Victory Through Humiliation

Transcript

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[0:03] Thank you, Pam. And our sermon text today is from Luke 24, verses 13 through 49. And of course, the theme of this is Easter because today's Easter. Happy Easter, everybody. Really glad. We're going to have Easter eggs afterwards, hot cross buns for snacks or whatever we call it, coffee hour. So be sure to stick around for coffee hour. And this is this beautiful story of these two travelers on the road to Emmaus. And we're going to kind of take some of this apart, maybe look at a little part of it that we haven't seen before. So I'm excited about that. But I want to mention one thing that one of the travelers is given a name, it's Cleopas. But the other one doesn't have a name. He has a name, of course, but he doesn't have a name in the Scriptures. And it can be interesting to speculate who the other person was. What their name was, because they were given this great gift of understanding the Scriptures and understanding what the resurrection was. And they would have definitely been a resource to the early church. But we don't know who it was. But I kind of like to think that it's just, you know, it doesn't in a way we don't need to know their name. We just need to know that they had influence on the church after receiving this great gift.

[1:16] And I like it when Scripture has a little bit of mystery in it, like it's not all spelled out so that you can kind of imagine. You know, maybe it was, you know, maybe it was Mark, you know, Mark wasn't one of the disciples, right? He was the person who wrote down what Peter said. We don't know. So leave that aside. But just let's leave room for mystery sometimes. I think that this is a beautiful thing. And that's why parables work so well is because we kind of have to use our minds.

[1:47] But we do have this man named Cleopas. And if we read in John chapter 19, 25, this came up on Sunday. On Good Friday, it says this, it says, Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, and Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. So there's a woman in the Scripture who also doesn't…her name is Mary. There's a lot of Marys. There's like five or six of them. But one of them is Mary, the wife of Clopas. Now is this the same? Is she the wife of Cleopas or is she the wife of Clopas? Are Clopas and Cleopas the same person? Short answer is probably they're the same person. Names are, you know, we spell our names. We always insist our names are spelled correctly. Back then it was okay if the names sounded alike. You know, they didn't have a lot of documents that they put their names on. So my guess is that Clopas or Cleopas' wife was there at the crucifixion and saw Jesus die. And now, so he might have heard from his own wife if he wasn't there. We don't know who he was exactly. He's not one of the… He's not one of the twelve apostles, but he may be one of the group of disciples. This is sort of a larger group of people that had followed Jesus around. And clearly his wife was also connected to Jesus and to Jesus' mother Mary.

[3:07] So as we read this story of Cleopas and his fellow traveler on the way to Emmaus, I want you to pay attention to the mood of the two travelers and how it changes. Because at first they're dejected and they're defeated. They might even be leaving Jerusalem for their own safety. Because in their minds, Jesus is dead. The whole movement is at an end. If the Romans were going to kill Jesus, maybe they weren't done yet. They might come after more of his followers. So maybe they don't feel safe in Jerusalem. Their motivation for going to Emmaus is not told, but it's likely that, you know, they were definitely dejected, depressed, and maybe fearful. But as the story unfolds, just listen to their discrepancy. For they were panicked or panicked or panicked or panicked or panicked or panicked or panicked or panicked or panicked or panicked or panicked or panicked and everything that had, just the same day as Easter Sunday, just the same day as the resurrection. They were talking about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. And I want to say a note here on verse 16, because the New Living Translation here says, but God kept them from recognizing him.

[4:48] The Greek text underneath this doesn't say God kept them. It says they were kept from. It doesn't say who did it. The New Living Translation is not just translating, but interpreting and giving a name to the person who kept them from seeing who Jesus really was. This will come up later, so just keep a little note on that. But our translation today has God kept them from recognizing him. Verse 17, he asked them, what are you discussing so intently as you walk? You can imagine Jesus being a little bit, what are you guys talking about like he doesn't know? They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, you must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days. What things? Jesus asked. The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth. They said he was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him.

[6:01] We had hoped that he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago. Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive. Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said.

[6:29] Then Jesus said to them, you foolish people, you find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the scriptures. Wasn't it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory? Then Jesus said, Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

[6:57] By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, stay the night with us, since it is getting late. So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it, and gave it to them. Suddenly their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared.

[7:24] They said to each other, didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the scriptures to us? And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, who said, the Lord has really risen. He appeared to Peter. Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread. And just as they were telling it, telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. Peace be with you, he said. But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost.

[8:11] Why are you frightened, he asked. Why are your hearts filled with doubt? Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it's really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don't have bodies as you see that I do. As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet.

