"Discussion" 4-16-23

Overview

Walking and Wrestling on the Road to Emmaus

On the very day of the resurrection, two disciples were walking the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus, processing aloud what had just happened Luke 24:13-17. One was named Cleopas; the other remains unnamed, though some have suggested a connection to the Clopas mentioned at the cross in John 19:25. Whoever they were, they were followers of Jesus, likely returning home after coming to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, one of the three pilgrim feasts commanded in Exodus 23:14-17. The Passover itself, instituted in Exodus 12:21-23, foreshadowed what they had just witnessed: a sacrificial lamb whose blood claims and covers God's people.

When Jesus drew near, "their eyes were kept from recognizing him." His simple question—"What are you discussing?"—stopped them in their tracks, and they "stood still, looking sad." Their grief was real because their hopes had been dashed. They had rightly placed those hopes in Jesus the Messiah, but they had hoped wrongly—looking for a political deliverer who would restore Israel's national power, not a crucified Savior. Cleopas's reply drips with unintended irony: "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened?" In fact, Jesus is the only one who fully knows—the only one who knew the agony of Gethsemane, the weight of betrayal, the cost of every nail, the full wrath of the Father against sin, and the power by which He would rise victorious over sin, Satan, death, and the grave.

This passage exposes a danger that still confronts us. We can place our hopes rightly in Jesus and yet picture Him incorrectly—imagining a Messiah who exists to do what we want, when we want, how we want. Such hope, centered on self rather than on the living Lord, will always be disappointed. The real Jesus is not a mythical figure shaped to our preferences but the crucified and risen Lord who reigns at the Father's right hand and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

The good news for grieving, confused, processing disciples is that Jesus draws near on the road. He met Cleopas and his companion in the middle of their wrestling, and He still meets His people through His living and active Word. Whatever road you are walking, whatever you are trying to make sense of, the risen Christ comes to teach His disciples, to correct misplaced hopes, and to walk with us every day.

Transcript

Everybody is different. 4s

Everybody thinks differently. 7s

Everybody processes differently. 9s

Everybody functions just a little bit differently. 11s

There are those who went faced with something that they're trying to figure out. 15s

They mull it over. 20s

They think it over and they work through it. 21s

And when they've arrived at the answer or what they understand to be the answer, 23s

then they will go ahead and share. 29s

Then there are others who need to process out loud. 32s

And those of us who are out loud processors, we understand we need to chat through things, 38s

figure things out, bounce ideas, bounce ideas off of other people. 45s

I love to have processing time out loud. 50s

I also love to walk. 56s

And so I will go on processing walks or thinking walks. 57s

And if you watch me walk in the neighborhood, you will watch my lips moving because I still need to process out loud. 64s

So where we pick up in our text today, in Luke the 24th chapter, we have two disciples, two disciples that are really processing out loud. 72s

Now on that same day, two of them were going to a village called Amoeis about seven miles from Jerusalem. 85s

And talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 93s

Seven miles. 98s

That is a good distance for a processing walk, for a thinking walk. 99s

But a lot is happening in this first sentence. 105s

So first of all, there are two disciples who are walking to Amoeis. 110s

Who are these two disciples? 117s

Who are the two disciples? 120s

Well, we know one of them, for sure. 122s

One of them is named in verse 18. 124s

One of them whose name was Cleopis. 128s

The other disciple remains unnamed. 131s

We don't know who that other disciple is. 135s

The Christian Church is not in full agreement on who Cleopis was and who this unnamed disciple was. 141s

Some scholars believe that Cleopis is actually the same person who's named in the Gospel of John, who's named Clopis, 149s

where we find in John 19, standing near the cross of Jesus, where his mother and his mother's sister, 158s

Mary the wife of Clopis and Mary Magdalene. 165s

So if that's accurate, it's very possible. 170s

Perhaps even very likely that this unnamed disciple is the wife of Cleopis. 173s

And they're walking to Amoeis together and discussing it out. 180s

Other scholars maintain that Cleopis in our text today and Clopis in that text from John are two different people. 184s

Because the Greek spelling of each of their names is different. 195s

Regardless of who these two disciples are, regardless of who is walking to Amoeis. 202s

We know that they were disciples of Jesus. 211s

They were followers of Jesus. 217s

We don't know when. 219s

They began following him in his earthly ministry, but we know that they were his followers. 221s

We know that they were leaving Jerusalem. 228s

They were walking to Amoeis from Jerusalem. 231s

It's very likely, very possible, that they lived in Amoeis and they had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. 236s

It was law in Exodus 23. 247s

It says that three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me. 252s

You shall observe the festival of Unleavened Bread as I commanded you. 256s

You shall eat Unleavened Bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of a beep for in it you came out of Egypt. 261s

