The Stranger on the Highway

As I said at the beginning, we're going to read Luke chapter 24, verses 13 to 32.

Luke 24:13–32

If you've got a church Bible, it's on page 885.

That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

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.

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?

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.

And how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

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.

Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.

They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body,

they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels,

who said that he was alive.

Some 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.

And he said to them, O foolish ones,

and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things

and enter into his glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going.

He acted as if he were going further,

but they urged him strongly, saying,

Stay with us, for it is towards evening,

and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at table with them,

he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.

And their eyes were opened,

and they recognized him,

and he vanished from their sight.

They said to each other,

Did not our hearts burn within us

while he talked to us on the road,

while he opened to us the scriptures?

And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.

And they found the eleven,

and those who were with them gathered together,

saying,

The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.

Then they told what had happened on the road

and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Amen.

We're starting a month-long series today on the road to Emmaus.

And we've got some time for some depth

because we'll read the same passage four weeks in a row that we just read.

And we'll look at biblical interpretation and the Lord's Supper

and how Jesus sets the mission of the church in this story.

But that's all in the weeks to come.

Today, we'll just look at the story itself

and the main movements of the story

and see what Luke wants us to see from this story.

So let's think about first, the road.

Secondly, the second traveler.

Third, the stranger.

And finally, eyes to see.

So first, the road.

Now, in verse 13, where we started the passage today,

Luke writes,

That very day two of them were going.

So what is—the first question he wants the reader to ask is,

What is the day?

What day is this?

And if you just cast your eyes just to the story above,

it's the day of Jesus' resurrection.

So this is Sunday morning even, maybe.

And you can see that back in verse 12,

if you have a Bible,

that Peter runs to the tomb on Sunday morning,

and he looks and he sees the linen cloths wrapped up,

and the tomb was empty.

And so this is resurrection Sunday morning.

And what's remarkable is that as a reader,

if you're reading this for the first time,

you want to say,

Where is Jesus on resurrection Sunday?

Because when Peter goes to the tomb,

the tomb is just empty.

He doesn't find Jesus there.

Now, Luke gives us three resurrection appearances.

We know from 1 Corinthians 15

that there were so many resurrection appearances

that Jesus appeared to James,

his biological brother, for example,

and to more than 500 people.

But Luke only chooses three to tell us.

And so he's very selective as a historian,

and he's a storyteller,

and he wants to pull us in

and to get us to ask why.

And just even the way Peter comes to the tomb,

Luke writes,

he marveled at what happened.

And so he's struck and saying,

you know,

what happened?

And then you as the reader says,

well,

what did happen?

What happened?

And then verse 13 says,

and that very day.

That's just the Greek word behold.

Behold.

So the next verse just says,

behold.

And so you say,

what are we to behold?

And I think it's something like this.

Imagine that you,

you were in charge of running the press release.

You were the media chair

of the announcement of the resurrection.

Okay.

And you,

you know,

you're in charge.

It's a big job.

And if you were to say,

where am I going to make sure Jesus is publicly seen

for the first moment of his resurrected body?

I,

if I'm the press secretary,

I'm going to put it in the Roman praetorium

where he was convicted.

I'm going to have him kicking the doors down

of the Roman praetorium

and going to Pilate and Caiaphas and saying,

you see me?

I'm,

I rose from the dead.

Or I'm going to have him going straight to,

to Rome or even to the Jerusalem temple

and going right through the door,

shining and white,

25 feet tall.

And what's so remarkable is that

this is resurrection Sunday

and Jesus is on a completely

no named ordinary dirt road

with two people that are effectively nobodies

in the story going to Emmaus,

which is nowhere.

We don't even know what Emmaus is.

It's been lost to history.

And so what's extraordinary here

is how ordinary the first resurrection appearance is.

Now, look, if this was a legend,

you just wouldn't use this as the first story.

Instead, you would have Jesus being five meters tall

going straight through the doors of the temple

announcing that he's risen from the dead

and there would be the biggest crowd

and everybody would see it.

We know this.

I think this is the way we think as modern people,

but this is also what people in the first century

would do too,

because if it was just a legend,

we have one in the second century.

There was a set of apocryphal texts

called Gospels written.

