The Third Sunday of Easter
Luke 24:13–35
Life in Christ Lutheran Church, Grand Marais, MN
April 19, 2026
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Two men were walking on the road to Emmaus. They were dejected. These men were talking about all the things that they had seen in Jerusalem.
Then there was a man walking with them. They hadn’t seen him before, he was just there. He joined their conversation.
“What are you talking about?”
Cleopas, one of the men answered.
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” the traveler asked.
They were shocked.
Cleopas continued.
“Jesus of Nazareth! He was a prophet of God. He did lots of things only God could do. The chief priests delivered him to be condemned and crucified. We had hopes that he would be the Savior of Israel. And now some women we know said they went to the tomb and didn’t find his body. Angels appeared to them and told them he had risen from the dead. Others went to the tomb and didn’t see his body.”
The stranger then said:
“You are foolish. Don’t you believe what the prophets have said? They said all this was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory.”
Then he showed them from the Scriptures, point by point, how Jesus had fulfilled everything that Moses and the prophets said about him.
Jesus doesn’t give them moral advice. He doesn’t tell them to try harder to believe.
He gives them the key to the Scriptures.
The Word of Life is found in the Bible. It is about Me.
The entire Scriptures are about Jesus.
That’s how you know a church is teaching the right thing. Everything is centered on Jesus Christ crucified. Every doctrine, every sermon, every Bible class.
Churches that deviate to moral teaching or life coaching are missing the point. The church of Jesus Christ is about Jesus Christ.
Very specifically, Jesus Christ lived as a human being, taught about Himself as the center of God’s Word, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, was crucified dead and buried, and rose again from the dead.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus had missed the point.
“We had hoped…”
When they saw Jesus dead on the cross, they thought that all He had said and done was pointless.
What they didn’t see was the resurrection.
They had heard rumors, but they didn’t believe. They were lost in Jesus death.
Jesus clears it up for them.
He points to the words of Scripture:
“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
All the Scriptures… concerning Himself.
Jesus taught them exactly what they had hoped was true.
Jesus is the one to redeem Israel. And in fact, the whole world. His resurrection proves it.
He pointed to the multitude of passages that verified it. He pointed to the multiple passages that said He had come to forgive sins.
In other words, He taught them the meaning of Jesus Christ.
Later at the table, He was revealed to them for who He was.
“And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.”
They saw Him for who He was.
Jesus Christ again in the flesh.
They believed He had risen. They believed He had died for their sins.
Their response is positively epic.
“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
It was the Word spoken by the One who caused it to be written. The One it is all about. The One who fulfilled it all.
And their hearts burned.
It was a natural emotion created by the teaching of the truth by the Truth Himself and received by the human heart.
The emotion isn’t the thing.
It was a reaction to the coming of faith. Faith in Jesus crucified and risen. Faith created through hearing the Gospel.
People so often confuse the emotion for faith. We like the feelings, the experiences, and the spiritual highs.
Scripture doesn’t condemn these, but it does show us that these aren’t faith.
Faith is trust in Jesus to do what He says He will do—forgive sins.
Faith is looking to Jesus on the cross.
Faith is the for me of everything that Jesus did.
The turning point in this text is at the table.
Jesus’ identity was still hidden from them until He:
“took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.”
Immediately Jesus was known to them.
He wasn’t seen in the teaching on the road.
He wasn’t seen in the emotion.
He was seen at table.
That’s a key.
At table means during the action of the meal. It emphasizes the action, not the furniture.
Jesus is seen in the breaking of bread and the fellowship of eating.
It is in Jesus breaking bread that:
“their eyes were opened.”
And then… Jesus was gone.
Why?
We see Jesus, not in His physical body, but in Word and Sacrament.
Jesus in the flesh doesn’t have the certainty of Word. Even seeing Jesus in the flesh isn’t the sure thing—we don’t see Him that way.
The Emmaus disciples saw Jesus and did not know Him; but in His Word and in the breaking of the bread, their eyes were opened—for we have a more sure word.
You don’t go looking for Jesus somewhere else.
You don’t climb up to Him.
You don’t feel your way to Him.
He comes to you.
In His Word—spoken into your ears.
In His Supper—placed into your mouth.
Not a memory.
Not a symbol.
Christ Himself.
Crucified.
Risen.
For you.
Here your eyes are opened.
Here your sins are forgiven.
Here you truly see Him.
Your eyes are opened there.
And there—whether you feel it or not—you truly see Him. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment