PASTOR'S MESSAGE

 

Burning Hearts

                            Luke 24:13-35

 

    Sally’s mother was taking her first ever plane trip from Boston to North Dakota.  When her plane landed and she was not on it, Sally became frantic.  The desk clerk suggested that she might have missed the connecting flight at Chicago.  Sally phoned and paged her several times, but no luck.  A few hours later the next plane landed and her mother was on it.  “Where have you been?” asked Sally.  “We were so worried.”    “I had to wait at Chicago, because I missed my plane,” she replied.  “But, mom, we paged you at the airport.  Didn’t you hear it?”    “Oh yes, I heard my name.  But I didn’t answer.  After all, who do I know in Chicago!”

            I think that story very accurately captures the mood of the Emmaus disciples on that first Easter afternoon.  They too, were confused and bewildered, just like that woman.   So much so, that when Jesus first approached them on the road, they didn’t even know who in the world He was.  Obviously, they had been troubled by the events of the past days and they were discussing them as they walked along the road.  Why did Jesus have to die?  What had happened to His body?  And what was the meaning of this ‘vision of angels,’ which their women had told them about?  Unfortunately, they were looking for the answers to those questions in all the wrong places.  They were looking within themselves for solutions to their own problems.  In short, they were blinded by the sin of their own human nature.  And that’s why they didn’t recognize Jesus.

            However, our text literally says that their eyes were ‘held back’ so that they couldn’t recognize Jesus.  This seems to suggest that God the Father prevented them from knowing who His Son was.  And perhaps one of the reasons He did that was to remind them that they should trust not in their senses, or sight, or feelings, but only in the Words of Jesus, the Holy Scriptures.  That’s what the whole problem boils down to – their understanding of the Bible.  They either had not studied it enough, or had not accepted it.  Which is why in our text, Jesus said to them:  “HOW FOOLISH YOU ARE AND SLOW OF HEART TO BELIEVE ALL THAT THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN!” 

            Dear friends, that same rebuke can be applied to you and me as well, because we are afflicted by the same kind of sinful blindness.  The Emmaus disciples had evidently not studied the Old Testament Scriptures well enough, and that’s why they missed the references to Jesus’ Resurrection.  Passages like Job’s famous: “I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES.”  And King David’s words in our sermon last week that, “GOD WILL NOT ABANDON HIS  HOLY ONE TO THE GRAVE.”  They missed that! 

            In the same way, you and I don’t always study our Bibles as much as we should.  Sometimes we get the mistaken idea that Church and Bible Class, devotions and personal Bible study are optional.   In fact, we can come up with a hundred excuses for avoiding the Word:  “I’m too tired.  I’ve got too much work to do.  I’ve got to have some time for myself.  It’s too nice a day.  It’s too stormy of a day.  I’ve got other plans.  There’s no other time when I can watch this program.  I don’t feel well. Maybe tomorrow.”

            And yet, that’s only half of the problem.  Like the Emmaus disciples, you and I don’t always accept what we do read in God’s Word.  You see, even though Jesus had promised the disciples countless times, that He would rise, that He would come back again, they didn’t believe it.  That’s why our text tells us that as the Emmaus disciples were walking home their faces were downcast. The word downcast  is the same word that’s used to describe someone who has been fasting for a long time, someone whose face is pale, drawn and emaciated.  Well, that’s how the Emmaus disciples felt in heart and soul.  They were sad and dejected, filled with doubts and worries and fears.   Much in the same way that you and I act, when we don’t trust that Jesus can deliver us from our trials and tribulations.  When we don’t claim His promises, when we don’t believe His Word that He will be with us at all times to take care of us.  In short, when we worry and doubt.

            It reminds me a little bit of the wealthy English philanthropist, Mr. Jeremy Bentham, who bequeathed a fortune to a London hospital on whose Board of Directors he had sat for decades.  There was, however, one peculiar stipulation.  The will stated, that in order for the hospital to keep the money, Mr. Bentham had to be present at every meeting.  So for over 100 years, his remains were brought to the Board room and set at the head of the table.  And the Secretary’s minutes for every meeting had a line which read:  “Mr. Jeremy Bentham:  present, but not voting!”   

