Sermon from 6th April 2008
Today's sermon is delivered by our Associate Vicar, John Itumu, and is based on the gospel reading from Luke 24:13-35
On the road to Emmaus
It must have been an awfully difficult time for the followers of Jesus at this time. Imagine the news:
Firstly:
The report from some local well known women – including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James that they had found an empty tomb – with the stone rolled away, the cloth and linen that had wrapped the dead body left behind.
Secondly:
These same people claim that some two angels had told them not to look for Jesus in the tomb because he has indeed been raised to life as he had said he would.
In John’s account of the same incident, Mary Magdalene is actually spoken to by Jesus himself. (John 20:16ffd).
This was impossible to believe. It is no wonder the faithful witness of these women is evaluated as nonsense 24:11
Idle tales, foolish talk, madness – are among other bible versions descriptions of what the women words sound like.
The Greek translates into useless chatter – a word belonging to medicine vocabulary which describes the hallucination caused by high fever. We should probably expect this from Luke, described as a doctor by Paul in Colossians 4:14
Now look at this again; Peter apparently witnesses exactly what the women see but instead of confirming this strange news, goes away wondering to himself what had happened. Lk 24:12 Could it be that he didn’t want to be associated with this chatter?
But these are the raw facts: someone you knew very well and who you witnessed tortured and crucified and buried has been seen walking around in the neighbourhood… that is not easy everyday stuff.
The prophetic ministry of Jesus; his death at the hands of the Jerusalem temple leadership and now the resurrection was simply too much to make sense of. Don’t forget that just a week before a section of the city had danced to him singing Hosanna, Hosanna! It was clear from Jewish scriptures that anyone left hanging on a pole is under God’s curse. Deut 21:23. Certainly not a Messiah – the anointed one.
Let’s face it, believing the resurrection was tough for them. It is tough for many folk today to believe in the resurrection. Many wish we could have a brand of Christianity that didn’t assault our highly trained rationalized thinking; presented in a form that we can logically comprehend and make sense of; not packaged with bizarre long tales like the resurrection – this is foolish talk, useless chatter.
Just last week the Dean of St Georges Cathedral in Perth Australia urged Anglicans “to be set free from the idea that the resurrection was an extraordinary physical event that restored to life Jesus’ original body – there is nothing historical about the resurrection.” He adds “no one knows what happened to Jesus when he rose from the dead”. In other words, what we just read a few minutes ago is a load of drivel. We need to be set free – it also then means that anyone that believes in the resurrection is in bondage. We want freedom to belief what we want!
The central belief of Christianity is still useless chatter to many people – even those who wish to have the Christian label on them. I will repeat Cameron’s words of last week…if you don’t believe in the resurrection you are not a believer. Unsettling words!
How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!, an incognito Jesus asks Cleopas and his partner. The description ‘two of them’ characterizes them as among those who had earlier dismissed the women’s testimony as useless chatter.
You would have thought that this encounter with the key player in the saga would help to corroborate the idle tales of the women – but no, it does not. These followers of Jesus fail once again to grasp the upside down new world order that Jesus has talked about continuously in his three years ministry; the oxymoron of a crucified Messiah.
And this is not Jesus’ first time to talk about it:
Luke 9:44
Listen carefully to what I am going to tell you. The Son of man is going to be delivered over to human hands. But they did not understand what this meant… could not grasp it…they were afraid to ask him
Luke 18:31ffd
Jesus took the twelve aside and told them, we are going to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of ma by the prophets will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again. The disciples did not understand any of this. The meaning was hidden from them…
Then and even today, the key to making sense of the death of Jesus lies in interpreting it in the light of scripture – God’s revelation to us. The purposes of God in relation to the career of Jesus will be revealed to anyone who will faithfully dare to engage in the study of scripture. Equally, we will only understand scripture in the light of what happened to Jesus. The two inform each other. There lies the key that would have helped the disciples to recognize the risen Jesus – make the connections.
And so the risen Jesus grasps this Emmaus road opportunity to take these disillusioned disciples back to the basics – scripture. He lays bare the facts as they are. Later Cleopas and his friend recall that their hearts were burning while scripture was being opened to them by Jesus.
It is not a magical thing. The truth is that the word of God changes lives. It brings understanding. It illumines the dark corners of our hearts. Here is an open invitation to seriously and regularly engage with the word of God as written in scripture. It is powerful and life transforming.
Hear what scripture says about itself:
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
We live in a world that is thirsty of knowledge – who am I, why am I here, where am I going? These are good questions that instil in many a determination to search for the truth. We want to know, and we can smell an ignoramus a mile off. But, there is knowledge and knowledge - if we really want to know, and to conform to the original beings that God intended, we will take time with this word, God’s word.
