[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]
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This Week's Sermon THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER 06 April 2008 "Finding Christ"
Soli Deo Gloria!
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This Week's Sermon THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER 06 April 2008 "Finding Christ"
Soli Deo Gloria!
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After our risen Lord Jesus showed himself to Thomas, he said:
"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29, ESV)You have been blessed through faith, not sight. We are not Emmaus disciples. We are not eyewitnesses of Jesus' resurrection but we believe. We believe because we trust the word of those who did see him and because God the Holy Spirit has caused this eyewitness testimony to be recorded in Holy Scripture. So often people say, "If only I could see Jesus with my own eyes it would be so much easier to believe that he rose from the dead." Of course, that isn't possible in the same sense that those in Jesus' day saw him after his resurrection. That's a onetime event, but that doesn't mean we don't see Jesus. This account of Jesus appearing to the Emmaus disciples has some very important elements, one of which is "Finding Christ."
If you look in the back hallway of our Parish Center when you leave today you'll see a painting on the west wall that has been hanging there for years. It's one artist's interpretation of this text. Jesus and the two disciples are walking along through what appears to be a kind of clearing in a forest. It's apparent that Jesus is teaching and explaining things to them as the caption at the bottom indicates. But there are some things wrong with that painting. First, the topography is not Palestinian; it looks more North American with grass and trees and the brook. Second, the two disciples are a bit too excited looking. One would expect more puzzling looks and downward glances. They don't recognize Jesus. Luke says that "their eyes were kept from recognizing him." They saw him but didn't recognize him.
If they were able to see Jesus physically but couldn't recognize him, then how could we ever recognize him? Take the copy of another painting which I have placed by this one. It's by an Italian artist named Caravaggio who painted it in the years 1601-02. Caravaggio has correctly understood this text. While the discussion along the road to Emmaus was important, those two disciples still did not find Christ. It was merely information to them. It was only when Jesus was at table with them, when he took the bread, blessed it and broke it, and then gave it to them that Luke tells us that "their eyes were opened, and they recognized him." Here is the point: We see Jesus, that is, we find the Christ, in the breaking of the bread, that is, in the Sacrament of the Altar.
All of Jesus' disciples had been scandalized by his arrest and crucifixion. As they explained to Jesus along the way what events had taken place in Jerusalem over the last few days, Luke records their frame of mind as Jesus asked,
"What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still, looking sad." (Luke 24:17, ESV)Some might say it was their grief that kept them from seeing Jesus but that's not right. They did not understand the Scriptures and what the Scriptures had said about the Christ. They confessed that they had hoped that Jesus was the one to "redeem Israel," but they had the redemption all wrong. Evidently, just like the Twelve, they thought in political terms. Redemption and salvation seem to be political and religious questions mixed together. It's a problem that people have always had. It's a problem in our day as religious leaders as well as politicians mix church and state as though they went together naturally. However, as many as have tried, so many have failed. Redemption and salvation are not political concepts to be carried out by the political establishment. No politician, no prince, no king, and no government is going to redeem this world. None is going to save it. Church and state are like oil and water. They do not mix. We Lutherans like to call this distinction the "two governances" of God, or sometimes just "the two kingdoms." They cannot and should not be mixed.
That they get mixed shows that most people really don't understand what Christ was to do in his earthly ministry. To hear some say it, Jesus today would be on the campaign trail endorsing certain candidates who would help bring God's kingdom on earth, but that's completely and totally wrong. Jesus told Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world" [John 18.36]. And it was not and never will be a kingdom of this world. Christ's kingdom has to do with something else. It has to do with sin and grace, repentance and forgiveness, subjects in which the government has no interest.
The crucifixion of Jesus seemed to end all the hopes of these disciples. "We had hoped . . ." they said sadly. Their hopes were misplaced. They thought that if Jesus were the Messiah, the Christ, then he could not suffer and die, but this is exactly what the Moses and all the prophets had said would happen. It is what Jesus himself had said on numerous occasions would happen. But they couldn't, would not, believe it, and so they could not recognize the risen Christ when he spoke with them. Recognition was deferred until they had been more adequately catechized. You know, it's the old "Your education has been sadly neglected!" story.
