From Unmet Expectations to Clarity of Understanding
13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:13-21 and 27
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Last week, we shared the startling declaration that “Christ has risen,” along with a few of the implications that has for our lives. We look for closure. We look to pay a tribute to the one we love. We discover that we are found by more than we are looking to find. We are found by an assurance that allays our anxiety about death. Death is potent but not omnipotent. There are some things that death cannot do. Death cannot cancel the contributions that a person makes in a life time nor limit the length of the legacy the loved one leaves behind. Death cannot erase the experiences we hold dear nor mar the memories we keep near. We are found by an admonition that alleviates agony. “Do not hold to what you have to let go.” Do not hold on to it. Let it go. Let go what you can’t keep to embrace what you cannot lose. We are found by a purpose that perpetuates the importance of the life of the one we love and cherish.
Beyond the startling declaration that "Christ is risen," beyond the empty tomb and the astonished disciples, what is the Easter message and what are we to do with it? Is it more than part of the upbeat mood of the season, when flowers burst into bloom, the weather warms, and the heavy clothes of winter give way to the lighter, brighter garb of spring? How does Easter touch human lives and make a difference? Is the resurrection only an event in Jesus' career and nothing more? How does the story that understandably seems "an idle tale" actually make sense? What does this rumor of life suggest for us as we continue living? Easter’s meaning extends beyond a single day or season. It continues ad-infinitum to provide the inspiration to continue with the power of promise and purpose to live fully to the best of your ability; sharing your life as a testimony of what you have received. Easter becomes more than an anniversary celebration. It intrudes into the lives of real people, evoking worship, confession, repentance, communion, transformation, obedience, and mutual love.
Consider what the continuing implications of Easter are for you.
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There are two notable dimensions of responses to God's act of raising Jesus. First, repeatedly the texts speak of public worship. Songs of thanksgiving, reverence, open affirmations of faith, the reading and interpretation of scripture, baptism, and the sharing of Communion - all characterize the responses of the people touched by Easter. The resurrection faith is not one about which believers can keep silent. It ignites praise to God and sparks public acknowledgment.
Second, the texts speak also of changed lives. The audience for Peter's sermon at Pentecost resulted in repentance, baptism and a new orientation. They attended to the means of grace, which became the means of growth. In I Peter, chapter 1, the resurrection affects a new birth, marked by obedience to the truth and mutual love.
These two responses - public worship and transformed lives - are not separated from each other in the texts. One leads to the other and back again. They belong together as interrelated pieces of the Easter experience, as dimensions of the rhythmic response to the mighty act of God in the resurrection of Jesus.
Consider what it means for you to publicly celebrate the transformation that has happened to you as a result of Easter.
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13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. Luke 24:13-14
Listen to the unfolding scene in the gospel of Luke, which chronicles the encounter of a couple of persons who were pondering what they had heard about and what had happened. We are told it was the very day after Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James along with other women that were with them, told these things to the apostles. The testimony of the women seems as an idle tale and the disciples believed them not and ran to the sepulcher to see for themselves. Mary had told them she had seen the Lord. (Luke 24:10-12). Two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. They were discussing these things which occurred. One of the persons was Cleopas and the other one is unnamed.
As we eavesdrop on their conversation on their journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, we can see ourselves as we ponder the continuing meaning of the resurrection which seems as an idle tale.
They were discouraged because their expectations were not met. Luke describes the disciple’s conversation as bantering ideas back and forth with great emotion in a shared search for answers. The disillusioned followers desperately wanted to know why their expectations of the Messiah had come to such a tragic end. We fight and struggle with practicing our faith with its promise, only to say with the song writer “we wonder why the test, when we try to do our best.” In the spirit of Christ, we champion the cause of justice to only see it denied. We keep looking for “justice to roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream,” only to see the resurgence of the same old expressions of deferred equality and justice for all. We see manufactured attempts to further disenfranchise by those who want to subjugate, so that they can retain power to control life on their terms to the detriment of life for others.
We had hoped that he would be the one who would redeem Israel. We had hoped that in him things would change and we found that sometimes they remain the same. Here were two friends of Jesus who had not found on Calvary what they were looking for. They are hardly to be blamed. There are not many of us who are fully content with what our lives have received out of that day's transaction on Golgotha. The average results runs all the way from a vague restlessness to what at times is a little less than downright discouragement.
Consider what it means for you to have unmet expectations in regards to your hopes about the faith you have in the Lord and life.