One of them is the Gospel of Peter.

And in the Gospel of Peter,

it's a second century text.

The story of the resurrection of Jesus

includes this moment where Jesus,

alongside two angels,

walks out of the tomb.

And there's two angels

and their heads are sticking into the clouds

in the Gospel of Peter.

And it says Jesus had hung above the cloud line.

You couldn't even see the top of his body.

So when he steps out of the tomb,

he's a giant and he's in heaven.

Now that's exactly what I would expect

if it were a legend.

But what you would expect,

what you would never write

is that he shows up to completely ordinary people

on a very ordinary road

going to effectively nowhere.

And that's the extraordinary ordinariness

of this moment.

Now, in this passage,

several times Luke uses the phrase

on the road.

So it's down in verse 32 and 35.

And it says that Jesus had drawn near on the road

and the disciples say,

we met him on the road.

And in the book of Acts that Luke also wrote,

Luke's the author of Luke and Acts,

that same word, exact Greek word,

is used six times to describe

the Christian movement.

The way.

So in this passage,

he shows up on the road

as the first resurrection appearance,

also called the way.

And in the gospel,

it's not the gospel,

pardon me,

the book of Acts,

the whole Christian movement

is called the way.

And why is this happening?

Why is Luke's trying to connect all that?

And what is he saying?

He's saying that this moment,

this ordinary moment

where Jesus shows up

right after he's risen from the dead

on the Emmaus road

is the paradigm

of the normal Christian life.

It's the paradigm of discipleship.

It's that Jesus Christ

does indeed just show up

alongside ordinary human beings

on the road,

the way,

and invite them

to walk the way with him,

to walk the path

of discipleship with him.

It's incredibly ordinary.

And we have this language

all throughout the Bible.

You have the Old Testament,

Isaiah,

the way of the Lord.

And if you come to the New Testament,

you think of that very famous moment

where Jesus Christ says,

I am the way.

And all of these are just pointing

to this normal path

that we all are walking

down a road,

a way,

a life.

And Jesus comes so near.

He might,

the disciples will come to this

in just a moment.

They're incredibly disappointed

when he meets them.

They're sad.

And Jesus Christ,

you might be disappointed

or sad today,

but Jesus Christ,

we're being told here,

may only be a foot away from you,

the light shining,

and in the midst of disappointment,

you can't see it.

You can't see how close

he actually is.

And that means that this passage

is paradigmatic

for the whole of the Christian life.

Now what?

Why does Luke tell us this story?

First resurrection appearance.

Number one,

because it happened.

Let me just give you

one more note on that.

And that's that

when they're talking to him

on this road in verse 18,

they say,

are you the only visitor

to Jerusalem

who doesn't know

what's happened?

And of course,

he's the only one

who does know truly,

deeply, right?

You're supposed to laugh at it.

It's supposed to be funny.

And you know what that indicates?

That indicates

everybody in Jerusalem

knew about the crucifixion.

Everybody in Jerusalem

knew that his body

was not in the tomb anymore.

They're saying,

are you the only one?

Everybody knows.

No matter what they believe,

they all knew.

And then at the end

of Luke's second volume,

the book of Acts,

in Acts chapter 26,

Acts 26 · chapter mention

Paul is defending Christianity

before Festus and Agrippa,

King Agrippa.

Agrippa was a Jewish king,

Festus a Gentile pagan ruler.

And he tells them the story

and Festus turns to Paul

and says,

I think, Paul,

this whole stuff

about Jesus dying

and rising from the dead

has made you go insane.

You've studied too much.

You've read too many books.

And Paul turns

and what does he say?

He says to Festus,

I am not mad,

noble Festus.

What I'm saying

is both true

and reasonable.

And then he turns

to Agrippa,

the Jewish king.

Because he's a Jewish king,

he knows more

about what had happened.

And he said,

the king is familiar

with all these things.

I'm sure none of these

has escaped his notice

for these things

were not done

in a corner.

They weren't hidden.

Now,

when the disciples

are on the road

with Jesus,

they say,

are you the only person

who doesn't know

all that's taken place?

Because everybody did.

And then he goes

25 years later

to a king

on the other side

of the world

and says,

I know that you heard

because everybody did.

