Facing the Future: How Christ Is With Us

Dr. James Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

April 23, 2006

Text: Luke 24:23-35 (focus verse 35)

We are always facing change; change is one of the very few constants in life. Life today is not the way it was and seldom is it the way we thought it would be. Where can we find Christ in all this? This is the question I have asked as I looked into this old and familiar story that is found in the Gospel of Luke.

Two of Jesus' followers were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It was the Sunday after Jesus' crucifixion. The events of the last several days had left those two men in grief and bewildered. They had hoped Jesus was the one who was going to redeem Israel . For them that meant he would redeem them and their land, set right all that was wrong and bring lasting peace and true justice.

But the religious and civic leaders (both one and the same in those days) viewed Jesus as a trouble maker. One thing had led to another until he was arrested, declared guilty, and crucified. “How could that have happened?” they asked one another. “What went wrong? And what about those stories the women told about the tomb being empty and angels having told them Jesus was alive? What does it all mean?”

A stranger joined them on their journey. It was the risen Christ, but they did not recognize him. Perhaps they were blinded by the same sort of hopelessness and grief I talked about last week. Whatever the reason, they were unable to realize they were in the presence of the risen Christ.

How often this story has been my story. Looking back across my life I am somewhat embarrassed, if not ashamed, to see the many times I failed to recognize the presence of Christ in my life. And I am convinced I am not unique. The failure of followers of Jesus to recognize the presence of the risen Christ in their lives is an old and all too often repeated story.

The stranger asked, “What are you talking about?” They told him about all that had happened the last several days, and what the women had said that morning.

In my imagination I see a weary smile on the face of the risen Christ. “You guys are so wrong headed,” he said, “so focused on the wrong things, you have completely missed the meaning of what has been happening.” This statement stings because it rings true in my heart. It is my foolish, wrong headed focus that time and again has caused me to miss the point of the Gospel. How easy it is for us to major on the minors, and because we have missed what is most important, we get hung up on the wrong questions, and the result is our understanding of the Gospel is distorted and therefore our understanding of life is distorted. These two men were among those who had believed Jesus could be the Messiah without being the suffering servant described by the Old Testament prophets. In their conversation with the stranger, they began to understand that the suffering of the incarnation of God (or, God suffering through the incarnation) is inseparable from redemption. The stranger helped them discover that the scriptures show God is not defeated by suffering, but that it is through suffering that the extent and depth of God's grace is most powerfully revealed. It is through the suffering of Jesus, through the suffering of the incarnation of God, that the magnificence of God's incomprehensible love (that is, “the glory of God”) is most clearly revealed. It is in and through the suffering of the Messiah that the extent and depth of the grace of God is most eloquently demonstrated. The stranger talked to these two men about how all this is revealed and proclaimed in the Torah and the writings of the Hebrew prophets.

As the three men reached Emmaus it appeared the stranger was going farther, but the two men urged him to stay and have supper. While they were eating, this stranger took bread blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. This deed was for those two men the “Aha! moment,” the moment of profound understanding. Later, when they told others about their experience, these two men would talk about how the risen Christ had helped them understand what had happened and how in the action of his breaking the bread they realized who he really was.

What Jesus had said was important. Words are important. Words are essential. Words are the tools we use to do our thinking and to share our thoughts with others. Words are the building blocks of concepts that give expression to the meaning we have experienced in life. Jesus had used words to help those two men understand the meaning of what had happened. Later they would comment about how exciting it was to listen to him talk and explain the meaning of the Scripture as it related to what they had experienced.

But Jesus' words did not undo the suffering and death on the cross. However, through his words, these two men began understand that suffering and death. They began to understand that God is able to work through even the very worst we humans do and use even our worst to accomplish God's will. They began to realize that the suffering of Jesus was not the defeat they thought it was but rather it was part of God's ongoing action to redeem this creation gone wrong and bring it to the fulfillment God intends. What Jesus' words did for those two men was to change their perception of what had happened, their understanding of what had happened. They began to experience hope.

But as essential as words are, words alone are finally not enough. It was in the action of bread blessed, broken and shared that the two men became aware that they were in the presence of the risen Christ. We humans creatures communicate, not only though words but also through symbolic action. We kiss; we shake hands, we salute; we kneel; we bow; we wave; we open the door for; we rise to our feet for; we give gifts; we send flowers; we hug; we touch; we hold hands. Especially in times of crisis, words alone are not enough. So we embrace; we take food that is not really needed; we give a tender kiss, we gather in a place such as this where bread is blessed, broken and shared. Deeds, touching, symbolic acts and gestures are as essential as words, and more often than not, more powerful.

Even God did more than talk. God came among us as one of us, a fully human being showing us in word and deed what God is like and showing us in word and deed what it is to be truly human. In Jesus Christ, God did more than talk His talk; in Christ, God walked our walk. It was in what God has done, the deeds of God, the action of God, that God's grace has been most eloquently revealed. Little wonder the “Aha! moment” for those two men came when Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. In a flash they understood who he was; they understood what he was doing; they understood what he had done.

It is not only through words but most especially through deeds that the Christ comes to us and we become aware of the Christ. For example, I remember Mrs. Grace Shaver, the elderly teacher of my kindergarten Sunday School class who would get on her knees (which now I know was not all that easy) and move the clothes pen dolls in the table sandbox as she told us stories about Jesus. She called us by name when she met us on the street. She visited us when we were sick and sent us birthday cards. I do not remember what she said but I remember her because of who she was, and I remember who she was because of what she did.

There are points in our lives in which the Word comes among us through deeds, through actions, through behavior that give substance to the words of the Gospel. As often as not they are deeds as ordinary and as common place as the breaking of bread or someone playing with children in a sandbox. And sometimes , here and there and now and then we are given the gift of being aware we are not merely in the presence of whoever is doing whatever but that somehow, someway, we are in the presence of Christ. Sometimes this awareness comes in hindsight, like my being aware of Christ in Mrs. Grace. But however the awareness of Christ's presence comes, when we are aware of the presence of Christ, when we are aware God's grace at work in our lives, our view of life is transformed and when our view of life is transformed, so is our living.

Where is Christ in our constantly changing world and our constantly changing lives? There are clues in the Emmaus story. Christ is in more than words that tell about him; Christ is present among us in those special deeds and events that make us sensitive to the presence the grace of God in our midst.

God, open our ears to hear in a new way the old message; open our eyes so that we are aware of the presence of the risen Christ --especially in those times when we are as downhearted and confused as those men on their way to Emmaus. Amen.