No one shall appear before me empty handed. 269s

That means that you go to Jerusalem, you go to the Lord with an offering. 271s

You shall observe the festival of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you so in the field you shall observe, 278s

of the festival of ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. 285s

Three times in the year, all your males shall appear before the Lord God. 292s

The temple in Jerusalem is where the Lord resided. 299s

It's where he dwelt in the holy of Holies or the holiest of Holies. 304s

So this was during the time of the Passover festival. 310s

They had gone to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, the Passover which was instituted in Exodus. 314s

We're going to read from Exodus 12 verses 21 through 23 when it was first instituted. 323s

Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, go. 329s

Select lamps for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 334s

Take a bunch of hisop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin and touch the lintel and the two door posts with the blood in the basin. 338s

None of you shall go outside the door of your house until morning. 346s

For the Lord will pass through to strike down the Egyptians when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two door posts, 349s

the Lord will pass over that door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you down. 357s

During the Passover, a lamb was to be sacrificed. 368s

To honor that they were God's people. 377s

The Israelites were God's people. 381s

Remember that as this blood was painted over the two door posts in the lintel, it meant that they were claimed as God that as God's people that they were claimed through the blood. 384s

Do we see some foreshadowing here? 397s

The sacrificial lamb claimed, cleaned through the blood. 400s

Now on that same day returning to our Luke text, on that same day, what was that day? 406s

I invite you all to open up to the gospel of Luke. 417s

We're going to stick here for the rest of our time studying. 421s

We're going to open to the gospel of Luke the 24th chapter. 425s

So we find out in verse 13 that they're walking on that same day. 431s

But what is that same day? 436s

If we look at verse 1 in 24, we read on the first day of the week at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. 438s

It is Easter. 451s

It is the day of the resurrection that these two are traveling. 454s

The Passover festival had taken place. 461s

The Sabbath had taken place. 464s

And it is now the first day of the week. 467s

The first day when the women went to the tomb. 471s

And Jesus was not there. 474s

This is where we find our two disciples walking these seven miles to amayas, discussing what had taken place. 484s

On the pictures on the front of your bulletin, you'll notice there's a little collage. 495s

And we have the cross. 501s

We have the empty tomb. 504s

And we have the disciples walking, discussing these things, processing, how they saw Jesus hanging on the cross dead on the cross. 508s

How then this morning the women had gone to the tomb and Jesus' body was not there. 521s

And they were trying to make sense of this. 528s

They were processing the events that had just taken place. 532s

Let's go back to Luke 24 verse 13. 537s

Now on that same day, two of them were going to a village called Amayas, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 542s

And talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 548s

While they were talking and discussing Jesus himself came near and went with them. 553s

But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 561s

And he said to them, what are you discussing with each other while you walk along? 564s

They stood still looking sad. 571s

Why would their eyes be kept from recognizing him? 579s

Why would their eyes be kept from recognizing him? 587s

We're going to get to that. 593s

But first, notice that Jesus asks them what they're talking about. 595s

And their immediate response is that they stand still and look sad. 600s

They stand still looking sad. 612s

The question that's brought to the forefront, it brings to the forefront the grief that they are already trying to process through. 616s

If you have ever experienced a time of grief, you know that surreal experience that it can be, that roller coaster of emotion of trying to figure it out, 628s

of trying to wrap your mind around what just happened. 642s

It's not believable. 649s

And yet it's so real, so raw. 651s

And they're wrestling with this as they're walking to a mayors. 656s

And here this stranger that's all of a sudden standing with them asks them what they're talking about. 660s

And they're just reminded of the grief that they can't understand themselves quite yet grief, 668s

because their expected Messiah had died. 678s

They had placed all their hopes in their rabbi. 686s

They had placed all their hopes in their rabbi. 691s

Jesus, all their hopes were dashed. 694s

Their hopes were absolutely rightly placed in Jesus as the Messiah, 699s

but their hopes were incorrect. 704s

They had hoped in a political Messiah. 709s

They had hoped in the Messiah, the one who would come to overthrow the Roman rule and authority. 713s

They had hoped in the political Messiah that would restore Israel to be a nation of power of wealth, of autonomy, 721s

a nation that was once again like the nation it was in the heydays of David and Solomon. 729s

We as disciples of Jesus, we as followers of Jesus, we also place very rightly our hopes in Jesus, the Messiah. 741s