These things were not

done in a corner.

See,

why does he tell us this

first resurrection appearance

to two no-name people?

Because it happened.

That's why,

because it wasn't done

in a corner.

Everybody knew about it.

This is exactly

what happened.

It's not a legend.

The second reason,

as we said,

is because it's a paradigm

for us.

What he does for them

in this moment,

he does for us.

In the Pilgrim's Progress,

John Bunyan's great story,

the second most published

and sold book

in world history

beside the Bible,

the pilgrim

who becomes a Christian,

he's,

John tells this story,

he's walking

toward the celestial city,

the eternal city,

and the road

that he's walking down

has walls on both sides.

And Bunyan calls them

the walls of salvation.

So on either side

of this narrow way

towards the eternal city

is these walls of salvation.

They're really just

walls of grace.

The grace is keeping

the pilgrim on the way.

And the very first stop,

if you know the book,

he comes to

is the cross

and the empty tomb.

And this is what

Pilgrim says

when he arrives

at the cross

and the empty tomb.

He says,

must here

be the beginning

of all my bliss.

Must here

the burden

fall from my back.

And so at the very beginning

of the road,

when Jesus Christ

encounters you,

you come to the cross

and the empty tomb first.

And you say,

must not the burden

fall from my back

as I walk this road?

You see what that,

you see why

this resurrection appearance?

It's because Jesus Christ,

he is the road,

he is the way,

he is the journeyman

who has already

gone before you.

In other words,

he paved the road,

it's secured.

Easter has already happened.

So he's not coming

to them and saying,

if you get on this road

and you walk

the narrow path

and you obey me perfectly,

then I might get you

to the celestial city.

No, he's saying

the road has already

been paved

because Easter,

the victory

has already happened.

You see,

this is,

this is the,

Luke includes this

because this is just

the paradigm

of the normal Christian life.

Now secondly,

the second traveler.

Now we don't know

where Emmaus is,

it's been lost to us,

people guess,

but nobody knows.

And we only know

of one of the two travelers

in the story,

a man named Cleopas,

verse 18.

That's a Greek name

and it's a famous name,

it's the masculine form

of Cleopatra,

that famous name,

Queen Cleopatra.

He may be,

he may be Clopas,

the wife of one

of the Marys

that was at the cross,

probably part of

the extended family

of Jesus,

but we don't know

who he was.

But what's really striking

in this story

is that we're told

about a second traveler,

a second journeyman,

a person,

and there's no indication

of who they are at all.

So we don't really know Cleopas,

but we surely do not know

who the second traveler is.

Now why,

by the way,

in Mark 16,

the only other instance

of the road to Emmaus story,

both the travelers

are unnamed.

Now why the silence?

Why don't we,

most everybody else

at the end

of the crucifixion stories,

the resurrection stories,

get named,

but not the second traveler?

Why the silence?

And in the same way

that this is an incredibly ordinary,

extraordinarily ordinary moment,

a pattern for

just the average Christian life,

I think what Luke is doing

is trying to ask you

as the reader

to step in

and be the second traveler.

The second traveler

isn't named

because Luke's not only a historian,

he's not only a theologian,

but he's also a storyteller.

And this is both historically true

and also an invitation.

And it's an invitation

for you to say,

I am the second traveler.

The unnamed one is me.

You can put your name

in that second position.

And this point

has been recognized,

by the way,

by lots of the masters of art

throughout the centuries.

There are,

I discovered

just the past couple weeks,

there are so many

Road to Emmaus paintings

in world history,

especially in the Renaissance

and in the medieval era

and post-Reformation as well.

But there's one famous one

by a Spanish artist

named Diego Velasquez.

And he painted this,

not this scene exactly,

actually painted verse 30.

We'll come to it in a minute

when they arrive at dinner in Emmaus

and they sit down,

verse 30.

And Diego painted it.

So he titled it

The Road to Emmaus

or Dinner in Emmaus,

something like that.

But for centuries,

we had the painting.

It's in Dublin.

And what you see

is this young servant girl,

a maidservant in this household.

And she's in the kitchen

and she's holding a pitcher

of water or something

and she has her hand down

and she's stopped.

She's stopped and arrested

her attention

and her head's turned

just like this.