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Wednesday, April 14, 2021 |
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14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. Luke 24:14
They had confused their own expectations with the hope God was offering and they failed to see God's ultimate purpose. Their grief had blinded them. Their attention on their loss and sorrow prevented them from focusing on God and finding out what God was doing for them at that very moment.
Jesus joins these two disciples knowing their hearts and their needs. He asked them a leading question, giving them an opportunity to pour out their confusion and disappointment. Jesus has not changed. He will still draw near to us and listen as we tell him what troubles us.
Cleopas is shocked and with great irony says, “You have got to be the only one who travels in this whole area that does not know what has happened?” Jesus responds to Cleopas by saying, “What things” (v. 19). At that moment, these two disciples were living a past tense faith. So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, (v. 20) and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and they crucified Him.”
They summed up their condition very neatly when they said in verse twenty-one, "But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” Notice the use of the past tense, “we had hoped,” which strongly implies that this was not relevant to the present or they would not have been so discouraged and distressed. The saddest death of all has to be the death of hope. They had hoped but now the flame of hope was all but extinguished as made clear as he continued, “Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.”(v. 22) "Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. (v. 23) "When they did not find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. (v. 24) "And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but him they did not see."
It’s just the same today. Many are angry with God. They had hoped that Jesus would save them from themselves; from their bad decisions and from the consequences of their choices. But just like those two disciples…they are frustrated because Jesus hasn’t dealt with the troubles in their life exactly the way they expected him to deal with them. He hasn’t changed their world, according to their own personal plan. So Jesus becomes a past tense person in their hearts. "I had hoped he would redeem me," they say to themselves; and struggle on day after day under the weight of their own selfish desires and their own sinful nature, while limping along as much as their own puny spiritual strength can drag them. Jesus is dead to them. The transforming power of the Spirit of Christ is not alive inside them.
Consider what it means for you to confuse your own expectations with the hope the Lord offers.
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15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. Luke 24:15-17
There are many long-faced…despairing…deeply saddened people walking around today because they can’t see Jesus walking right there beside them! The truth is: if you don’t recognize him as a living Lord —you won’t recognize him as Lord at all.
These sad, despairing people make the same mistake as those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They see Jesus as an ancient prophet tucked away into a tomb a long time ago…as an ethics professor…a good teacher from 2000 years ago, with a lot of well-meaning ideas and good intentions that just doesn’t work out in the real world. Some see a good role model… a good man…just a prophet of old…so they miss the company of the living Lord that walks alongside them each and every day.
They did not realize that they were making their journey home in the company of Jesus, but thought they were engaged in a conversation with a stranger who was not aware of all that had taken place.
Sometimes we are not aware of the fact that we are not traveling alone, but Jesus is with us. Like the two on the road to Emmaus, you do not travel alone. God is with you. Are you willing to see that the Lord is with you, even with your unmet expectations and confusion about the hope the Lord is offering?
Consider what it means for you to fail to realize the presence of the Lord with you; as you face unmet expectations, with disappointment, discouragement and confusion about the hope the Lord is offering.
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18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. Luke 24:18-20
They were disappointed because their conversation was limited by faulty understanding. Their conversation was woefully inadequate and their deliberations impotent because their deliberations and discussions were not founded on the Scripture or on what the Lord had taught them. They were bantering ideas back and forth with great emotions in a shared search for answers.
Aren’t we often just like this? We can get together and reason and discuss, but just being together to talk, share our experiences and ideas for the purpose of comforting one another cannot truly answer the main problems and questions of life, or give us the desired peace and satisfaction to the situation.
We need something more, much more. Without God’s answers founded on the Word of God and in fellowship with the Savior, we do not find what we need to settle our confusion, doubts and fears. We are like those two disciples who failed to recognize that Jesus is with us. God is with us. Jesus illustrates that if we are ignoring the Word of God and its application to the details of our lives, and walking independently of fellowship and guidance with the Lord, we are ignoring the answers to life and its questions found in scripture. Then, we become filled with unbelief and become blind and insensitive to the Lord’s presence in our midst and at work in our lives, because our expectations have not been met. Remember the words from the prophet Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
They did not recognize Jesus who had drawn near to them and was actually walking and talking to them. They were despairing of the future – because they believed their own thinking over the word of God! They believed the word of God selectively, believing those things that fit in with the neat little box that they had created for God. Their understanding of scripture was informed by their assumptions, misinterpretations, and preconceptions. Heartbreak happens this way: we think God should do something based on our faulty knowledge of his word. We get discouraged and think God let us down, that God has disappointed us. But the problem is not with God but with us. God’s words are not meant to harm or insult us but to encourage belief. What truths do you not believe?