[8:31] Still they stood there in disbelief, filled with joy and wonder. Then he asked them, do you have anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he ate it as they watched. Then he said, when I was with you before, I told you about everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said, yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations beginning in Jerusalem. There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. You are witnesses of all these things. And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised, but stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven. Let's pray.

[9:34] Father, thank you for this word, your word of the resurrection. And we pray that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, Amen. Wasn't that great? What a great story. Like this is the longer version of it because it doesn't just end with the journey to Emmaus, but their return. And then Jesus appears again and kind of does the same thing for the apostles, which is to open their minds and explain to them from the Scriptures how all of this is going to fit together. And it was something that they had been missing up until that point. So here's the overall idea we want to work towards today, which is that the resurrection that the risen Jesus both proclaims his own resurrection, that's what Jesus does, just by appearing, he proclaims his own resurrection, and he teaches people what that resurrection means, that's what we're going to spend some time on here today, is what the resurrection means. So the goal here is for us to hear about that proclamation, which is what Easter is about, and also to hear from Jesus what the resurrection means to us, that we care about what the resurrection means. And I want to note one thing, and you probably noticed that that after his resurrection, resurrection, Jesus is a little different than the Jesus before his resurrection. Do you kind

[10:50] of catch some of that, right? And he's, so he's different. The new Jesus, it's like, you know, new crest is kind of like old crest, but maybe with more whitening power, I don't know. But new Jesus is kind of like old Jesus, but new Jesus is a little different than old Jesus. So here's how old Jesus, here's how he's the same. Here's how new crest is the same as old crest. But this, we're talking about Jesus now. Did you get that? Jesus is not toothpaste, but Jesus is Jesus. So here's how Jesus is the same. He talks to people and people can hear him. I mean, that's something, right? If you talk, you're actually creating sound waves. It's a physical manifestation. People can hear him. Jesus walks around and he occupies space. You could say he's still incarnated. He's still made up of matter. So people can touch him. And in fact, he, people could touch him before. People can touch him afterwards at his invitation. He still has a regular biological life. In the old Jesus, new Jesus, he breathes on people as a blessing and he eats food, right? So he's not a ghost. Ghosts don't eat, you know. I'm assuming the food disappeared as he ate it. It didn't just drop, you know, just drop through him like a ghost, right? In fact, how would he have picked

[12:02] it up is the other question, right? So, and also, new Jesus, looks like old Jesus most of the time, most of the time. So hold on to that. So here, but here's how Jesus is different. Here's how new Jesus is different. He has wounds that don't heal. They're just there. The holes in him are still there. He can appear here and there at will, including entering a room that's locked. How does he do that? It's like Star Trek, you know, the matter, anti-matter transporter thing. But that was way before that. So he can appear here and there. He just shows up. As you remember in the story, he shows up and then he disappears and there's no explanation of how he got there, right? And then sometimes he doesn't look like himself. Sometimes, or at least, people are kept from recognizing him. So there's something going on. Either he looks different or he looks different to somebody. Their perception of him is changed in some way so they don't actually recognize him, right? And finally, the new Jesus in the end, he ascends to heaven while people are watching. And that one's an interesting question. Can he fly? You know, is this Superman Jesus? No, probably not. Or is he taken up to heaven like Elijah was? We don't know. It's okay. But he's

[13:33] different. So that's an interesting sort of wrinkle in what we call the incarnation, this idea that he's human, is that even as sort of the pre-resurrection Jesus, he had powers that humans don't have. And in post-resurrection Jesus, there are powers, even more powers, that humans don't have. But yet, he's still in the flesh. He's still with them. He touches them. He breathes them. They touch him. He eats food, right? He talks to them. And I think really the most relational aspect of the incarnation is actually just Jesus talking. He talks to them. And then hearing him. Being in the same space with them is really the essence of the incarnation, because that's about the distance between us and God. And when is Jesus standing right next to you, it doesn't almost doesn't matter what matter he's made out of. It matters that you can talk to him and he can talk to you and you can have that relationship. So Jesus is the same in that respect. So these things are going to help us pay attention to how this story unfolds, because the two travelers are depressed and they're setting out to go to heaven. And they're sitting in the out for this sort of two hour journey, seven miles, about two hours as the day comes to a close.

[14:45] And Jesus miraculously appears next to them and walks with them. They don't really, there's no mention of, they don't say, well, where did you come from? He's just there. And if you remember from the reading, we're not going to go back to it, but at the beginning, they don't recognize him. They assume he's just a fellow traveler. They don't know who he is. He's just somebody walking along with them and they strike up a conversation. So they can't recognize him. And here there's an interesting difference of opinion. Now listen to this. This is very fascinating. Okay. Did Jesus or God hide himself from them so he could, in essence, understand what they were thinking? He was sort of like, you know, like somebody who goes to a store and they're not really a customer. They actually work for the company and they're trying to see how friendly the staff is, you know, and they act like a customer. So they're trying to kind of get get something out of them. And is Jesus trying to walk next to them so that he can figure out what it is they know, where their faith is, what they actually believe about what happened that day?