So it said The Road to Emmaus

or the Emmaus meal,

but it was confusing

because it's just a young girl

in a kitchen like this.

But then in 1933,

they cleaned the painting.

It had grime on it.

And in the upper corner,

in the background,

is just a little image

of Jesus and the two travelers

in the dining room

in the little corner at the top.

And what's happening there is,

of course,

it's the moment

where it says

their eyes were opened,

their hearts burned within them.

And her heart,

you see,

Diego wants you to say,

that's me.

I'm the servant girl.

Her head's turned.

Her attention's been arrested.

Her heart is burning within her

as she listens in

on the explanation

that he's giving to them

at the end of the road to Emmaus.

And you see that the master artist

saw the same point,

that you are meant

to put yourself in.

So let me invite you to do that.

The Lord Jesus,

the resurrected Lord,

is closer to you

than you think.

He's walking more near to you

than you think,

than we often think he is.

That's the invitation.

Now let's see how,

thirdly,

the stranger.

Now,

in verse 14,

they are talking,

the two travelers,

with each other,

about all that's taken place.

And then it says,

verse 15,

they were talking

and discussing together.

Now that sounds very repetitive,

but the second word,

discussing,

is a word for arguing.

So it says something more like,

they were talking

and getting in a dispute

with one another

about all that had taken place.

So there's some form of argument

going on between the two travelers here.

And then all of a sudden,

verse 15,

the stranger draws near.

We know it's Jesus.

Jesus,

they do not know it's Jesus.

Where does he come from?

From whence,

the King James might say.

From whence,

where does he come from?

And we don't know.

He just comes from,

from the side of the road

and starts walking with them.

I like to imagine,

maybe that,

as soon as Jesus walks out of the tomb

on the third day,

and everybody's wondering,

where is he?

He,

he made a beeline

straight for the road to Emmaus,

through the city.

Nobody noticed him.

He comes out

on this old dirt road.

There's nobody around,

and he just shows up.

He catches up to them.

And so something like that's

taking place here.

Now here's what they say to him.

They say,

down in verse 21,

we had hoped,

we're sad.

We had hoped that he was the one

to redeem Israel.

So that imperfect language,

we had hoped he was the one.

And so when Jesus encounters them,

this stranger,

their posture is,

we wished he was the redeemer.

We longed,

but he's not.

That's their position.

We had hoped that he was the one

to redeem Israel.

And so Luke,

there between their sadness

and some humor,

as we already pointed out,

verse 17,

18,

and 19,

they say to them,

him,

what's this,

he says to them,

I should say,

what is this conversation

you're holding with each other

as you walk?

They stood still,

they're sad.

And then Cleopas says,

are you the only one

in all of Jerusalem,

the only visitor

who doesn't know what's happened?

And then I think this is where

the humor really lands.

Verse 19,

Jesus says,

what things?

What happened?

As if he doesn't know.

And so he's playing with them

and a bit of humor.

And so in the midst,

Luke writes this story

of complex emotion

where it's both funny

and it's great,

and they're in despair

at the very same time.

They're incredibly sad.

Now why?

Why?

And here's what we're told.

The language in this passage is

they could not see him.

Verse 16.

So they're despairing

because they can't see him.

They were kept,

it's passive,

they were kept from seeing him.

Now anytime in the gospels

that physical sight is talked about,

it's never just physical sight,

it's also about the heart,

about spiritual sight,

about faith.

And so they can't see

with their physical eyes

and that's a testimony

that they cannot see

with their spiritual eyes.

They don't have faith.

And Jesus points that out

in verse 25.

He says,

Oh foolish one,

slow of heart to believe.

So the physical block they have,

the blindness physically,

is a representation

of the blindness

they have in their hearts.

Slow of heart to believe.

And so they've got disappointment,

they've got misunderstanding,

and it's all because

they can't see him.

Why?

The text gives you three reasons

that they can't see him.

Number one,

they believed

that there was no such thing

as the resurrection of the dead.

They're walking on this road

and they say,

we had hoped,

but he died.

He wasn't.

He wasn't what we thought.

You see,

they're in utter despair

because they believe

that there's no such thing

as life after death.

They believe that there's

no such thing

as any kind of resurrection

from the dead.

