Luke 24:13-35

Intro

The following statement is one that I have heard many a time…as well as one that I know I have said quite often: the journey of life is not always an easy road to travel. This morning’s passage takes that metaphorical image, and gives it a story.

Two followers of Jesus are walking to the town of Emmaus, which, while it is identified as seven miles from Jerusalem, has never been definitively located. However, the story tells us that they are walking on that road to Emmaus on the afternoon of what we now know as Easter. These two individuals were very close with the disciples because they were with them when the women came back from the tomb, declaring that they had seen angels, that the body of Jesus was gone, and moreover, that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

This is the message that they had heard and yet what we hear as they are walking and talking on the road to Emmaus is that their lives have hit a dead end. If they haven’t done so already, they are right on the edge of giving up.

Have you every gotten to a point in your life where you have given up? Where you have lost all hope? If you have, and I don’t know anyone hasn’t at the very least come really close to looking into that abyss, then please, please, please pay attention to this story. It reminds us how in God, we should never give up. The scripture reads way.

Luke 24:13-35

13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?" 19 He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him." 25 Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

"Don’t Do It …Don’t Give Up on God"

Whenever I read this story I am continually struck by how blind we can be to what is taking place right in front of us. Back on Easter I used that line in regards to Mary Magdalene and how the proof of the resurrection was happening right in front of her and she wasn’t able to see it.

Today that reminder takes place on a road, a road to Emmaus, as two followers of Jesus are headed down a path of life that, essentially, has given up on God. They had placed their hope in the belief that Jesus was the Messiah and when Jesus didn’t live up to the earthly expectations of who the Messiah was supposed to be, well, whatever hope they had left was minimal at best. They were on a path that was leading them to say, "I give up. I give up on God. I give up on there being a greater purpose to life. I give up on there being a way out of the difficulty that we find ourselves in. I give up." That’s where they were going. That’s where the circumstances of life led them to be, and they were going right on down that path. They were going to that place of just giving up.

Many of us know exactly how they are feeling, or at the very least understand how they got there, because we’ve been there too. We’ve looked out at the landscape of the world and what we see is darkness. Maybe it’s because of the sudden and unexpected illness of a loved one, maybe even their death. How often do we say to ourselves and to others, "if there is a God, then why is this happening? What have I done wrong?" In that thinking, you are heading to a place of giving up on God.

Maybe it’s because you’re looking at your financial status and the debt that is being incurred to seemingly just make ends meet. You look at that situation and you cry out, "Why? Why is that I work so hard and yet I can’t get ahead? I’m doing everything right. I’m playing by the rules and yet nothing seems top go my way. Am I cursed? Or maybe it’s just that the good never win." In that thinking, you are headed to a place of giving up, both on God, and on yourself.

Maybe you’re just looking out at the state of the world, with so much war, with so much violence, with so much selfishness, and you’re beginning to think, "Does God really exist? Because if God exists and this is the best that God can do, then maybe God has just washed His hands and said, ‘I’m done with them. They’re on their own.’" In that sort of thinking, you are headed to a place of giving up on God.

Doubt that begins to take the journey toward giving up because of the circumstances that are before us happens to so many of us. We look at our world and we see no way to get out of the bind that we are in no way to move toward a place of health and wholeness. We see and experience some escalating level of frustration, failure, and defeat. We move toward giving up, and giving up on God. That’s the path the two followers of Jesus were walking upon. That’s where they were going. They were headed to a place of giving up on God.

On Thursday, Jen and I were at the Third Day concert and one of the opening bands, I think it was Sanctus Real, sang a song about someone who had given up all hope. The lead singer, singing as this person, has been convicted of a crime, a crime that he admits that he committed. This criminal is being walked to the place where he is going to receive the punishment for his conviction. His punishment is death. We don’t hear what this man did, but he knows that he is guilty and deserves the punishment that is before him. The road of life that he has walked has led him to a place where he had to be utterly hopeless. He had to have just given up.

He is strapped to the instrument of his death and he looks to right, and there is another man who is also awaiting his death. He recognizes him: not because he personally knew the man, but he knew of him. He looks to this man and he says, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom. For I know that you are innocent. I believe in you." Jesus looks back at this criminal and says, "before this day is done, you will be with me in paradise."

I listened to that very familiar story as sung through a song that I had never heard and what kept running through my head is: don’t do it. Don’t you ever do it. Don’t give up on God. Here is a guilty man, hanging on the cross and into his life comes the Son of God. Don’t give up on God… because God has not given up on you. And I wasn’t thinking that in regards to anyone else, other than myself because we all need to be reminded of how God is in our presence, right here, right now.

And I think that’s why Jesus sounds as frustrated as he does when he says to his fellow journeyers to Emmaus, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!" He is looking at his friends and listening to not only what they are saying but how they are saying it, and seeing people who are heading down the path of life where they simply give up. They may be going through the motions of living but that’s all it is: going through the motions. That isn’t how God created us to live! God created us so that we might come to know how precious and vitally important we are. God created us so that we might discover how dependable God truly is. Don’t give up on God. Keep your head up and know that somewhere the Spirit is moving in such a way that the very Creator of all we know is in Your presence.

Our communion meal acts as a reminder of the fact that God is with us in all that we face. Our communion meal is a time to remember how God didn’t give up on us even to the point of sending his own son to die so that we might have the opportunity to live eternally. Don’t give on God!

I know that life can be hard. I know there are days when each of us feels isolated and alone, or burdened by life in such a way where you wonder, "what’s the point?" I know.

In the same breath, as I have faced those periods of time, I have also forced myself to remember (and at times had it reminded to me) that I should never give up on God. The God whom we worship is fighting for us so that the lives that we lead will ultimately come to see that God has been there all along, walking with us as we take each and every step upon the road of life that is before us.

The challenges of life are great. The God whom we worship is greater. Don’t do it…don’t ever give up on God.

After Sermon Prayer

Holy and gracious Lord, You do walk with us imploring us to understand that as difficult as life can become a still greater future is yet to be revealed. Lord, whatever we face help us to never give up on You. It is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.