Luke 24:13-35 (Living) 

That same day, Sunday, two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14As they walked along they were talking of Jesus' death, 15when suddenly Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. 16But they didn't recognize him, for God kept them from it.

17"You seem to be in a deep discussion about something," he said. "What are you so concerned about?" They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. 18And one of them, Cleopas, replied, "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about the terrible things that happened there last week."

19"What things?" Jesus asked.

"The things that happened to Jesus, the Man from Nazareth," they said. "He was a Prophet who did incredible miracles and was a mighty Teacher, highly regarded by both God and man. 20But the chief priests and our religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to the Roman government to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. 21We had thought he was the glorious Messiah and that he had come to rescue Israel.

"And now, besides all this--which happened three days ago-- 22some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning and came back with an amazing report 23that his body was missing, and that they had seen some angels there who told them Jesus is alive! 24Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus' body was gone, just as the women had said."

25Then Jesus said to them, "You are such foolish, foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures! 26Wasn't it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?"

27Then Jesus quoted them passage after passage from the writings of the prophets, beginning with the book of Genesis and going right on through the Scriptures, explaining what the passages meant and what they said about himself.

28By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus would have gone on, 29but they begged him to stay the night with them, as it was getting late. So he went home with them. 30As they sat down to eat, he asked God's blessing on the food and then took a small loaf of bread and broke it and was passing it over to them, 31when suddenly--it was as though their eyes were opened--they recognized him! And at that moment he disappeared!

32They began telling each other how their hearts had felt strangely warm as he talked with them and explained the Scriptures during the walk down the road. 33Within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem, where the eleven disciples and the other followers of Jesus greeted them with these words, 34"The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!"

35Then 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.

Why do we find it so hard to believe?  We want to believe.  That’s why we’re here this morning.  We want to believe that there is more to life than just living, working and dying.  We want to believe that all the stuff we go through here on earth means something; that it will count for something.  We want to believe, but we find it so hard.  That’s what this Scripture asks us this morning.  Why is it so hard to believe?

I love this story about the two people walking to Emmaus.  Most scholars agree that Cleopas is the husband of Mary.  This is the same Mary who was with Mary Magdalene when the Angel visited the tomb and rolled back the stone.  This Mary, most agree, was the sister of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  Mary and Cleopas were the parents of James and Simon, two of the disciples.  So we can be pretty sure that one of the people walking to Emmaus was the Uncle of Jesus. 

We have no clue who the other person was.  Some scholars think it may have been Luke himself, walking with Cleopas.  Others believe that it was Mary, his wife.  Still others guess that it was Peter which I don’t understand.  But, it really doesn’t matter except to point out that these two travelers were very familiar with Jesus and would have been following Him for a couple of years and had listened to His words and His preaching over and over again.

No one is quite sure why these two did not recognize Jesus.  Some believe He wore a disguise.  Others think that after His resurrection, Jesus looked different and still others think that God blinded the two from recognizing Jesus.  Again, it doesn’t matter.  We just need to know that they did not know they were walking and talking with Jesus.  If they would have recognized Him, their answers and the discussion may have been quite different.

Jesus joined the two and did what he had done so often before.  He played dumb and let the two speak.  What are you so upset about, He asked?  This gave them the opportunity to speak about what was weighing so heavily on their hearts.  They talked about Jesus and how they believed He was their Messiah.  Their tone of voice and their words however showed that they must have been wrong.  They talked about how Jesus’ body was missing and that some of the women there were told that Jesus was alive by an angel.  But again their tone of voice and their words showed they didn’t believe that either.

These two had supported Jesus — and because of that their life had not been easy. Now they ached with grief and confusion.  They seem to have given up and to have come to the conclusion that Jesus was not the Messiah. Their Master had been crucified contrary to what they expected.   Their hopes were dashed.  Their anticipation was disappointed, and they were now returning in sadness.  They naturally talked about the things which had happened in Jerusalem.  They were so depressed and so negative in their confusion that it was beyond their capacity to make the obvious connections.

If you have ever been depressed or tried to help someone who is depressed, you know that such people are amazingly resourceful.  They can find more reasons not to take comfort in anything you say to them. They are determined to hear everything as bad news. And that is exactly what these two did with the news of the empty tomb. To them, the empty tomb just compounded the tragedy, for they thought someone had stolen the body, adding insult to injury.

So the good news was bad news! Ironically, Cleopas mentioned that it had been three days since Jesus’ death, not recalling that Jesus had said over and over that He would be put to death and rise again on the third day.  Cleopas let it all out — his confusion, his depression, his disillusionment, his shrinking faith, his anger. And did Jesus reject him? Of course not. Jesus coaxed the two to reveal their true thoughts, which were really their doubts.

Foolish people! Slow of heart to believe! That was the rebuke from Jesus.  It is right there in front of you, yet you still don’t believe, you still don’t see.  Then He began to quote Scripture from Old Testament prophet after Old Testament prophet that talked of the Messiah and He explained to the two what the passages meant.

Certainly these two believed the prophets, but just as certainly they did not believe all that the prophets had said. They had read and believed the prophets selectively.  They embraced the Messiah passages, and ignored the passages that prophesied his sufferings.

Apparently the things that Jesus and these two travelers talked about started to make sense.  His preaching had made a deep impression upon their hearts.  The two begged Jesus to stay the night and have something to eat.  And as they began to break bread, Jesus was revealed to them.  They suddenly realized that the man they were talking with for the past few hours was the Messiah. And at that moment, Jesus disappeared.  Suddenly they saw that Jesus was alive.  Suddenly they believed.  Suddenly, and in an instant, their lives were changed.

It’s the same way for us today.  We hear others talk about their new life in Christ.  We read about a new life in the Bible.  We listen to the preachers tell about having a new life and that all we have to do is believe.  We hear people talk about how their lives were changed.  But we find it so hard to believe.  

There is no way I can tell you truly about the feelings you get when you finally make the discovery that Jesus is real; that He died on a cross and rose from the dead to wipe away your sins; that He loves you no matter what and that He guarantees you eternal life if you only believe.  I cannot drag you, kicking and screaming, to that realization.  I might like to, but I can’t, Bette can’t; no person here can. 

Oh, we can talk about Jesus and talk about what to do and talk about how it feels and talk about believing, and talk about how our lives have changed, but we can’t make you believe.  You see a relationship with Jesus is a truly personal experience.  This new life, this change can only be found in a personal relationship with the one who died and who rose again for you.  It is only you who can open your heart and stop trying to control everything.  It is only you who can enter into this personal, one-on-one relationship.

And only then will you begin to realize the time you have wasted and the peace you have missed.  Then you will begin to realize that there is so much more to this life than living, working and dying.

The two that walked to Emmaus were emotionally lost.  They listened to Jesus speak and took in His words, but they did not recognize Him.  We are often emotionally lost.  We encounter Jesus every day of our lives, but we seldom recognize Him.  And we will never recognize Him unless we invite him into our homes and into our hearts and into our lives and sit down and break bread with Him and say to Him, I believe.

Only then will you realize that there is a purpose to your life.  I can’t make you believe. I can only point you to the one who is waiting patiently to teach you all the wonderful things of this life and the next.  I can only point you toward Jesus.  The rest is up to you.

Amen.