For all of us who appreciate measured, linear timelines,
consider this fair warning:
today’s texts suspend time.
They also have us listening in on intimate conversations,
hearing speeches
and reading someone else’s mail.
The gospel takes place on Easter evening,
on the way to a village outside Jerusalem,
before the resurrection appearances that we heard about last Sunday in John’s Gospel.
For us today on the third Sunday of Easter,
we need to re-locate ourselves in time,
back to that first night, on the Day of Resurrection.
On that Easter evening,
Jesus appears to two of his followers
who are walking along and talking
about what they had heard and seen earlier in the day.
When Jesus joins them, they don’t recognize him,
but they’re friendly, and they talk with him.
What catches my attention first is that they speak with someone,
whom they think is a stranger, about the day’s events.
I wonder, why were they free to move about,
to travel
and to talk openly?
when John tells us
other disciples were hiding behind locked doors,
afraid to be overheard or seen?
Luke tells us that as the two continue along their way,
still oblivious to who Jesus is,
he interprets the scriptures to them.
I don’t know about you, but when I meet someone I don’t know,
I ask questions, like
what’s your name?
where are you from?
who might we know in common?
But if the two asked any questions, Luke doesn’t tell us.
All Luke says is that they listen to Jesus teach, and
they still don’t recognize him.
The two urge Jesus, who appears to plan to continue his journey,
to stop and stay with them and they invite him to share their meal.
And it’s there, in the meal,
as Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to them, that at last, they recognize him.
As quickly as we learn that they know who Jesus is,
Luke tells us he vanishes from them.
While we know that isn’t the end of the story, all Luke tells us today is that the two return to Jerusalem and testify to the other disciples, telling them what had happened.
The lectionary reading from Acts is part of Peter’s speech following the events of Pentecost,
events we haven’t reached yet in our Easter season but, in short, Peter is addressing his fellow Jews and contrasting the human actions that crucified Christ and the divine actions by God that raised him from death.
We hear members of the crowd interrupt Peter,
asking him and the other apostles,
“What should we do?”
While the two in Emmaus recognized Jesus as Lord in the meal that they shared,
here in Jerusalem,
it is as if the crowd’s ears are finally able to hear the truth,
or perhaps, as in Paul’s story of conversion later in Acts,
scales fall from their eyes, and they see clearly now that
Jesus is Lord and Messiah. (see Acts 9:18)
The epistle we have for today is also attributed to Peter. In it, the author is writing to churches in Asia Minor – what is modern day Turkey - churches that were planted during Peter’s missionary journeys there.
Like Paul’s letters, this letter would have been circulated among the faith communities there. Its message is that “Believers have reasons for hope… because Christ is raised and living, and God is at work in the world.” (“Summary of First Peter”, enterthebible.org, Luther Seminary) A little earlier in the letter, the author tells the churches to prepare for action, because of the grace Christ brings. (v. 13)
Throughout these Scriptures we hear Jesus is Lord and Messiah,
and we hear how he is on the move.
The disciples in Emmaus, the crowds in Jerusalem and the churches in Asia Minor didn’t keep the Good News of the Risen Christ to themselves, or we wouldn’t be here today
to celebrate that Jesus is risen and alive.
In the same way,
we are being called to testify to the ways God is still at work
in the world through Christ, and through the Church,
and we are being called to follow Jesus into new places,
and new ways of being community.
Resurrection faith remembers what God has already done in Christ and sets our hope in God’s ongoing work in, through and among us, today and into the future.
Let us pray.
Holy God,
Thank you for Jesus, our Lord and Messiah,
for his saving grace for each of us,
and for the ways he meets us where we are
and urges us to new places,
and new ways of being Your people.
Open our ears to hear Your Word and follow Jesus where he leads.
We pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
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