Psalm 4; Luke 24.36-49
When it was all over, it was all over!
It was done, finished … they were on their way home …
There was nothing more to be done … hopes and dreams, gone … just another disappointment … another failed venture … so much for that … “I guess we were mistaken!”
On the Road to Emmaus … two disciples - they talk about it … they wonder what happened … a stranger joins them on the road … he asks them, What are you talking about?”
They stop dead in their tracks, dumbfounded - Are you the only one around here who doesn’t know what happened?
What happened? asks the stranger.
Cleopas pours it out like an avalanche …
The things about Jesus of Nazareth … a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people … our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.
We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.
And besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.
Some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they didn’t find his body there, they came back and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
Several went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they didn’t see him.
The stranger on the road brashly says to them:
“Oh, how foolish you are … how slow of heart … to believe all that the prophets have declared!
Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?”
Luke then adds the following comment:
Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they near home in Emmaus, the stranger on the road continues ahead, as if to leave them … but they invite him to their home … It’s late! they say … have something to eat with us.
The story goes strange at this point … the guest at their table takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them …
The guest becomes the host … the stranger is no more the stranger …
It is said of those two disciples at the Table … their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
Their table became his Table, with a capital T.
The living bread of faith, hope, and love; grace, mercy, and peace … the dream put back together again … hope restored … life given … in the blink of an eye, in the breaking of the bread, a broken world repaired.
Stranger still - goes the story: he vanished from their sight.
Talk about Stranger Things …
The two disciples look at one another. “Are we nuts? Have we lost our minds? Did we actually see him?”
Were not our hearts burning within us, while he talked to us on the road, while he opened the scriptures to us?
The two disciples return to Jerusalem, to be with the others … can you imagine what the room was like? …
Everyone chattering away, everyone saying what they knew or what they didn’t know … questions and rumors; rumors and questions … this and that and everything else.
Suddenly, the stranger on the road appears, and says, Peace be with you.
But no peace, that’s for sure!
They’re scared outta their wits … startled, terrified, it’s a ghost, they think.
Jesus asks, so matter of factly,
Why are you frightened,
and why do doubts arise in your hearts.
Look at my hands … look at my feet;
see, it is I myself.
Touch me and see;
a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you see that I have.
Pandemonium, panic, disbelief, wonderment, hope, doubt … what are we seeing? … can this be true? … no, it isn’t …yes it is … in the midst of the hubbub, Jesus asks:
Have you anything here to eat?
The most sublime moment in the story, the mystery, the glory, the wonder of the resurrection from the dead … the stranger on the road … he breaks the bread … their eyes open … he vanishes … now in Jerusalem, the city where it all fell apart, is now the city where it all comes together …
Have you anything to eat? … from the sublime to the mundane, from the mysterious to a piece of broiled fish.
The equivalent of a burger, a peanut butter sandwich, a slice of cold pizza … leftovers from yesterday’s dinner …
He’s hungry, and who can blame him? … three days in death, three days in hell, as the creed puts it - three days to undo the damages of sin and repair the breech … to touch the spiritual DNA of humanity and do some gene therapy. … and he’s hungry.
Jesus eats in their presence … to make it clear, once and for all, that it’s the resurrection of the Body … his body, his flesh, bone and blood … and one day, our body …
Anything here to eat?
Yes, we have something for you, dear LORD.
We have loving hearts and noble souls.
We have our minds, our strength, our passions, to serve you …
we have hands to build the kingdom of God … feet to walk to the ends of the earth …
And stuff we no longer want … hurt, fear, bitterness, jealousy, regrets, sadness … but of all that we don’t want in our lives, let us never lose sight of all the good in our lives, all the greatness, all the wonder, all the glory each of us possesses.
Dear Friends in Christ, what have we to give to the LORD?
Our lives and our love.
Our time, treasure, and talent.
Who we are, what we are, what we hope to be.
We have so much to give.
We have an abundance.
We have leftovers, and then some.
[pause: close your eyes, take a deep breath … what have you to give to the LORD of heaven and earth? … put it in your hand, envision what what you’re holding, in your mind’s eye, can you see the hand of Christ before you? Place what’s in your hand into the hand of Christ …]
Take my life, and let it be, consecrated LORD, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
let them flow in endless praise,
Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee,
Take my voice and let me sing
always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages from thee,
Glory be to God.
Hallelujah and Amen!
