“When Our Eyes Are Opened” – Fr. Pete's Sermon for April 19th, the Third Sunday of Easter

Luke 24:13-35

Have you ever pretended to be someone else on the phone just for fun? When I was a kid, yes, I would do pranks like that, mostly with friends. When I worked at an ad agency, whenever my friend Cary would call he’d give the receptionist a fake name, “Tell him Buster Keaton is calling,” or “Holden Caulfield” or “Emile Zola” or whoever he came up with. She never caught on to what he was doing! But I knew who it was when she announced his call. Can’t do that now with caller ID I guess!

Well, I think Jesus kind of does that here in Luke 24! He’s pretending, it seems. I love this story—Undercover Jesus, two clueless disciples, and lots of Scripture secrets revealed…

These 2 disciples are not part of the 12, but have been in the larger group of followers of Jesus. Only one is named, Cleopas. He and his companion are walking 7 miles, from Jerusalem to Emmaus - talking about “all these things that had happened.” Can you imagine their emotions?

They are talking and discussing—they were really deep into it! Jesus comes near and walks along with them on the road. Luke says their eyes “were kept from recognizing him.”  Well, let’s give them them the benefit of the doubt-- Perhaps tears filled their eyes.

Last time they saw Jesus he was bruised and bloody on the cross, a shell of himself. Now, surprise! He is risen in glory, in his resurrection array. And they don’t notice!

Jesus asks them, “what are y’all talking about with each other?” Matthew says, “They stood still, looking sad.” Also probably looking like, Are you an idiot? “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” Oh a lot has happened in just the past week.

“What things?” I love how Jesus just plays right along! He’s stringing them along! He’s pretending to be someone else. I think he is suppressing a chuckle, if not a belly laugh at their expense!

They reply, giving a quick summary of Jesus’ life and ministry, and that he was condemned to death and crucified. We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. But now he’s dead and it’s been three days, but those crazy women of our group astounded us, they came back telling us they saw a vision of angels who said he was alive! Some of us found the tomb empty like they said, but we didn’t see him.

So it can’t be true. Those women and their tales! Right?

By the way—this is extra, no charge—remember on Easter we talked about Jesus and the angels first appearing to Mary Magdalene and other Mary, the oppressed, shunned, ignored women—and telling them to take the message, to “go and tell” the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. Women the first evangelists? Yes, God always turns things upside down.

There’s a lot of scholarly argument about these two disciples. We assume they are two men, but only one is named. Some suggest maybe they were a married couple, man and woman (and she isn’t named, typical). Or maybe they were a couple—men! So is Jesus appearing here to persons from another set of oppressed, shunned, ignored people?

​Well…they say: We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. Now notice: not, we believe, or we trust, but we had hoped, past tense. Which can sound sadly familiar: "We had hoped the diagnosis would be different."  "We’d hoped the relationship would last." "We hoped things would turn out another way.”  Their hope has been dashed, they thought. And all the while, Jesus is walking with them.

Finally, he tells this couple, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!” I think he’s still having fun with them, but by the way, didn’t he tell his disciples time and again that he had to be put to death and would be raised on the third day? Why didn’t they believe him? Well it was mind-blowing!

“Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” Wow—wouldn’t you like to attend that Bible study? I mean, our Zoom Bible study led by David Caldwell uncovers a lot of insights, but—Jesus leading a Bible study? I would love to hear that!

Of course, the gospel writer doesn’t give us the details of what he taught, but the teachings of the prophets about the Messiah were pretty clear, and Jesus affirmed that those teachings were about himself.

​But it was just so hard for these people to believe it! They had seen him dead! Did he really mean it? These two disciples are still clueless.

I’m reading a new book by the Episcopal mystic Cynthia Bourgeault on Father Thomas Keating, who taught centering prayer (Evan!). It’s blowing my mind. Here’s something she wrote earlier about this story:

“Clearly they are stuck in their story, and their stuckness is what makes them unable to see the person standing right before their faces. They are trapped in the past, filled with self-pity and doubt, and no one can recognize anything in this state. What Jesus does in this case is… he rewrites their story for them. Verse by verse he leads them through the pertinent [Hebrew] scriptures, reinterpreting their meaning in the light of himself and leading them to the inevitable conclusion that death can’t be the end.”

Oh, that doesn’t sound like something I’d do, get stuck in my own story, my own self-pity and doubt, clueless about reality! Does it sound like something you’d do? Never! Right?

They approach Emmaus and Jesus walks ahead as though he were going on. “But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, it’s almost evening.’” I think they want to hear more of this rabbi’s teaching.

So he goes to stay with them. They prepare some dinner—and it’s only when he takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them—the same thing we do every Sunday at communion—it is only then that their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus. He has finally dropped his mask… And he vanishes from their sight!

“Holy cow! It’s true! Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”

And that same hour—after walking 7 miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus and making dinner for Jesus—this couple got up and returned to Jerusalem! I bet they ran.

They couldn’t wait to tell their friends, the 11 and their companions gathered together. Sure enough: “They told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

Brothers and sisters, the risen Jesus makes himself known in the breaking of the bread. Even today!

Unlike this dear couple, can we realize Jesus is right here with us, perhaps even standing in front of us?

What if he makes himself known in the breaking of the bread— not only at communion, but in helping with our Outreach food distribution?

Or in enjoying our fellowship time by sitting with people we don’t know, well or at all, who sit at another table?

Or in offering support of vital organizations serving people who are still suffering from our Kona Low storms, or the Super Typhoon affecting our sister churches in Guam and Saipan, or other vital ministries?

Maybe, just maybe, in moments like those, as in the breaking of the bread, we too will see Jesus right in front of us.

And were not our hearts burning within us?

Amen!