[15:48] Little sneaky, but that could be a teaching strategy for a rabbi. A rabbi would kind of feign ignorance maybe and try to elicit some answer from his students to see what they know. So this could be Jesus the rabbi kind of concealing his identity from them so he could learn what they knew. That's one theory, okay.

[16:11] But some commentators believe that it was Satan that kept them from seeing Jesus and knowing who he was. And this is new to me, I hadn't seen this before. This is fascinating, right? Because that's really the job of Satan is to misrepresent and obscure Jesus, to keep people actually from seeing the real Jesus, to not actually see the real Jesus.

[16:48] To stop or journey is to do battle with Satan. And the way he does that is by continuously explaining to them who he was as recorded in the scriptures, and finally to reveal himself to them in the breaking of the bread and the giving of the thanks. Until in that final moment, then he is victorious because Satan is defeated and their ability to see Jesus is unimpeded. So we know that Jesus wins the battle. And then when they see Jesus, he then disappears, but the battle continues because now they understand their job is to go back to Jerusalem and unobscure Jesus for everybody else they see. So that their job is sort of this... proclamation of the gospel and telling people who Jesus is, is the battle continuing. So they're going to, they've sort of been enlisted into this battle. So is this a walk on a road or is this a battle between good and evil? It's a free choice. You can choose, you just pick the one you like the best or pick the one that makes the most sense. Don't pick the one you like the best because that's not a very good strategy. I just thought about that. Pick the one that makes the most sense theologically and scripturally for you. I like both of them. The, the classic view is that the way our, our translation today's translated is God

[18:27] or Jesus had a reason for concealing his identity from them, probably because he wanted to elicit from them what they knew. And if I had to, you know, bet a thousand dollars and I, and I had to choose one of those things, I would choose, I would choose that one. And then God would be mad at me. Why are you betting on scripture? You can't do that. It's like, it's like the, it's like betting on sports. And you own a sports team or like they can't do that. But anyways, I like both possibilities and I love the idea that those are both. Remember I said a little bit of mystery. Here's another mystery. Which one is it? It's okay. A little bit of mystery is all right. So, but what's at the center of it all though, is that Jesus, the center of this is the action.

[19:11] The action is that Jesus took the time to walk with them and, and the important piece is the explanation to them. The explanation. The explanation of who he was and how all the scriptures hang together and predicted the resurrection and not to belabor a point, probably he was thinking was, I told you at least three times that this was going to happen. There's three distinct times in the gospel of Mark, for example, three distinct times that Jesus says, the son of man is going to be handed over to the authorities. He's going to be crucified.

[19:51] And he's going to rise again. Like he says this three times. Like if you say something three times, it's important, right? That's generally like, so the, the, that's the rabbi there. So the rabbi did everything the rabbi is supposed to do. The teachers said, I told you three times.

[20:07] And that's why he's kind of frustrated with them. Verse 25 said, how foolish you are. It's sort of a gentle rebuke. How foolish you are. He loves them, but he's still going to say, look, you missed, you missed this thing. I told you three times.

[20:22] He's going to do it again. Satan's spell. And then verse 32, and this is, I think, the beautiful part of it, where they're looking back at something they're just realizing. They said, in verse 32, it says, didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the scriptures to us? And I like that so much because I want that to happen for us, not just when we're talking about the resurrection, but when we're talking about anything. I want the reading of the scripture to create a burning sensation in my heart because it's God's word breaking into the world in this sort of incarnational way. And it's God reaching into my life with this word of promise, of hope, of rebuke, of prophecy, of instruction. I mean, you can make a list that goes on and on and on, and it's all riches, it's all grace, it's all beauty, like when the Psalms are read, right, or the Proverbs are read, or you read about the death of Jesus and his love, or you read about the miracles, right? Shouldn't our hearts catch fire when the scripture is read, when it's not just read, but explained to us? That's why preaching is so important, that's why I hope it has to be done well. You guys are like, boo, Bethlehem,