The reason that they had despaired so much was that they had seen Jesus dead. Death has a certain finality about it, doesn't it? Jesus' own words that he would rise from the dead after three days didn't penetrate their thinking. Only after they heard the Word of God opened up to them by Jesus did he then open the eyes of their hearts in the supper. When Jesus revealed himself in the breaking of the bread they recognized him. Look at Caravaggio's painting and see how he has captured the moment of recognition. The disciple in the left foreground is about to come out of his chair. The disciple on the right has his hands extended in absolute wonderment, in that "aha!" moment when the lights come on for him. Now they recognize him.
And where will you find this risen Christ? There are some who will tell you to find him in your heart, but you know your heart, how sinfully corrupt it is and how it is filled with all sorts of sinful thoughts and desires. You won't find him there. Besides, he hasn't promised to be there in your heart. Some say you should seek mystical experiences to find him, as though he's floating out there is the twilight zone waiting for you to ascend up to it. He isn't there, either.
But he is where he has promised to be, namely, in the breaking of the bread, in the Sacrament of the Altar. The church father Augustine wrote:
Ah yes, brothers and sisters, but where did the Lord wish to be recognized? In the breaking of bread. We're all right, nothing to worry about-we break bread, and we recognize the Lord. It was for our sake that he didn't want to be recognized anywhere but there, because we aren't going to see him in the flesh, and yet we were going to eat his flesh. So if you're a believer, any of you, if you're not called a Christian for nothing, if you don't come to church pointlessly, if you listen to the Word of God in fear and hope, you may take comfort in the breaking of bread. The Lord's absence is not an absence. Have faith, the one you cannot see is with you" [Ancient Christian Commentary, New Testament III Luke, p. 378].
As soon as they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, Jesus disappeared from their sight. It showed them that from now on this is where they will find the Christ, where they will see Jesus. Even today Jesus continues to be recognized in the Sacrament of the Altar. It is the very place where our Lord has promised to show himself to us. When Jesus says, "This is my body. . . this is my blood," you believe that he is truly here according to his flesh. You believe his Word. You have been catechized. You have been taught that all of our Lord's redeeming work is distributed in this meal. You believe that the forgiveness of your sins happens as you receive the risen Christ in the Supper. You believe that he comes to you and to every communicant to bind you together in the confession of his Name.
To all the world this appearance in bread and wine remains a scandal, a stumbling block. "How can the Christ be present physically in this meal?" they ask. They do not recognize Christ just as the two Emmaus disciples did not recognize him along the road. They are looking for a Christ who is bound to time and space, not a risen and ascended Christ who is able to fill all things in every way for the good of his Church, whose kingdom is not of this world. Jesus withdrew his physical presence from the two Emmaus disciples to teach them and us that he will be present every time the Sacrament is celebrated according to his institution. There is the Word of God read and proclaimed, and there is the Holy Supper where we continue to find Christ according to his flesh, just as he has promised.
Here in the Supper is how you recognize Christ-those of you who believe that he is the Christ. It isn't every loaf of bread you see, said Augustine, but only the one which receives Christ's blessing, that is, the one over which the consecrating words of Jesus are spoken. That's where we recognize him when we hear his words and receive his gifts.
Notice the reaction of the two disciples. First there is astonishment and then there is joy, great joy. They rushed back to Jerusalem to report everything. So, too, there should be great joy every time the Sacrament is offered because the risen Lord Jesus himself comes to you to bring you redemption and salvation. Every Divine Service, then, is a mini resurrection appearance of the Lord, happening simultaneously all around the world for his Christians.
We teach our catechumens to locate what the Lutheran Confessions call "the marks of the Church." Those marks are Word and Sacrament. Find Word and Sacrament and one will find Christ, and when one finds Christ one finds forgiveness and eternal life. All of that happens every Sunday in the Divine Service and on any other festival when Word and Sacrament are used. So where will you find Christ? Right here, even in this ersatz sanctuary, because we use Christ's Word and his Sacrament as he has ordained them. And it is all to your benefit and your joy!
Be sure to look at the painting by Caravaggio on the way out today after you have found Christ here in the Sacrament. I'm sure you'll understand why it is such a wonderful picture of our Gospel today.