Cor 15:6

At Jerusalem and Bethany again to James 1 Cor 15:7

At Olivet and the ascension Acts 1:3-12

To Paul near Damascus Acts 9:3-6; 1 Cor 15:8

To Stephen outside Jerusalem Acts 7:55

To Paul in the temple Acts 22:17-21; 23:11

To John on Patmos Rev 1:10-19

The New Unger's Bible Handbook, Merrill F. Unger, Revised by Gary N. Larson, Moody Press, Chicago, 1984, Page 397-398

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Christ Never Gives Up

There is a story of a British soldier in the First World War who lost heart for the battle and deserted. Trying to reach the coast for a boat to England that night, he ended up wandering in the pitch black night, hopelessly lost. In the darkness, he came across what he thought was a signpost. It was so dark that he began to climb the post so that he could read it. As he reached the top of the pole, he struck a match to see and found himself looking squarely into the face of Jesus Christ. He realized that, rather than running into a signpost, he had climbed a roadside crucifix. Then he remembered the One who had died for him . . . who had endured . . . who had never turned back. The next morning the soldier was back in the trenches.

Maybe that's what you and I need to do in the moments of our distress and darkness - strike a match in the darkness and look on the face of Jesus Christ. For Christ is here. He comes to us just as he came to those two disciples on the road to Emmaus even though we may not recognize him. He takes the initiative. He knocks on the door.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com

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Someone Is Always Waiting

There is a story about a young boy who had to travel cross country by train from Los Angeles to Philadelphia to see his grandparents once a year. He had completed his stay with his grandparents and was ready to return home to Philadelphia. He safely boarded the train and began the long trip home. While on the train, a business executive asked him if he was afraid to take the long trip by himself. The little boy boldly declared, "No, I am not, because I know my father will be there to meet me."

Our God is not some unconcerned deity, but a loving father who has promised to never leave us or forsake us. No matter where we travel in our faith journey, we will never go beyond the reach of our father's loving hand.

Eric S. Ritz, The Ritz Collection,www.Sermons.com

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Anticipation: What Is Going to Happen Today?

In Winnie the Pooh, Pooh and Piglet take an evening walk. For a long time they walk in silence. Silence like only best friends can share.

Finally Piglet breaks the silence and asks, "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh, what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" answers Pooh and then asks. "And what do you say, Piglet?"

Piglet says, "I say, I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?"

You and I can't really plan to meet the Risen Christ because we never really know when or where He's going to show up. But you can be sure of this, He will show up. If you believe, He will show up. And the attitude you need to meet him is the attitude of Piglet, "I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?"

Billy D. Strayhorn, Easter Heart Burn