And if you come here today,

you live in this world,

and there will undoubtedly

be some in a room

this size that come today

where you believe

that you're exploring maybe,

but you believe that

this life is all there is,

and in so many years

you're going to die,

and your body's going to be

put in the grave,

and you're going to rot,

and you're going to feed the grass,

and that's it.

Then by definition,

you don't have hope.

And see,

they are walking down this road,

and it says that

they had hoped,

but they do no longer

because they thought

that death was the end of the road,

that there is no such thing

as the resurrection from the dead.

And we've,

of course,

we've got the same situation

in our modern moment,

but it's existed

for all the centuries.

The idea that

we came about

merely by chance,

that there is no eternity,

that there is nothing

to expect

in the afterlife,

that you simply die,

and you rot,

and you happened by chance.

There is no lawgiver.

There is no moral order

given from above

our mere opinions.

There is no meaning maker

from above our mere opinions.

And if you believe that today,

you have to say at least

that beyond my own view of myself,

I don't have any meaning,

and there is no moral order,

and I can't point to anything

beyond what I think

is right or wrong

according to my opinion.

And that simply means

that you're without hope

in the world.

And boy,

that,

I want to suggest to you

that that takes

such a leap of faith

actually to say,

I don't think any of us

really believes that,

that your life

doesn't have any meaning,

that you don't have any purpose,

that you actually

just come by chance,

that your vision

of your own personal value

is nothing but your own opinion.

I don't think anybody

actually thinks that.

We don't live that way.

And the good news here

in this passage is

while these disciples

on the road to Emmaus

are there in this moment,

boy,

it's a leap of faith

they don't have to make

because it's simply not true.

The Christ who did rise

from the dead

and is promising eternal life

is standing right next to them.

Now,

let's see a bit more about it.

Secondly,

what's blocking their eyes

from seeing?

They wanted,

the second thing is

they wanted the wrong

type of rescue.

So,

you see,

right after that,

back in verse 21 again,

we're told,

they had hoped

that he would redeem

Israel.

So,

they had hoped

he would redeem Israel.

So,

the word redemption there

is a reference

to being rescued,

redeemed.

It shows up in the Old Testament

and all over the New.

And the idea of being redeemed

is an idea of being rescued

from a prison

or pulled from slavery.

But what do they say?

What does it say?

We had hoped

he would redeem Israel.

And that means that

the reason they're

in such despair

and they're without hope

in this passage

is because

they expected

political deliverance.

Jesus Christ came

to deliver them

from their sins,

but instead

they wanted deliverance

from their circumstances.

And so,

they're in such despair

because they think

the one we thought

was going to finally

deliver us from Rome

died.

He's simply gone.

So,

they were,

these disciples

were willing

to read Isaiah

in a place like

Isaiah chapter 11

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

where it says,

the Messiah will strike

the earth

with the rod of his mouth

and with the breath

of his lips

he shall kill the wicked.

They were willing

to read that

and say,

the Messiah will come

and destroy the wicked

and apply that to Rome.

But they would not,

they were not able yet

to hear Isaiah 53

which says

that he,

the Messiah,

would be bruised

for our transgressions.

You see,

the thing,

they wanted salvation

from their circumstances.

They did not want

salvation from their sin.

They did not want,

you know,

it's so difficult

to walk,

the way of salvation

is so easy

because it's all grace,

the walls of grace

on the road

of the pilgrimage.

Yet,

at the same time,

it's so difficult

because what the gospel

requires of you

is to say that

my greatest problem

is my pride,

not my circumstances.

And we want to be saved

from our circumstances.

We want Jesus

to win the cultural war.

But we don't want

to come to him

and first say

my problem is me,

my problem is my sin.

And so they looked

for redemption

from Rome.

They weren't yet looking

for a redemption

from themselves.

And that means

that they had yet

to have a vision

for the power,

the truth,

the proclamation

of the body

and blood

of Christ broken.

They didn't know

what the cross was about.

They didn't see it.

They thought he was

going to redeem them

from Rome,

but they couldn't

understand why he died.

They could never imagine

a crucified Messiah.

That was the one thing

that they had

no category for.

And so they thought

that his mission

had utterly failed.