Look again at this irony: Cleopas asks Jesus; are you only a visitor to London and do not know… have you not read the papers, it’s on TV – all channels, it’s the talk of town, how could you possibly miss this?
However, the only uninformed person in Jerusalem happens to be the only one genuinely in the know. What irony! They explain the recent events faultlessly yet they have failed to take the prophecies of Jesus – regarding his suffering, death and resurrection seriously – and so they don’t know!
Cleopas, his friend, any Jesus follower who couldn’t come to terms with this – these according to Jesus are actually the foolish ones. How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And with this, Jesus turns tables and exonerates the women previously accused of peddling useless chatter.
They knew all about it, could narrate it, recite it – but it was in the head but not in the heart. And that blinded them.
If we are honest, we shouldn’t find it too hard to empathize with Cleopas and company. It is easy to live lives which are disconnected with the reality and truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is easy to be religious without having a personal believing faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of God who died, was buried and rose again from the dead.
He is the only one who promises a full life, now and eternally, to all who take him seriously. That is his offer to us this morning. Friends, the Emmaus story is a story of a God who does not leave us alone.
Disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despair and death - all of these words sum up how Cleopas and his companion were feeling as they plodded the 7 mile journey to Emmaus.
These things can easily fill up our lives. however, the best news is that Jesus, the victorious Jesus who defeated the last enemy, death; Jesus the unseen "stranger" is walking alongside us, listening to us, and – he understands. He’s been through it all. That comforts and encourages me. I hope it does the same for you.
Their recognition of Jesus as the risen Lord as he disappeared from their sight simply transformed them – that same night they set off for a return journey, 7 miles to Jerusalem to tell these news.
If only we will give him a chance – his only business is to open our eyes and make our lives worth living. Our next sermon series will examine in depth what such life is like. it has been observed that good living conditions, better medical care than our ancestors had access to continue to prolong our lifespan. But will it be a life worth living?
Friends, we have a caring God who walks alongside us – in life’s way. My prayer is that we would allow him to totally and unequivocally inform and influence the way we live.
Lets pray:
Lord you know me completely. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for defeating death by rising again. Thank you that you are the unseen stranger that walks alongside me in my life’s journey. I now submit to your authority as written in your word – take total control of me. Amen.
On the road to Emmaus
It must have been an awfully difficult time for the followers of Jesus at this time. Imagine the news:
Firstly:
The report from some local well known women – including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James that they had found an empty tomb – with the stone rolled away, the cloth and linen that had wrapped the dead body left behind.
Secondly:
These same people claim that some two angels had told them not to look for Jesus in the tomb because he has indeed been raised to life as he had said he would.
In John’s account of the same incident, Mary Magdalene is actually spoken to by Jesus himself. (John 20:16ffd).
This was impossible to believe. It is no wonder the faithful witness of these women is evaluated as nonsense 24:11
Idle tales, foolish talk, madness – are among other bible versions descriptions of what the women words sound like.
The Greek translates into useless chatter – a word belonging to medicine vocabulary which describes the hallucination caused by high fever. We should probably expect this from Luke, described as a doctor by Paul in Colossians 4:14
Now look at this again; Peter apparently witnesses exactly what the women see but instead of confirming this strange news, goes away wondering to himself what had happened. Lk 24:12 Could it be that he didn’t want to be associated with this chatter?
But these are the raw facts: someone you knew very well and who you witnessed tortured and crucified and buried has been seen walking around in the neighbourhood… that is not easy everyday stuff.
The prophetic ministry of Jesus; his death at the hands of the Jerusalem temple leadership and now the resurrection was simply too much to make sense of. Don’t forget that just a week before a section of the city had danced to him singing Hosanna, Hosanna! It was clear from Jewish scriptures that anyone left hanging on a pole is under God’s curse. Deut 21:23. Certainly not a Messiah – the anointed one.
Let’s face it, believing the resurrection was tough for them. It is tough for many folk today to believe in the resurrection. Many wish we could have a brand of Christianity that didn’t assault our highly trained rationalized thinking; presented in a form that we can logically comprehend and make sense of; not packaged with bizarre long tales like the resurrection – this is foolish talk, useless chatter.
Just last week the Dean of St Georges Cathedral in Perth Australia urged Anglicans “to be set free from the idea that the resurrection was an extraordinary physical event that restored to life Jesus’ original body – there is nothing historical about the resurrection.” He adds “no one knows what happened to Jesus when he rose from the dead”. In other words, what we just read a few minutes ago is a load of drivel. We need to be set free – it also then means that anyone that believes in the resurrection is in bondage. We want freedom to belief what we want!