But just as these two disciples placed their hopes in the Messiah, they placed it incorrectly, 759s

our own hope of Jesus can also be incorrect. 769s

We can have the incorrect idea of who we want Jesus to be. 775s

Our hope of Jesus doing what we want. 782s

When we want, where we want and how we want our audacious hope that's born of selfishness centered on the Almighty, me instead of the Almighty, Lord, 785s

thinking that we are the very reason, the very purpose, the cause of this life. 806s

And when we incorrectly place our hopes in a magical, non-real Messiah, our hopes are dashed. 816s

Jesus, they're rabbi, he was something special. 831s

Jesus, this man that they followed this side of heaven in his earthly ministry, he taught unlike any of the scribes or the Pharisees. 837s

He healed the lame and the blind he gave sight. 848s

He was different than anyone else ever. 851s

And that Jesus was dead. 858s

They needed to process this, they needed to understand because they had watched their hopes die right before their eyes. 863s

And Jesus didn't even fight back. 874s

Jesus who had healed the lame, didn't heal himself. 880s

Jesus who had shown great works of power didn't exercise power to save himself. 893s

And their hopes were dashed. 906s

It didn't make sense. 914s

And he said to them, what are you discussing with each other while you walk along? 921s

They stood still, looking sad. 927s

Then one of them whose name was Cliapis answered him, 935s

are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days? 940s

It is as if Cliapis realizes the question that has been asked. 950s

It is as if he comes to his senses and realizes that this man who is standing with them, 958s

a complete stranger doesn't know what has just taken place. 966s

Is Cliapis asking out of frustration? 974s

Is he asking because he's astonished that this man has no idea what has happened? 979s

Looking at this question that Cliapis asks, is so wonderful. 988s

And it's a moment of amazing irony and humor in Scripture. 994s

Because here Cliapis is standing before the risen Savior and asking, 1002s

are you the only one who doesn't know what's taken place? 1011s

And the humor there, the irony there, is that Jesus is the only one to actually know to the full extent of what is there. 1019s

And that has taken place these last days in Jerusalem. 1031s

Jesus is the only one who will ever know the agony of what it is to sweat in fear, 1038s

to sweat blood because he knows what is coming. 1049s

Jesus is the only one to know exactly what that betrayal by Judas would mean. 1053s

Jesus is the only one to know what the Machery, what the humiliation, that the crowd, the soldiers, 1063s

his own people would throw at him. 1074s

Jesus is the only one to know what every piercing nail meant. 1077s

Jesus is the only one to know what your sin feels like. 1087s

Jesus is the only one to know the punishment for your sin. 1098s

Jesus is the only one to know the depth, the shame, the humiliation, and the darkness, 1105s

the every sin thought word, deed, what that costs. 1125s

Jesus is the only one who knows what the full wrath of the Father is. 1148s

And knowing that he would be the only one to know he went to the cross. 1161s

He went to endure every moment that that entailed, every feeling, every moment, every physical pain, 1174s

he went because he knew that his sacrifice, his sacrifice as the Passover Lamb, would be the only sacrifice needed for our sin. 1188s

And Jesus knew that in the power of God Almighty, that he would rise, that he would rise triumphant and victorious over every single sin. 1211s

Every thought word and deed that we have brought into this world. 1234s

Every thought word and deed that is born out of a nature of sin, he knew that he alone could and would free us from that, be triumphant over it. 1243s

Which means that he is triumphant over the devil. 1257s

It means that he is victorious over the grave. 1261s

It means that he is victorious over death itself. 1267s

Are you the only one who doesn't know what has happened these days? 1279s

Praise be to God that he is the only one who knows what happened those last days in Jerusalem. 1292s

What does this mean for us? 1307s

As we continue this sermon series, amayas, as we continue this walk with these two disciples as they talk with this stranger amongst them, 1312s

we're going to see how their discussion continues to unfold, how their processing through their grief, 1325s

their processing through the events of what had just taken place, how it is a teaching moment for Jesus. 1335s

How Jesus uses this walk to amayas, to teach His disciples, thereby teaching us His disciples of Himself. 1348s

It is not only in this walk to amayas that Jesus teaches, God has given us His own word, His living, active, breathing word, 1363s

so that every time we open this, no matter where we are or who we're with, we are taught. 1378s

And we know Him and we know exactly what He has done for us through His word. 1386s

We are right to put our hopes in Jesus the Messiah, because Jesus the Messiah is not a magical, mythical creature. 1398s

Jesus the Messiah is the living God, the living man God who reigns at the right hand of the Father, who has promised to come again to judge the living and the dead, 1415s

and who has promised to call us to Himself to live in His presence with Him, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for all eternity. 1432s

We will see that Jesus in His grace continues to come to us, to teach us, and to lead us all in truth, and to walk with us every day on every road. 1445s

Amen. 1462s