We want,

I think in the same way,

remember this is us,

we're the second traveler.

This is a paradigm

for the normal Christian life.

We want Jesus Christ

to be useful

most of the time

more than we want him

to be our redeemer

from our pride,

more than we want him

to break us

from the inside out

and remake us.

Now the third reason

that they couldn't see

is because of,

very simply,

is this divine passive.

What does it say

back in verse 16?

Their eyes,

quote,

were kept

from recognizing him.

Now this is

a mysterious reality.

It appears

all across the Bible

that the text

multiple times

clearly points us

to say something like this.

It's not just

that they were blinded

by their sin,

their inability to see,

but that something

is holding their eyes shut.

And that someone

who's doing that

is Jesus.

It's God.

It's what the theologians

call the divine passive.

They are being kept

from seeing

by the Lord.

Why is that?

There's so much mystery

in that.

Let me try to arrive

at something of an answer

in the final point.

So fourth and finally,

eyes to see,

which is really

the heartbeat

of the whole story.

So in verse 16,

lastly,

their eyes

are kept shut.

And then if you look

down at verse 31,

the great moment,

their eyes were opened.

So they've landed

at Emmaus

and it says

their eyes were opened.

And so here's

the bookends

of the passage

that help us understand

the story

of the disciples

on the way.

Their eyes were closed,

they couldn't see.

And then at the end,

when they sat at the table

with him,

their eyes were opened.

But if you notice,

what is it that really

opened their eyes?

And the text tells us

in verse 31,

it's when the scriptures

were opened up.

So in verse 31,

their eyes were opened

and they recognized him.

And that's following

a whole sequence

of him opening

the scriptures

so their eyes were opened.

And the two verbs

are connected.

He opened the Bible

so their eyes were opened.

Now there's a deep connection

in Luke's gospel

and the book of Acts

between when the Old Testament,

and that's all they had

in this moment

is the Old Testament.

The Old Testament scriptures

are opened and explained

and people's eyes are opened.

And this happens

in the book of Acts

with Lydia.

They explain the Bible to her

and it says

her heart was opened.

And so the eyes

and the heart

are the same thing really.

The physical sight

and spiritual sight

go together.

And so what does he say?

What does he say

about their blindness?

Verse 25,

you are so slow

to believe

what the prophets

had spoken.

So what does he attribute

to their weak faith?

He says it's because

you refuse to read

the prophets rightly

and see what the prophets

had spoken.

So he says it's an issue

of interpretation.

It's an issue

of Bible reading ultimately

is how he explains it.

Now Jesus could have appeared

as a 25 foot tall man,

a five meter tall man

or more.

He could have kicked

the door down

of the Roman praetorium

and shine with light

to Caiaphas and Pilate

and the emperor

and everybody else.

What he chooses to do

is to open the Bible

and have a Bible study

and change their lives

through that means.

It is striking

that on Resurrection Sunday,

the medium he uses

to change lives

is explaining the Bible.

and remember,

this is you.

It's extraordinarily ordinary

and in this passage

we've got just,

as I finish,

two extraordinarily ordinary

ways that God

transforms lives,

that Jesus encounters you.

And what does he say?

Here it is.

The first is that he gives us sight

by the word of the scriptures

and in verse 26,

he says,

was it not necessary

that these things take place?

Was it not necessary

that the Christ would suffer?

What does he mean?

He's pointing back

to the Old Testament

and then it says,

beginning with Moses

and all the prophets,

he interpreted to them

and all the scriptures

the things concerning himself.

Now,

this is next week's topic,

biblical interpretation

in the light of Luke 24.

So,

I won't get into it too much,

but today,

what does he say?

He says,

the whole Old Testament

is about me.

And that's what you need

to see to have your eyes opened

and to come to faith in Christ.

And notice at the end,

verse 32,

their hearts' desires

ran ahead of their faith.

So,

it says,

as he walked on the road with us,

as he explained the Bible to us,

did our hearts not burn within us?

So,

there was this conviction arising

in their hearts,

this desire for him,

even before they knew

what to think about him,

before what they knew

to believe about him.

And that very well

could be you today,

that there's conviction

and burning in your heart

before you yet know

exactly what to say about him,

of exactly what to think about him.