The central belief of Christianity is still useless chatter to many people – even those who wish to have the Christian label on them. I will repeat Cameron’s words of last week…if you don’t believe in the resurrection you are not a believer. Unsettling words!
How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!, an incognito Jesus asks Cleopas and his partner. The description ‘two of them’ characterizes them as among those who had earlier dismissed the women’s testimony as useless chatter.
You would have thought that this encounter with the key player in the saga would help to corroborate the idle tales of the women – but no, it does not. These followers of Jesus fail once again to grasp the upside down new world order that Jesus has talked about continuously in his three years ministry; the oxymoron of a crucified Messiah.
And this is not Jesus’ first time to talk about it:
Luke 9:44
Listen carefully to what I am going to tell you. The Son of man is going to be delivered over to human hands. But they did not understand what this meant… could not grasp it…they were afraid to ask him
Luke 18:31ffd
Jesus took the twelve aside and told them, we are going to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the Son of ma by the prophets will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again. The disciples did not understand any of this. The meaning was hidden from them…
Then and even today, the key to making sense of the death of Jesus lies in interpreting it in the light of scripture – God’s revelation to us. The purposes of God in relation to the career of Jesus will be revealed to anyone who will faithfully dare to engage in the study of scripture. Equally, we will only understand scripture in the light of what happened to Jesus. The two inform each other. There lies the key that would have helped the disciples to recognize the risen Jesus – make the connections.
And so the risen Jesus grasps this Emmaus road opportunity to take these disillusioned disciples back to the basics – scripture. He lays bare the facts as they are. Later Cleopas and his friend recall that their hearts were burning while scripture was being opened to them by Jesus.
It is not a magical thing. The truth is that the word of God changes lives. It brings understanding. It illumines the dark corners of our hearts. Here is an open invitation to seriously and regularly engage with the word of God as written in scripture. It is powerful and life transforming.
Hear what scripture says about itself:
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
We live in a world that is thirsty of knowledge – who am I, why am I here, where am I going? These are good questions that instil in many a determination to search for the truth. We want to know, and we can smell an ignoramus a mile off. But, there is knowledge and knowledge - if we really want to know, and to conform to the original beings that God intended, we will take time with this word, God’s word.
Look again at this irony: Cleopas asks Jesus; are you only a visitor to London and do not know… have you not read the papers, it’s on TV – all channels, it’s the talk of town, how could you possibly miss this?
However, the only uninformed person in Jerusalem happens to be the only one genuinely in the know. What irony! They explain the recent events faultlessly yet they have failed to take the prophecies of Jesus – regarding his suffering, death and resurrection seriously – and so they don’t know!
Cleopas, his friend, any Jesus follower who couldn’t come to terms with this – these according to Jesus are actually the foolish ones. How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And with this, Jesus turns tables and exonerates the women previously accused of peddling useless chatter.
They knew all about it, could narrate it, recite it – but it was in the head but not in the heart. And that blinded them.
If we are honest, we shouldn’t find it too hard to empathize with Cleopas and company. It is easy to live lives which are disconnected with the reality and truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is easy to be religious without having a personal believing faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of God who died, was buried and rose again from the dead.
He is the only one who promises a full life, now and eternally, to all who take him seriously. That is his offer to us this morning. Friends, the Emmaus story is a story of a God who does not leave us alone.
Disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despair and death - all of these words sum up how Cleopas and his companion were feeling as they plodded the 7 mile journey to Emmaus.
These things can easily fill up our lives. however, the best news is that Jesus, the victorious Jesus who defeated the last enemy, death; Jesus the unseen "stranger" is walking alongside us, listening to us, and – he understands. He’s been through it all. That comforts and encourages me. I hope it does the same for you.
Their recognition of Jesus as the risen Lord as he disappeared from their sight simply transformed them – that same night they set off for a return journey, 7 miles to Jerusalem to tell these news.
If only we will give him a chance – his only business is to open our eyes and make our lives worth living. Our next sermon series will examine in depth what such life is like. it has been observed that good living conditions, better medical care than our ancestors had access to continue to prolong our lifespan. But will it be a life worth living?
Friends, we have a caring God who walks alongside us – in life’s way. My prayer is that we would allow him to totally and unequivocally inform and influence the way we live.
Lets pray:
Lord you know me completely. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for defeating death by rising again. Thank you that you are the unseen stranger that walks alongside me in my life’s journey. I now submit to your authority as written in your word – take total control of me. Amen.
posted by Parish Administrator at 1:09 pm
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