            Too often, I think that’s the way we Christians live our lives.  We’re certainly present, but we’re not too active.  We’re more like a lifeless corpse, dead in our trespasses in sins, just the like the Emmaus disciples were that first Easter afternoon.  And yet, even though we don’t always study His Word like we should, or believe it as strongly as we ought to, Jesus still doesn’t forsake us.  Instead, He treats us like He did the Emmaus disciples.  Our text tells us that He drew near to them and walked along with them on the road.  And that’s what He does in our journey of life.  He draws near to us in the Gospel to refresh our sad hearts by erasing all our sins.  And He walks along with us every step of the way, offering His pardon to cover up our guilt, offering His mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.

            Indeed, that’s what His resurrection is all about.  It’s God’s stamp of approval on the His Son’s work of redemption.  It’s God’s way of telling the whole world that Jesus did everything necessary to save us – He paid the full price to set us free.  In fact, in the New Testament it says He was raised for our justification.  The Resurrection is the sign of our justification – the visible proof that we are now holy and innocent in God’s eyes.  If Good Friday was Jesus, pleading our case before God’s throne room of Justice, then Easter Sunday is the end of the trial, God’s gavel banging down and declaring that we are acquitted – the case against us has been dismissed and court is adjourned!  For when we see the empty tomb, we are reminded that sin and death are also empty – empty of their sting and powerless to hurt us anymore!

            As a matter of fact, that’s what the Emmaus realized, when they recognized Jesus.  When He broke the bread, their eyes were opened and they said:  “WERE NOT OUR HEARTS BURNING WITHIN US WHILE HE TALKED WITH US ON THE ROAD AND OPENED THE SCRIPTURES TO US.”  In the same way, Jesus’ resurrection gives us burning hearts.  When we are feeling cold and lonely because of grief and sadness, guilt or despair, He warms us up with the comfort of the resurrection, the comfort of our salvation.  That’s what He gives us when He opens the Scriptures to us and breaks bread with us in Communion, nourishing us with the remission of our sins.  Simply put, He gives us a change of heart.  He removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh, warm and alive with His pardon and peace.  In fact, that little village of Emmaus, in Greek means:  ‘the place of warm springs.’  And that’s what Jesus’ resurrection has done.  The forgiveness it provides is like a warm spring, bubbling up in our heart and washing away all our guilt.  That’s what gives us burning hearts – a burning zeal to share His Word, just like the Emmaus disciples did.  We are told that that very night they walked back the 7 miles to Jerusalem, just to share the good news with others.  And God calls us to have that same burning zeal to share His Word with others.

             Marion West says that her daughter Julie recently shared with her a childhood hurt that sometimes still bothers her.  It seems that when Julie was growing up, her mother didn’t prepare her very attractive school lunches or even buy her a lunch box.  Marion explains it this way:  “I had just had twin sons, and mornings were rather hectic.  Just recently, though, Julie told me that she often ate alone, because she was embarrassed by her lunches.  Following this recent revelation, I stood in stores looking fondly at lunch boxes and wishing, longing for another chance.  Then one day, I happened to find an old lunch box from the sixties, the time when Julie was in school.  I admired it so much that the owner gave it to me.  So I packed goodies for Julie, some candy and gum and her favorite cosmetics, but mainly little treasures – an antique pin, an old lace handkerchief, and some very old paper dolls.  Of course, the long overdue note that she had so wanted to find in her lunch back in 1968 also went in.  I wrote,  ‘Julie Babe, have a good day.  I love you.  Mama.’  I mailed the carefully wrapped lunch box for its thousand-mile trip.  I wondered, though, could a lunch box more than twenty years too late, possibly ease the silent pain Julie endured?  Her letter of response came immediately:  ‘Mother, when I got your package, I was so touched I could hardly breathe.  It was just like I was seven years old again, sitting at the long lunch table, and all my friends were watching me.  And I thought to myself, Mama does care.  I am important to her!’

            You might say that Julie’s heart was burning within her – burning with the warmth and compassion of her mother’s love.  In an even greater way, Jesus’ resurrection, even though it happened almost 2,000 years ago, shows that God loves and cares about us.  It eases the pain of our guilt and melts away our hard-hearted sin and gives us a brand new start.  May that good news give us burning hearts to work for Him and share the Easter Gospel, wherever He gives us the opportunity, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

                           

           

                              

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