"The Presence of the Risen Christ" Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter

The Presence of the Risen Christ
Easter 2 (Narrative Lectionary 3)
April 7, 2013
Luke 24.13-35

In our time, it’s been one week since we gathered that first Easter with the women at the empty tomb. We heard the good news that Jesus was not there, that he has been raised from the dead, just as he said. We also embraced the difficulty of believing in the resurrection, that it is “crazy thinking.” Though we affirmed that the women’s message to the rest of the disciples was no idle tale, and that it was too good not to be true, we also recognized that the empty tomb was not sufficient for faith. Anticipating this week’s reading, we said it would take the presence of the risen Christ to do that in us.

So, thought it’s been one week in our time, it has only been a few hours in narrative time. The scene has switched from the empty tomb to a dusty road leading from Jerusalem to Emmaus. In what is arguably one of the most painted biblical stories, the risen Christ walks with two of his disciples who are engaged in a passionate discussion about the events of that first Easter morning. Unrecognized to them, Jesus opens up their minds and explains the necessity of the events through the use of scripture. When pressed to remain for dinner, Jesus now both host and guest is made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Reading this story might evoke wistfulness in us, prompting a longing for a similar experience. However, the beauty of the story is that it invites us to use our imaginations and hear the Emmaus story as a model of our own journeys of faith as the risen Christ meets and walks with us. It reminds us that Easter is far more than celebrating something that happened 2,000 years ago. It breaks into the real lives of real people. Just as the first disciples, the risen Christ meets us on our journeys of faith, in the midst of our hopelessness, despair, and even cluelessness, and our lives are transformed in the process.

For now, this is where we live our lives of faith, walking on the road. We walk between the empty tomb and the ascension, Jesus’ final glory (and ours). Sometimes this journey is filled with grief and pain as well as life and love. Quite often it is filled with equal measures of both. As a community of faith, we are at our best when we name and challenge the forces of darkness and injustice, those places where God’s good intentions are broken, and offer glimpses of light to our broken world. Through the presence of the risen Christ we suggest that there are other and better ways to live than our world offers us.

What are you carrying with you on your Emmaus journey today? Is it cynicism, stress, pretense, fear, despair, hopelessness, grief, or some other burden that is weighing you down? It is damaged relationships, physical debility, or even faith struggles? The good news is that today’s story tells you that the risen Christ meets you on your journey of faith, wherever you are, and walks with you, whether you recognize him or not. Furthermore, the story hints that the greater the need we have for Christ the closer he walks with us. Though he vanishes from the sight of the disciples, the experience of him does not. Their hearts burned within them. Like them, he is with us.

Martin Luther had some other Protestant reformers who criticized his understanding of Jesus’ bodily presence in Holy Communion, saying that Jesus couldn’t possibly be in the bread and wine because he was at God’s right hand. Luther countered them by saying, first of all, that, “Is means is.” When Jesus says, “This is my body,” is means is. Second, Luther pointed out that the right hand of God is not just in heaven, but it is wherever Jesus is. Furthermore, he said that Jesus can be anywhere he chooses, but promises that if we want to find him for sure, we are to look for him in the breaking of the bread. Jesus is Emmanuel  God with us, and he meets us on our journeys of faith, bringing light into the darkest parts of our lives and the world, guiding us in a life of love, and calling us to invite others into the journey as well. Christ is risen and that risen presence transforms our lives. Thanks be to God. Amen.