[22:13] bad job today! No, I'm kidding, you're not. But you hope it's done well because the hearts need to catch on fire when the word is said, and preached, and explained, and exposit it, and all the rest. So, they realized in retrospect that something was happening inside them as this stranger was explaining things to them about the scriptures. They didn't even know it was Jesus. It was, that's how powerful the word is. even the word of a stranger about the scriptures had this power on them. And it was made all the more beautiful and all the more satisfying when they realized that it was Jesus himself who was doing it. And within, it says then in verse 33, within the hour, they were on their way back to Jerusalem. Instead of running away in desperation and dejection and depression, right? They're like, holy cow, we need to go back. We just walked two hours. Let's get a drink of water. Let's finish this last morsel of bread and let's put our shoes back on and let's get back on the road and let's go back to Jerusalem. Let's not let a moment go by before we go do that. Because they realize now we've got to explain this to other people too. We need other hearts to catch fire. So the other thing I want to say is, I want to say, I want to

[23:49] say, I want to say, I want to to say, I want to say, I want to say, I want to say, I want to say, I want to say, I want to say, I want You can't quite make out all the contours of it. And there's something unknown there. And here's what the darkness was. Is that, again, they didn't remember that Jesus had said several times that he would die and rise again. And so when he died, instead of saying, oh, like when Jesus died, they were demolished. They didn't know what to do with themselves. They thought the whole thing was over. But when he died, what they should have said was, oh, this was expected. This is just one milestone on a longer journey. The next step is he'll be raised again. The next step after that is we're going to keep doing what he's doing. This was important. In fact, that's one of the verbs that we have in the Greek. It's just the word dei, D-E-I, if you want to say it like that. But it was. It was necessary. It was needed. It was required. Often you would see that paired with the phrase, so that the scriptures might be fulfilled, et cetera. So it was required that he would die and be raised again so that all this other stuff could happen. So they should have seen this just as, you know, here's a plan, A, B, C, D.

[25:27] A was his ministry. B was his death. C was his resurrection. D was all the work that comes after that. And they should have said, well, we've done A and we've done B. And then we should definitely expect C any minute now, you know. And then let's get ready for D. Jesus had to illuminate that part of their understanding and say, this was the plan all along, but you missed it. Okay.

[25:55] Instead, they were thinking this is the end of the movement. It can't survive. We're done. In fact, if you look at it. If they came after him, they might come after us. So maybe let's get out of town. We don't know. And Pastor Steve talked about this last week at Palm Sunday worship, which was great. And it's what's known as the messianic crisis. That's something you could write down if you want. If you're taking notes, the messianic crisis is kind of a sort of a category in theology, which is the idea that the Messiah, as it was thought, only comes to dominate the power structures that rule the earth. And that would be military power, economic power. Political power.

[26:33] And that was the expectation of the Messiah is he would come and rule. And even they said to the stranger on the road, who is Jesus, they said, we thought he was going to be the one to redeem Israel. We thought he was going to be. But what they meant by that was we thought he was going to come in power, defeat all our enemies in all sorts of worldly ways. And we would set. We would ascend in power. Our country would be number one, you know, so to speak.

[27:05] And if you look at what Jesus says over and over and over again, this is why Jesus had to remind them of all the things that he had said was that Jesus always rejected all those powers. Have you noticed that Jesus rejects economic power? Jesus rejects political power. He rejects the temptation of them from Satan himself, but he also rejects them and how he lives. He. Rejects political power. He's not interested in the world's power games there to him. They are actually nothing in a way, because he's actually far more powerful than any of those things, but he humbles himself and empties himself and becomes like a slave or a servant, right?

[27:48] If there was a Messiah who lived in those powers and was killed, and especially if he was killed in the most humiliating way, as Pastor Victoria preached about on Good Friday, then the logical conclusion is that this is the Messiah. This was not really the Messiah. And in the and the crisis is that we had spent so much time wasted on someone who couldn't deliver what we wanted. That's the messianic crisis. The messianic crisis is that Jesus looked like not the Messiah. They had put their hopes in the wrong person. They were going to have to wait for somebody else to come along and do all this stuff.

[28:26] And so I would say the journey that they were on was really about. Unlearning. What they had learned. Changing their expectations of what the Messiah really is, and then relearning what had already been taught to them. This is the isn't it sad that they had to unlearn what they weren't taught and they had to relearn what they had already been taught. This is how confused the disciples are all the time. It's a good thing that Jesus promises them the Holy Spirit so that he could speak for them because they can't really do it on their own. They can, but you see what I'm saying. So.

[29:02] There's no crisis in Jesus because he delivers what he always said he would. Victory over evil. Yes, but by being obedient to the father. And this is what we read in Philippians 2. This is what this is what Jesus does. This is how he triumphs over evil. Philippians 2 reads like this, that Jesus came. He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness and being found in human form. he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And so, yes, the Messiah has victory, but the Messiah has victory through humiliation. Does that sound weird? Yes, to us, to people who are schooled in the power structures of this world, victory never comes through humiliation, never. But for Jesus, it does. And new life for Jesus comes through death.

