This morning I invite you to join me on a journey.  It’s a short trip to a small village called Emmaus.  Emmaus is not a remarkable place; really just a few houses thrown together less than a day’s hike from Jerusalem.  But it’s a place that calls us to visit.  It calls people whose faith has been shaken.  Emmaus calls people whose hearts have been broken.  Emmaus calls people who have ended up on a road they never expected to take.  Emmaus is a place we need to visit when the creepy crawly doubts and the head shaking disappointments make us wonder where we really are.  This morning, if you know what I am talking about, I invite you to join me on the road to Emmaus.

Luke 24:13-14 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.  They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.

One, of the two we are going to join, this morning, is named Cleopas.  The other one we don’t know her name.  And I say her because I want to believe she is a woman, perhaps Cleopas’ wife.  The (possible) husband and wife are going home and their hearts are broken and their heads are shaking.  For you see this couple had been with Jesus… but now they are going home.

Wow! What an exciting time it had been.  They had seen him preach the good news to the poor and feed 5,000. They had witnessed sight given back to the blind and heard him proclaim release to the captive.   They had heard him proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor from one town to the next. Their time together with the Christ had been wonderful. They loved him.  And they knew he loved them as well. 

And as they walked on the road back home, they kept on saying, “Do you remember when… he said, “Love your enemies?  Wasn’t that strange?”  Do you remember when… he cast out those demons and they all went into the pigs? Boy, that was a mess.  Those farmers were really upset.  Do you remember when… he raised that dead boy?  What was his name?  Now that was something. Do you remember his story about that Samaritan who helped the beat-up-guy?  Do you remember Zacchaeus?  That was a fun day.  Wow.  Do you remember when he road that colt into Jerusalem and everyone thought he was the Messiah?”

But then… quiet fell over both of them as they walked on the road away from Jerusalem; the road back home. They stopped talking because they too had thought he was the Messiah.  But now he was dead.

Have you ever been on that road away from Jerusalem? You know the road that tries to go back home again?  You just knew, you just knew, God was doing something spectacular in your life.  You had it all figured out and it was full steam ahead.  God was going to make your life great.  Everything was falling into place, but then it all fell apart. It just didn’t work the way you knew it would.  Have you ever been on the road out of Jerusalem?

Luke 24:15-16   As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

These two disciples, as well as the rest of Jesus’ followers, should have known what was going on. They should have recognized Jesus that Sunday afternoon on the road.  They should have been expecting to see Jesus.  But because their hearts were broken; their eyes were blinded.  But they should have been expecting Jesus because he told them what was going to happen. 

As far back as Peter’s confession he told them…

Luke 9:20-22  "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God."  Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.  And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."

Even before he was going to Jerusalem, he told them…

Luke 13:31-32   At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, "Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you."  32 He replied, "Go tell that fox, 'I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.'

Even right before he went to Jerusalem, he told them…

Luke 18:31-34  Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.  On the third day he will rise again."  The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.

Three times before it happened he told them what was to be. But they did not recognize Jesus because their eyes were shut and their hearts were broken. 

But before we are too hard on the disciples, how often do we see the plan of God when we are on the road of discouragement? “Why does this have to happen?  Couldn’t you have stopped this from happening to me?  Why are you doing this God?”  How often are you kept from recognizing Jesus when your heart is broken?

Luke 24:17-21  He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" They stood still, their faces downcast.  One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"   "What things?" he asked. "About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.  The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

But we had hoped… But we had hoped… But we had hoped… Are there any four words more devastating than, “But we had hoped…”  Cleopas and his companion had hoped to see Jesus rise up and deliver Israel.  For the last several years they kept watching for Him to raise his army and be Moses and deliver them from bondage, and be Gideon and free them from oppression, and be Judas Maccabeus and drive the heathen from their precious Jerusalem.  But they had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel.

