Easter Monday Sermon 2021
Easter Monday – Luke 24:14-25
St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Laramie, WY
8 April A+D 2021, Pr. Mark Preus
The way to Galilee is North from Jerusalem, but they were travelling west to Emmaus. They had heard Mary. Christ is risen! To Galilee He goes before you. But they went the wrong way. And Jesus followed them, as a Shepherd does His lost sheep. And they were in danger of fallen into utter unbelief.
They thought Jesus was still dead. They were sad. They were talking about everything, but everything didn’t make sense to them. They were talking about Jesus’ sufferings and death and resurrection and were sad. This is not how they should feel. But they didn’t believe. It was too great for them, and their minds couldn’t grasp such a wonderful thing, that after Jesus was humiliated so painfully, so shamefully, so publicly, He would be exalted and raised from the dead and show Himself to a few women. As Luke says earlier, “Their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.”
So Jesus follows after them, as He searches and seeks for those weak in faith. The other disciples were also in doubt and sadness back in Jerusalem, but these two are fleeing from it all, and going the wrong way. And Jesus finds the two weak in their faith, going the wrong way.
He sees they are sad, and He hears them talking. He knows what is in their hearts. He knows their hearts more deeply than they do. And so he comes and questions them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” They think that this means He doesn’t know what has happened, as if He didn’t know what Adam had done when He asked Him in the Garden. He knows. He wants us to confess our doubt and unbelief. There is no reason for them to be sad. Jesus knows that. But they think there is every reason to be sad. Jesus must be ignorant of what happened if He doesn’t understand why they are sad.
We think that Jesus is too great for us, and that the resurrection is too great a good to help us, who are held by so much evil. A sinner thinks that his sin is proved even greater by the goodness of God, yes, by the grace of God. It is a false logic. Jesus knows that they shouldn’t be sad, and they think He just must not understand why they are sad.
But He sees more deeply into our hearts than we do. He asks that we might confess. And so He asks today, and let us confess.
“But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” Our hopes were not met. All we heard was some women say that Jesus had risen, but they didn’t find His body. I was hoping that I would see glory and victory to reverse the sadness of my sin that nailed Him to the cross, but all I have are the words of a few women. I was hoping for a better feeling, for sight that could give way to certainty, but here I am, not walking to Galilee where Jesus promised He would be, but to Emmaus, the wrong way.
How does Jesus respond? He was hidden from them. Yes, God hides Himself from the wise and prudent. They were still relying on their own reason and understanding, and they thought their sadness was legitimate. They thought that their feelings were worth more than the testimony of the women which agreed with what Jesus had taught them before He suffered and died. He told them, but they didn’t believe. It was too great for them, and their flesh trusted in their feelings and thinking. How does Jesus respond to their defending their feelings and treating Him as if He would surely approve of their sadness if He only knew what had happened?
He rebukes them. He doesn’t coddle them. He rebukes them. He tells them they are fools.
O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
And so no one can be a Christian unless he recognizes that he is without understanding. God reveals the truth to babes. He reveals the truth to those who know they are stupid and foolish morons with regard to spiritual things. There is no other way. Jesus can’t let this slide. He doesn’t meet them where they feel they are by accepting their sorrow. He meets them where they really are, where He sees they are, because He can see deeper into our hearts than we can ourselves, and He rebukes them for beings so slow of heart to believe everything that the prophets have spoken.
He teaches them the Scriptures. He doesn’t tell them, “I’m Jesus. Look at Me! I’m alive!” He shows them His Word. This is of the utmost significance. Jesus doesn’t want the glory of His resurrection; He doesn’t want His victory over sin, death, the devil, hell, and all misery to become known through sensation and sight. He reveals Himself and His righteousness and new life, His peace that He won for us with God – He reveals the truth about how we should feel and think only and always in His Word. And so it is to this day.
Their hearts burned within them. If the excitement of Easter seems to die so quickly, because the Easter bunny is eating your tulips and you want to shoot it, and you probably gained 5 pounds from the feast, then don’t judge the value of what we are still celebrating and will celebrate even unto the end of the age by your feelings. You need this Man to find you when you walk away from Him, when you’re going the wrong way, and you’re going the wrong way if you feel sad and not happy when you hear that Christ is risen. You’re going the wrong way, if this doesn’t touch your heart, and, even in the midst of sadness and pain and suffering, you don’t feel even the slightest glow or burn from the news that Christ has conquered your many sins and the death that awaits you.
But the Scriptures call you back. They are the voice of Jesus. Jesus didn’t prove the resurrection by revealing Himself to them by sight. Their hearts were kindled in faith, they burned within them, from believing, from trusting that, from rejoicing in the fact that yes, indeed, Christ is risen, and they learned this from the Bible, from Moses and the prophets.
The Scriptures are the source of your joy. If you feel overwhelmed by life, and the Gospel doesn’t seem to mean much to you, this is the devil’s work. It is not a sin to be overwhelmed by life. It is a sin to believe that Jesus is still dead, that He can’t do anything about it; to forget that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. This means you are trusting not in the truth, but you are looking at the truth as if it must validate your feelings, and Jesus is some ignorant vagrant who doesn’t know what is going on in your life.
He knows! He knows better than you do. He sees more deeply into your heart than you do. He knows the truth and He knows what it means. It means that right now, if you have sin, you have no reason to be sad because He has taken it away. He died with it. He rose without it. It is gone. It means that right now, if you have pain, you have no reason to be sad because He it is for a little while. He bore all pain, and now He has no pain, because He is risen, and all who trust in Him will have a glory that weighs far more than their sufferings on earth could ever burden them. It means right now that if you have anxiety, it doesn’t matter about what, you have no reason to have anxiety, because Christ finished the work that you need to do, and the proof is in His resurrection.
And so He comes to you and kindles faith in your heart through the preaching of the Scriptures, and if it seems He is going to leave you, as He it seemed to those two disciples when they came to Emmaus, then you sing, “Abide with us! For it is evening and the day is far spent!” And He will abide with you. “Abide with us, Jesus. For the world is evil, and the government is ruled by wicked men; Abide with us, Jesus. For before You came, I was lost in very reasonable sadness, but now You have changed my heart and my mind with the words, with the truth that You are alive from the dead, that whatever I through sin and weakness have become, You have overcome; whatever the world shows of power, Your power is greater. You have overcome the world, and so you have overcome my fear, and so I need You. I need You now and always. Kindle my heart with the Scriptures that speak so truly of You, that the lies of my heart are burned away with the fire of Your breath upon Me! Abide with me in sorrow and joy, in poverty and riches, in doubt and certainty, in pain and pleasure, in life and in death and in eternity. Abide with me to speak to me, to teach me, and draw me to see You when You break the bread and say, “This is My body.” Because then I see You most clearly, when Your Word comes to my heart and teaches me not to trust my reason saying that a dead man can’t rise and bread can’t be wine; not to trust in my feelings that my sadness is legitimate and that my sins are too many for You to take care of, no, but to trust You who teach me that what You promised through Moses and the prophets has come true; that what You spoke to Your apostles before it happened, happened, and that what You speak not will not return to You empty, but will accomplish what You desire, will remove my doubt and my fear and my sin with the fire of the Holy Spirit, and I will see You as my loving Savior, who run after me when I go the wrong way, and chide me when I need it, and speak the Scriptures to me and my heart burns with faith and my eyes are opened, and my mouth confesses against my sin, against the world, against death, and against that liar the devil, “Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!