“The Lord Has Risen Indeed!”

Luke 24:13-35

Pastor Deb Troester, STHPC, Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!

Early in the morning, on the first day of the week, after that terrible Friday when their friend and Savior, Jesus, was crucified, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, went to the tomb where Jesus’ body had been laid. To their surprise, they found the stone rolled away from the entrance of the tomb, but when they went in, Jesus’ body was not there. Suddenly an angel in dazzling white robes appeared and asked, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but he has risen.” Bewildered, frightened, yet believing that something amazing had taken place, they ran back to the other disciples to tell them the good news. These women were the first evangelists to proclaim, “Christ is risen! He is risen from the dead!” But most of the other disciples did not believe them.

This same day, two other followers of Jesus who had been in Jerusalem for the Passover and had witnessed all those terrible, tragic events, decided they had seen enough.

They left for their village, Emmaus, several miles distant. Earlier that week, they had waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” as Jesus rode by on a donkey. They may have listened to him teach in the temple, as he held the people spellbound by his wisdom and confounded the religious leaders who tried to trick him with difficult questions. Maybe they had asked one another, “Could this man be the Messiah? The one for whom we have waited so long?” But then came the night-time arrest in the garden, the mockery of a trial, the torture and flogging, and finally, death by crucifixion. It was all over so quickly – hardly before it had begun. They were sad and discouraged, heart-broken. All their hopes of the bright new future the Messiah would bring had been dashed to pieces.

         As they walked home to Emmaus, after that momentous week in Jerusalem, they talked with each other about what had happened. Maybe these two were friends or brothers. Perhaps they were husband and wife:  the Bible only says that one was named Cleopas. Maybe his companion, like many women in the Bible, remained unnamed.

The fact that they invited their fellow traveler into their home at the end of the day argues for their being related in some way. 

          Although it they were walking along in the daylight, it was dark in their souls. The poignant comment, “we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel,” says volumes. “We had hoped…” But hope was gone. Suddenly Jesus was there, walking along beside them, but in their grief, they didn’t realize that it was him. The Bible says, that “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” Little did they know that this encounter with the risen Christ would transform their lives forever.

As they walked along, the stranger asked them, “What are you discussing with one another?” Astounded, they replied, “Are you the only one who doesn’t know what’s been happening in Jerusalem these past few days?” and explained to him how Jesus, who they had hoped was the Messiah, had been arrested, cruelly treated, and crucified. They had heard the rumors of his resurrection, but did’t believe it either. In fact, they didn’t know what to think.

But the stranger had some answers. He explained how it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer before entering into his glory,

how the prophets had foretold everything that had happened. As he spoke, their hearts burned within them, and they longed to know more. Bit by bit their burden lightened, as they began to see some hope, some light at the end of the dark tunnel they had been walking in.

A bit of an aside here: Walking is a slower pace of travel than we are accustomed to. What would be a ten or fifteen minute car ride for us was a two or three-hour walk for them, so they had plenty of time to talk. Walking with Jesus takes time. Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama in his book entitled Three Mile an Hour God, writes, “Love has its speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed…It is the speed we walk and therefore the speed the love of God walks. Once we grasp that in Christ God chooses to walk amongst us, it changes our whole understanding of the speed of love.” Our modern culture wants instant answers. But we need to spend time with Jesus. As these two disciples walked along the road with him, their minds and hearts were opened to see God’s hand in all that had happened. Their perspective changed.

They were getting to know the risen Christ, allowing his words to sink into their souls. Too often we expect things to happen quickly, but real transformation can take time.

As they neared their village, the stranger – Jesus – acted as if he would continue down the road to another destination. But the couple stopped him and invited Jesus to stay at their house; after all, it was getting on toward evening. They could offer him a hot meal and a place to sleep. They wanted to get to know this stranger better, and hear more about the Messiah and the scriptures that had predicted his death and resurrection. As always, when Jesus is invited, into our homes or into our hearts, he comes and abides with us. All it took was an invitation. As Christ says in Revelation 3:20, “I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you with me.” So he entered the humble home of the two disciples, and as they ate, he “took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.” At that  moment, “their eyes were opened,” and they realized that it had been Jesus all along. Then suddenly, he vanished from their sight. Their simple supper had become a communion meal, and Christ had been present in their midst.

Energized and excited, they returned to Jerusalem, walking – nearly running – back in the dark. They could hardly wait to tell the waiting disciples, how they had met Jesus on the road, and how “he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”

From that first Easter until now, people have wondered, “Is the resurrection actually real?” “Was Jesus really raised from the dead?” If we could prove scientifically that it happened, faith would not be necessary. Yet, if we look at the lives of those first disciples, we can see that something powerful must have happened, something that shook the world, something that could only result from an encounter with the Risen Christ.

The two disciples from Emmaus left Jerusalem that day sad and discouraged. They returned rejoicing and full of hope. They left perplexed and confused about what had happened – the trial, the torture, the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet they returned with an understanding that everything had unfolded just as the ancient prophets had foretold,

and why it was necessary that the Messiah should suffer, die, and be raised again. They left anxious and worried about the future, perhaps even fearful of retribution from the authorities. But they returned with peace in their hearts, and an assurance of God’s presence, no matter what lay ahead. When they had left Jerusalem that afternoon, their faith was almost gone. Yet they returned full of faith, with the conviction that they had indeed met the Risen Lord and had supped with him. Their encounter with the Risen Christ transformed their lives forever.

At Easter we remember the God who is not dead, the Christ who conquered sin and death, who rose from the grave to give us the hope of eternal life, who walks with us today as he did with those disciples so long ago. Rev. Craig Barnes, President Emeritus of Princeton Theological Seminary, offers us this thought: “The question that Easter asks of us is not, ‘Do we believe in the doctrine of the resurrection?’ …but ‘Have you encountered the risen Christ?’”

Have you encountered the risen Christ? This week, look for times when Christ is present in your life, and see if you, too, do not catch a glimpse of the risen Lord. Like the travelers to Emmaus, you may find that he has been walking beside you all along. Amen.

Sermon ©Deborah Troester 2025