I don't know all the reasons

that Jesus thinks

it's important that you,

I don't know,

I don't know all the reasons for this.

But for whatever reason,

Jesus thinks it's very important

that we all hear him

before we see him.

So,

on Resurrection Sunday,

Jesus wanted these two men

to hear him

before they ever saw him.

And that is exactly

what the Christian life is like.

For whatever reason,

the Lord wants you

to hear him and believe

before you one day see him.

This is for next week,

but

I imagine that maybe

he opened up to them

Genesis 3.15

and he said to them,

look at Genesis 3.15,

how it says,

after the great curse

upon the world after sin,

that one day

the seed of the woman,

the child of Eve,

would crush the head

of the seed of the serpent.

That one day,

a baby born of the lineage of Eve,

born of the new Eve Mary,

would crush the head of a serpent

while that serpent bites his heel.

And if a serpent bites your heel,

that's poisonous,

you die from that.

But at the same time,

the little child

would crush the head of the serpent.

And they realized,

oh,

their heart started to burn.

And they said, whoa,

that's you.

That's Jesus.

And they woke up

and they had the eyes of faith.

And that's exactly what happens here.

It's incredibly ordinary.

And the last thing he uses

is the table.

So down in verse 30,

they've arrived at Emmaus

and we read in verse 30

that he

sat with them at the table

and he took bread

and he blessed it

and he broke it

and he gave it to them.

Now, some theologians

and scholars say

that this is not the Lord's Supper,

but I think that

that's a misunderstanding.

These are the four communion verbs.

He took it,

he blessed it,

he broke it,

he gave it.

And the slight misunderstanding there

is because

any time you sit down

to eat dinner

with the resurrected Lord,

that's the Lord's Supper.

He is the host.

You can't sit down with Jesus

and not eat the Lord's Supper.

He is the Lord,

after all.

So this is the Lord's Supper

with the resurrected Lord

and it says that

as soon as he broke the bread

and handed it to them,

their eyes were opened.

They believed

and he disappeared.

And that's just to say,

that's week three,

the Lord's Supper.

But today,

notice how

ordinary

the word

and the table.

and that's the paradigm

of our eyes being opened

in faith

in the Christian life.

Now,

I'll finish last word here.

This is not a scheme

imposed on this text.

It's the very shape

of Christian worship.

So,

by the second century,

AD 155,

you can open up a text

like Justin Martyr

who's writing out

early Christian liturgy.

And what does he say?

He says that someone

stood up and explained

the apostles' teaching

and then they ate

at a feast

and broke bread

and passed out wine.

So,

the word and the table,

exactly what we're doing today

is exactly

the order of worship

that has been done

to open the eyes of faith

since not just

the second century

but the road to Emmaus,

the first century.

And it's not just about

getting worship right

and all that.

It's about the heart.

John Wesley,

John Wesley in 1738,

the great revivalist

of the 18th century,

he went to a meeting

at Aldersgate Street

down in England

and he was listening

to someone read out

aloud Luther's preface

to the Romans

and then explain

the book of Romans.

And this is what he says,

in the evening,

I went very unwillingly

to a society

in Aldersgate Street

where one was reading

Luther's preface

to the epistle

of the Romans.

About a quarter before nine

while he was describing

the change

which God works

in the heart

through faith in Christ,

I felt my heart

strangely warmed.

I felt that

I did trust in Christ,

Christ alone

for salvation.

And an assurance

was given to me

in that moment

that he really

had taken away

my sins,

even my sins.

The divine passive

becomes the divine active.

The one who keeps

our eyes closed

then opens them.

And that very well

may happen

for you today.

And it may have happened

for some of you

in the past,

but today as we come

through the word

and to the table,

would you be open

to being the second traveler

and having your eyes

opened afresh

and your faith restored?

Because this actually happened.

This is real.

And it's the whole

of the Christian life.

So let's pray.

Father, we ask

that you would

open our eyes today

as we come to your table.

Thank you for your word.

We ask, Lord,

for the divine active

that you would be active

in our lives now.

So we pray

for the coming

of the Holy Spirit now

as we come to commune

with you.

And we pray that

in Christ's name.

Amen.