[30:04] This is the story of the Christian faith. You never get to the new life unless you die first. Jesus dies in obedience on the cross to be raised to new life. We die to the old self. We confess our sins. We set aside our old ways. We set aside our addictions. We set aside our limitations to all the power structures of this world. We allow ourselves to become fools for the sake of the gospel because that's actually the true wisdom. We endure the mocking and the shame of all the rest of the world because we know that this is the truth. And when we die to ourselves in that way, then God raises us to new life. And that's what it means to be born again. That's what Jesus was talking about. When he talked about being born again. You don't live until you're really born again. And the being born again is the new life that comes after we die. Now, yes, we also die physically in this life. And there's a new life after that one. Praise God, that's what the resurrection also promises. But the resurrection, I keep talking about this, what does it mean for us now? The resurrection of Jesus means for us now that we have new life now when we die to our new life. That we can live ourselves in all the ways that I've just said.

[31:30] So, the resurrection for them meant that after death came new life for Jesus, after humiliation, it says Jesus was also exalted. And for them, disappointment and depression becomes illumination and a fire in the heart. So, they were trading all these things out when they realized what had happened, right? And so, we have to go back to the resurrection. This is what I think it looks like for us. This is what it looks like for us to sort of live a resurrection life in light of the resurrection of Jesus. And I would put it this way. We reject the powers of this world. We reject them. We don't seek to use them to achieve any aims that we have for the kingdom. Economic power, political power, military power. They all have their time and place and I'm sure the world can't run without them. I'm not saying that it can. But I'm saying that as Christians, we don't use those powers to achieve the aims of the kingdom.

[32:36] We achieve the aims of the kingdom by dying to ourselves and being raised to new life. And submitting our lives to the will of the Spirit and speaking when the Spirit says speak and speaking what the Spirit tells us to say.

[32:51] That's the path. So, those things are not a path for us. And we also... We also don't seek a Messiah or a leader in this life that trades in those powers. And so it's good not to have too many heroes. I hate to say this, but don't have too many heroes. And I'm sure I'm sufficiently ornery and annoying enough that you'll never think of me as a hero. Because I absolutely don't want you to.

[33:15] Don't have heroes. They're always going to disappoint you. Especially don't have Christian heroes. If you think about all the Christian heroes of this last century, the only one I can really think about is Billy Graham. Who didn't do something really, really, really stupid and immoral. I can't think of any others, honestly, sad to say. Don't make heroes out of Christian leaders. It's always a disappointment. A little bit of power comes in and they forget who they are. They start treating other people as objects. And that's a real blight on the faith. And we have to be thinking about that. So we need to find some way to choose leaders who are sincere followers, not ambitious people. That's a different question. So... All those things are not a path for us. And we don't seek a messiah or a leader who trades in those powers. We seek and we share new life. And the only path to that new life is through death. And for us that means not physical death, at least not yet. But dying to the self and dying to the power. And pulling away the veil that evil covers our eyes with. And that veil that keeps us from seeing things as they truly are. And that keeps us from seeing Jesus. So part of this battle is a battle for our perception.

[34:29] It's a battle for our minds. So that we actually, we can foil Satan by actually seeing Jesus for who he truly is. And that's to see Jesus for who he says he is. Not for who somebody else says he is. And it means thinking soberly about reality and about the world we're in. And it also means freedom from the bondage of sin. And it means a breaking of the power of death and the devil. All these things are the new life that come to us. And finally it means a new start. A new start. And a hope. And we're not too jaded. I hope you realize that our hearts can be set aflame again today. I hope your hearts are set aflame because it's Easter.

[35:13] Just a little note. I know this is going long but I decided to go long today because there's a baptism that Grace is doing. And we can't let our kids out until... They have not started the baptism. They haven't even started the baptism yet. So. But.

[35:26] But, you know, it's Easter so you're going to have to sit for this. It's okay. But I hope we're not too jaded to realize that our hearts can be set aflame today. Let your heart catch on fire. Listen to the word of God. Listen to it. And listen to the word of the resurrection. All it takes is a reminder of who Jesus is and what Jesus said makes us into new people. And the final word is this. Christ reveals himself to us. He dies for us. He's raised again. So we will be raised again. Both in this life and in the life to come. Hallelujah. That's it. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for this word. Thank you for the resurrection of Jesus. Lord, help us die to ourselves every day and be raised to new life in you. Ready to do your work in this world. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.