But instead, he had been crucified by the Romans.  He should have been defeating them, not dying at their hands.  But the two on the road to Emmaus had misunderstood the message of Jesus.  He did not come to deliver them from suffering.  He came to deliver them through suffering.  But with their faces downcast they told this stranger, who had joined them on the road, “But we had hoped…”

But we too had hoped.  We have seen our lives working out in such wonderful ways.  “Yes, I will get married and have charming children and then I will have this marvelous career and then I will do amazing things with my life and when I retire I will be this wise old sage who sits around giving advice to all comers.  I will have this wonderful life.  Everything will be peachy.”  We too have hoped… but it doesn’t always work out that way and sometimes we are on the road, again. We fail to see the message of Jesus is not a message of deliverance from suffering but we are delivered through suffering.   

Luke 24:21-24  And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.  In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."

Doubt leads to confusion.  “What in the world is going on?  Have the women lost it?  Did they forget he was dead; really dead?  Did they forget where he was and go to the wrong grave?  But what about angels and empty tombs?  Could it be?  Can we hope again?  Or do we keep on walking on the road away from Jerusalem?” Doubt… Confusion… Just keep walking. 

Why is Easter so hard to believe? 

Luke 24:25-27  He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"   And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

The sermon Mr. and Mrs. Cleopas heard as they walked along the road was astonishing.  Don’t you wish you could have heard that lecture?  Jesus took the Old Testament and showed it was all there.  From the beginning; Jesus started with Adam and Eve. Notice the similarities; another couple whose doubts had led them on the road away from God.  But God had a plan to bring them back too.  He had a plan that unfolded over the course of time to bring those all on the road back to him.  It was a plan all about Jesus.  The thread that runs through the Old Testament is the thread of Jesus.  It is all about Jesus.  He had to suffer, so they could return to God. That was the plan from the beginning. “It had to happen this way,” Jesus said, “And now it has.” 

But the point you have to see is, God pursued his creation down the road of doubt and brings us back.  Jesus joins us on the road of discouragement and walks with us to Emmaus.  That too is part of the plan.  It is through suffering that we can come back to God.

Luke 24:28-32  As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther.  But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.  When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.  They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" 

Jesus was invited to join them at the table in Emmaus and he did.  And in that table fellowship, as he broke the bread, their eyes were opened and they knew it was Jesus.

Communion.  The Table Fellowship we are about to partake is all about inviting Jesus to break the bread.  We bring our stories, good, bad and ugly to the Table and he joins us here.  And in joining us here, we find that our hearts will burn for him.  In eating this bread and drinking this cup we recognize who Jesus is.  We are reminded that he was the suffering Savior the one who now knows how to join us in our suffering.  We are reminded that he is the fulfillment of the plan and he tells us we too are the realization of the plan of God.  It is in our hurts, which we bring to the table, that we are returned to faith.  It is in the death of our dreams that we are open to God’s dreams.  It is in his resurrection that we have real life.  It is in coming to Emmaus that we learn to live.  It is in the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine that our eyes are opened to see Jesus. 

As you partake this morning, think about your disappointments; the things which put you on the road out of Jerusalem, and bring all that to this table in faith that Jesus will join you there and help you back on the road to Jerusalem.  This Table is Emmaus and Jesus reveals himself.

Luke 24:33-35  They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon."  Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

They returned at one to Jerusalem and found their faith again.

Our lives are very much like Cleopas and his companion on the Road to Emmaus.  We too become discouraged and disillusioned as things don’t happen as we had hoped, but Jesus does not let us stay on that road. He joins us on the road and then meets us at the table in Emmaus.  When we see him for who he is, he sends us back to Jerusalem.  When we see the resurrected Jesus at the Table we will have our faith rekindled and our spirits uplifted and we return to Jerusalem.  

Luke 24:36-43  While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.  He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?  Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.  And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, "Do you have anything here to eat?"  They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.

Luke 24:44-48   He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.

Luke 24:49-52   ”I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."  When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them.  While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.  Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 

Easter is all about worshipping and waiting. We wait for his plan to be worked out in our lives and in the meantime we worship.  Whenever you find yourself on the road of disappointment, watch out for Jesus. When you have lost your way, meet him at the Table.  When you are discouraged, come to the Table at Emmaus and he will return you to Jerusalem.  There you can wait and worship.