We had hoped that he was the One; therefore, to them the Cross spelled failure. It may spell that for us, or it may spell triumph in its power to cleanse every human life. There are those who have found the richest, deepest word they knew; dwelt upon them with gratitude, sang hymns about them, boasted in them, taken to conquering adversities through them: and that word was Savior. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I’m happy all the day. Some see failure; others see triumph.
Don’t get stuck with a past tense, we had hoped, which gives you nothing but a past tense friend, a past tense redeemer, and a past tense Savior who is locked in antiquity. Don’t make the same mistake as those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Some see Jesus as an ancient prophet, tucked away into a tomb a long time ago…as an ethics professor…a good teacher from 2000 years ago with a lot of well-meaning ideas and good intentions that just doesn’t work out in the real world. Others call him a good role model… a good person…just a prophet of old…so they miss the company of the living Lord that walks alongside them each and every day.
Consider what it means to permit your faulty understanding to interpret the activity of the Lord; in the life of Christ, in the world and in your life.
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21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:21 and 27
They were delighted by what they discovered. Look at what they discovered from their conversation and dialogue. And they drew nigh unto the village and they constrained him, saying, abide with us: for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. He tarried with them. And it came to pass as he sat at the table with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him. They said to one another did not our hearts burn within while he talked with us by the way and while he opened the scriptures to us. And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together and them that were with them, saying, the Lord is risen indeed. Luke 24:28-34
The awareness of Jesus' presence brings hope from the past tense to the present tense. They decided that they must return to Jerusalem. "So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem..." The long discouraging walk to Emmaus now becomes a joyous run to Jerusalem with renewed strength, encouragement and hope. They cannot remain silent. In their enthusiasm and excitement, they go back to Jerusalem to share with others what they experienced.
Much in our world today can fuel fear and hopelessness. The long night of disease, misery and poverty continues. The cycle of fear leading to war seems endless. The assault on people's human rights continues persistently. Battles long fought against bigotry and prejudice remain unconquered. Disappointments that left deep wounds are reopened by failed friendships, collapsed pretense and exposed deception.
Many people struggle with hopelessness due to unmet expectations and faulty understanding. When they witness the erosion of the church's effectiveness and the increase of wickedness, they feel like throwing their hands in the air in desperation. With their confidence undermined, their dreams unfulfilled and their hopes dashed, they wonder whether the time has come for them to abandon any suggestion that a better future is possible. Memories of past failures haunt them; memories of times when they were sorely wronged return, visiting their minds with a severity no less savage than when they were first experienced.
There is no spontaneity about hoping. The capacity to hope has to be cultivated. One vital step in the ladder of hope is a determination when we become aware the Lord is with us and present to us in our painful predicament. In the Gospels we see, again and again, that wherever Jesus appeared, hope flourishes. When people experience the presence of the Lord, the despised find friendship and the outcast gain acceptance. When people experience the presence of the Lord in Jesus, the poor receive good news and the penitent new life; the blind see and the lame walk. When people experience the presence of the Lord in Christ, the weary encounter compassion, the fearful take courage and the weak gain strength as well as forgiveness and the weary rest.
The hope that is renewed in this season does not rest on some unbridled optimism informed by human capability. It is not a hope that is predicated on calculations of probability, or trust in human inventiveness. It is not built on confidence in our capacity for endurance or our powers of resistance. It is not founded on our practice of denial in the midst of the harsh reality of life's pains. The foundation of our hope is stronger than all of the above.
The hope whose renewal we receive is indestructible because it is built on faith in God and anchored in the faithfulness of God. The reason we can negotiate the treacherous paths of despair is that we are reminded of the sure promise of the one who draws near us: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20) “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
Consider what it means to go from discouragement and confusion to the delightful discovery of the continuing presence of the Lord that heightens your awareness of the hope the Lord gives, despite your sense of unmet expectations.
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Conclusion
The concluding scene at Jerusalem pictures a gathering of the eleven and their friends and the two who had walked to Emmaus, each confessing the risen Jesus and relating their experiences of recognition. The church is composed of those who have been led beyond disbelief to faith by the gracious revelation of God in Christ. Their telling and retelling opens our eyes to become aware of the presence of the Lord with us.
Lord, thank you for moving us from a past tense faith to a present tense belief that results in a faith in future possibilities.
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