& if i need it

will you carry me home


A Sermon from Luke's Gospel for the Sunday after Easter

Me: In the Gospel today, it’s still the same day the women came to the tomb at the break of dawn, only to be told that Jesus wasn't there. That he had been raised. Only now, it’s evening.
In fact, in Luke’s Gospel, this is the first report of the resurrected Jesus.
And the folks he shows up to, are two characters we haven’t met before. Cleopas, and his unnamed companion
The two of them are heading to a village called Emmaus. We don’t know a lot about this village. It seem the two of them are heading there, though, because they’ve calling quits on the whole discipleship thing. They’re going back home to their old lives. 

Strangely, when Jesus first appears to the two of them, they don’t recognize him at all!

And that got me interested, how could Cleopas and his friend not recognize Jesus? 
So I did a little research on the disciples named Cleopas. And while in the Bible we don’t hear anything else about him, there are some really fun traditions about Cleopas.

First…
*SCREEN INTERRUPTS*

Cleopas: What??? Who’s that? What’s going?

Me: Excuse me? Ohmigosh! Could it be happening again?
Cleopas: *Looking around*
Who keeps calling for me?

Me: Could it be? Are you Cleopas of Emmaus???

Cleopas: *looking around*
Yes, that’s me. Who’s asking? What’s going on?

Me: *Waving*
Hello! Over here! 
We’re an assembly of followers of the Risen Lord. Today in worship we’re hearing about the night you and your friend were going back to Emmaus, when Jesus showed up. 

Cleopas: Yes, that just happened earlier this evening. 
What’s going on?

Me: Well, that would take too long to explain…
Just, we’re followers of the Risen Lord, too. We’re gathered to worship Jesus. In fact, in our gathering we’re reading about that night you and your friend met the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

Cleopas: Yes…

Me: Well, could we ask you a little about that?

Cleopas: Okay.
Me: The biggest question has to be how could you not recognize Jesus?
Had you never met him face to face before?

Cleopas: No. I had…

Me: Well then, how could you not recognize him?

Cleopas: Well, it’s not that easy, you know…

Me: What do you mean? How hard could it be? There’s Jesus right in front of you, walking and talking.
How could you not see it was Jesus?!?

Cleopas: Well, you have to remember, with Jesus it was never as easy as just seeing him.
In fact, more often than not, the issue wasn’t whether you saw him. 
Plenty of people who saw him, saw God. But, plenty of others who saw him, just saw an imposture!

When it came to seeing Jesus, more often than not, what mattered was whether he saw you
And what he said to you. ‘For those with ears to hear,’ as he’d say. Then you would see him for who he was all along…

Me: But you had already seen him like that. Why didn’t you recognize him?

Cleopas: Well, it’s not so easy as all that. 
We were going back to Emmaus. Calling it quits, you know.
As far as we were concerned, all those others, who only saw an imposter, they must have been right. It felt like everything you had hoped in had been wrong all along, and you were the last one to see it. 
It wasn’t like we wanted to go back home; it was just that there was nowhere else to go after that. 
Or, at least that’s how it felt.

So we weren’t exactly seeing things clearly that night…

Me: Okay, but after that then!
You walked and talked with him. He gave you a one-on-one Bible study!
You’re telling me you didn’t recognize him during all that???

Cleopas: The thing is, once you saw Jesus, he kept surprising you. 
He was always hard to find, hard to see.
You’d see him doing or saying something, and you just knew deep down, this had to be God-up-close-and-personal. But then he’d go off and do or say some other thing, that would totally surprise you!

You always only saw him by faith
And as it turned out, risen and in his glory, took even more faith to see — not less…

Me: But you said that what mattered was that Jesus saw you; if Jesus spoke to you.
Well, surely that happened while you were walking down the road!
So how could you not recognize Jesus?
I just can’t get that through my mind, Cleopas.

Cleopas: Well, seeing Jesus never worked so easily. It was never so simple as all that. You could never just see him, never recognize him on your own

It was always if your eyes were opened to see him. As Jesus would say, ‘those with eyes to see.”
It wasn’t as if you had some power to see him; it was like you’d been given the gift of seeing him.

And that day of the crucifixion, I wasn’t there, but I hadn’t expected him to be arrested and then sentenced to death. And after that, I thought surely the rebellion would happen before his crucifixion. But it didn’t.
He just went to the cross…
…And after that day and the next; I thought it was all over
That what I had seen in him, had been all wrong…

Does that make sense?

Me: Yes, I guess it does…

Cleopas: Well…

Me: Well, so how was it then that you finally came to recognize Jesus that night?

Cleopas: I’ve been thinking a lot about that the whole way back here.
Remember how I said during his earthly life, it was never so easy as just seeing him?

Me: Yeah.

Cleopas: Well, once he was risen and in his glory, it turned out to be even harder to see Jesus. 

If I asked Jesus’ other disciples, they’d often say things like, it was Jesus who saw them first. That it was Jesus who called them first. Not the other way, round. 
That it was Jesus seeing them, that allowed them to see Jesus. If that makes sense…

Well, that’s the way it still works. 
Now, though, Jesus shows up; speaks in another way. I guess…

Me: What do you mean?

Cleopas: Well, that’s where I’m stuck. I can’t quite find the words. The closest is the way my friend put it after Jesus vanished. 
That something made his heart stir. He called it burning; and I have to say - that’s how it felt.

Me: So, seeing with your heart?

Cleopas: No, I wouldn’t put it that way.
It’s as if Jesus’ Spirit got to me; and
then I could see him again…

Me: A Holy Spirit thing, then?

Cleopas: A what? Holy Spirit?
Well, not just any Holy Spirit; Jesus’ Holy Spirit…

Me: So how did it come to you that night?

Cleopas: Now that I’ve been thinking about; and I think it was two things in particular. Two ways the Risen Lord spoke.

Me: Okay!
So, what were they?

Cleopas: First, in scripture. 
Jesus came alive, spoke to us in scripture. In fact, before I could see him in front of me; he made me see that all scripture had been pointing to him all along. That Jesus’ voice was still calling in scripture. 

Me: Okay. Reading the Bible?

Cleopas: Well, hearing it in a way that Jesus showed; as it speaking about him.

Me: Okay.
And what was the second way?

Cleopas: The meal. 
We ate with Jesus a lot during his ministry. 
And I understand the night before his crucifixion, he had a very special meal with the twelve. Well, now eleven

Eating together had always been important. And in the meal that night, as he broke the bread and blessed the cup; my eyes were opened and I could see it had been Jesus all along!

Me: Wow…
That must have been something; to suddenly see Jesus there with you…

Cleopas: Well, yes. But it wasn’t just that moment; it was seeing that he had been with us the whole time
And to be honest; it still seems that way…

Me: What do you mean?

Cleopas: Well, we’ve been talking, praying and singing together, and in that you see him. See he shows up. It keeps happening.

Me: Wow.
So what do you think this means?

Cleopas: Well, honestly, we’re not sure about that. In fact, I can hear a commotion back there! 
I should check it out!
Peace in the name of the Risen Lord.

*SCREEN GOES BLACK*

Isn’t that something?

Well, Cleopas talked about how important it was to sing hymns to the Risen Lord together. Maybe we should too. 

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