everyday resurrection-theva

Everyday Resurrection!

Luke 24:13-35

Grace and peace are already ours for we belong to the family of Jesus the Christ. Our gospel today is about two persons travelling on the road to Emmaus. Don’t ask me where Emmaus is, for I have been to Israel six times and every time I asked our guides to take us to the place called Emmaus. Some of them were Jewish and others Palestinians, however they all said to me there is no place called Emmaus anywhere in Israel. One person said”Emmaus is nowhere here” and on hearing that from him I preached an Easter sermon that year with the title: “EMMAUS IS EVERYWHERE”. In fact I share the same thoughts with you today under the title: “EVERYDAY RESURRECTION”. The background of our gospel passage was the first Easter day evening. There were two disillusioned and disappointed persons; persons who were in shock, grief and denial travelling on that road to Emmaus. Perhaps they have known Jesus personally. Or perhaps thy have known intimately those who followed the prophet’s footsteps. These two persons were attracted by the simple yet challenging words Jesus who spoke about love and forgiveness and peace. They must have been mesmerized by his commonsense logic on issues of justice and equality. Perhaps they have witnessed how this simple peasant of Galilee transmitted God’s power among people by his life and life style. Now they are agonizing over the events of that cruel Friday. How can the Jewish nation, the Sanhedrin, the high priest, the Roman governor and Herod the king, plot together and kill such an innocent man? How can this world treat so cruelly a person like Jesus of Nazareth? He was so humble and transparent. He  made God easily accessible to human kind. We thought this is the man who would redeem Israel but see what happened. And as they were grieving over Jesus’s gruesome death, a stranger suddenly intervened. ”What are you discussing about?” the stranger asked. And the two persons in turn responded to the stranger “were you not in Jerusalem these past few days.”Didn’t you read today’s Jerusalem Post?’ The stranger then said that for thousands of years from the time of Moses, and with the predictions of the prophets, we were told this will happen to Jesus. It will be by suffering that Jesus would enter glory. In the tone and mannerism, in the very looks and gestures, the stranger reminded them the same old familiar person with the face of God and with the name Jesus of Nazareth. When the two persons however reached their destination it was almost evening. So the two persons urged the stranger to stay with them that night and they had a meal together. The guest during the meal took the bread, blessed and broke and gave thanks and they all ate. As the guest immediately left, the two of them began to share their memories of him. One said “he warmed our hearts as he explained the scriptures to us on the way. It was the dame phrase uttered by the founder of the Methodist church John Wesley when he had a conversion experience. “My heart was strangely warmed”. Then the other one said “see how quickly the one, who came to us as our guest, became the host of the occasion. How wonderfully he blessed our meal and served us and then quickly vanished”. In fact the bible tells us, this Jesus of Nazareth during his life on earth constantly ate and drank with the poor and the despised, the outcast and the people of the margins. He earned the knick name “a drunkard and a glutton”. And now that act is followed again by the resurrected Jesus. He is blessing a simple feast in Emmaus. He is eating bread and broiled fish with the disciples on a sea beach. He reminds us of the great promise of the resurrection feast where no one will be hungry and of the banquet table where the first will be last and the last first.

        In 1847 an English clergyman by the name Henry Light read this story from Luke 24 and wrote a beautiful hymn. It is No.700 in our hymnal. Perhaps the words of this hymn may speak to you more powerfully than my words: Abide with me fast falls the eventide; the darkness deepens Lord with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, O, abide with me. This hymn has 5 verses in it.

          The resurrection story for me is not about the mechanics of how Jesus rose from the dead. I have tried hard in my life to convince many with the proofs of resurrection. Now I don’t do that for I realize resurrecting Jesus from the dead is not my business. It is God’s job. However I am challenged by the magnificent Easter message to live a life at a higher level. A message to live a life with social and political awareness, to live a life to the full, to live a life of transforming strangers into friends, to live a life bringing comfort to the grieving and the confused persons, to live a life helping persons make meaning in their lives.

      Here is my closing story: A community wide Easter pageant assigned various people in the town to play the different parts. The character of Jesus went to a most unlikely person-a big, burly, barroom brawler, an oilfield worker, the most unlikely person to be typecast as our Lord. After several weeks of rehearsals, the day of the Easter pageant finally arrived. When they came to the part of the play where Jesus was being led away to be crucified, one little man, filing in as part of the crowd, got caught up in the emotion of the drama. He joined in the shouts of “crucify him! Crucify him!” as Jesus was led away toward Calvary. Then, in the midst of shouting insults at the top of his lungs, he accidently sprayed some spit in the face of the character playing Jesus, as the actor walked by carrying the cross in his back. The oilfield worker stopped in his tracks, reached up and wiped his face dry. And then he looked at the little man and said:”I ‘ll be back to take care of you after then resurrection.”