Title: There’s Hope After All.

Date: 2008-04-06

Reference: Luke 24: 30-35

The 24th chapter of Luke describes one of the most interesting Resurrection stories in the New Testament. Two of Jesus’ disciples were walking home to the village of Emmaus which was about seven miles from Jerusalem As they were walking, and talking, and thinking about what had happened, Jesus came near and walked with them. They did not know who he was. Jesus asked them what they were talking about. The Bible says the two stood there looking very said and gloomy. One asked Jesus: “Are you the only one from Jerusalem who doesn’t know what has happened in the last few days? “ They told him how Jesus had been arrested and killed on a cross. “We had hoped he would be the one to set Israel free,” they said.

Jesus continued walking with the two explaining everything that had been written about himself in the Scriptures. When they came near the village they asked Jesus to stay with them. “It’s late” they said, “and the sun is going down. Please accept our hospitality.” So Jesus went into the house with them.

After they sat down to eat, Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. All at once they knew who he was. He left them. They said: “When he talked with us along the road didn’t it warm our hearts?” The two got up from the table and went back to Jerusalem with the message. “Jesus is alive. There is hope after all.”

We had hoped, one of the saddest phrases of human experience. WE had hoped our marriage would be a good one. We had hoped our children would turn out well. That the treatments would be successful. That we could avoid bankruptcy.

We had hoped for that promotion, for that job, for that scholarship. The two Emmaus travelers had hoped Jesus was the one to set Israel free. At the dinner table their sad, discouraged, despondent, “We had hoped” ended with their eyes opened to a greater hope. The Risen Christ assured them there is hope after all.

Whenever we experience Jesus personally and he enters our situation, there is hope., and joy, and love, and peace. This last Wednesday evening I began meeting with 13 members of this year’s confirmation class. I believe this will be one of the most exciting classes I’ve ever had the privilege of working with. At the beginning of our time together I told them I would pray for each of them daily. My prayer is they will each fall in love. Totally, completely, absolutely in love with Jesus Christ. I want them to know Jesus Christ as a friend who walks with them through all the peaks and valleys of life’s journey. When Christ is our friend, companion, and savior, we have hope.

We spent the first evening of our time together talking about the attributes of God. How God is powerful, awesome, wonderful, and loving. And how God, who is high and lifted up, reaches down to us to give us hope for life. During the Christmas Season we celebrated Emmanuel which means: “God With Us.” God with us in the midst of our human situation. Because God is with us, In relationship with us, we have hope we would not have other wise. I want with all my heart for these young persons, and for each of us, to make room for the living Christ in our lives. Without Christ, life is full of empty hopes. An agnostic philosopher described life this way: “All the labor of the ages, all the devotion and inspiration, all the noon day brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system.

The whole temple of human achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins. Only on the foundation of unyielding despair can our lives henceforth be safely built.” Another has written: “Life is a fitful pollution of human insects on the earth, a planetary eczema that must soon be cured. Nothing is certain but defeat and death.” That kind of teaching doesn’t really make one glad to be alive. It doesn’t really motivate one to jump out of bed each morning and hit the road running.

Contrast that human vision of the future with the sure word of Scripture.How Jesus said: “I am with you forever. Even to the end of the world, I am with you.” The risen Christ gives us hope and our task as Jesus’ disciples in the world is to keep that hope alive and share it with those around us.

Jesus graciously walked with the Emmaus disciples and Jesus walks with each of us today if we allow him to join us. Jesus became known to the two as he broke bread in their home. I pray our sharing of the broken bread today will not be just a ritual we do once a month. Rather I hope each of us meets and recognizes the risen Christ here among us.

There was a time when I was content to serve communion four times a year. I actually saw communion as an intrusion into the worship hour. In previous congregations I saw attendance actually fall off on Communion Sunday. Evidently others felt as I did. That feeling has changed over the years. Now I experience Jesus every time we share this meal together. Jesus makes himself known in the breaking of the bread, in the sharing of the cup. Again, the confirmation class learned that a sacrament, like communion, is something outward and visible that represents an inward and spiritual grace.

Jesus promised that whenever and wherever two or three people gathered in this way to share, he would be present with them.

The disciples were walking away from the empty tomb. They were really very short on hope. They thought they knew exactly how things were going to turn out. We had hoped. Then the one who joined them on the road walked with them, and taught them and broke bread with them and their hope was restored completely.

They got up from the table and ran back to Jerusalem to share their hope with others. This day Christ has promised to walk with each one of us through life, to teach us from the word. Jesus offers to reveal himself to us in the breaking of the bread. Jesus is ready, willing, and able to restore hope to whatever hopeless situation we find ourselves living with. In the midst of a hopeless situation, hope is restored. With Jesus there is always hope.

We call this meal The Lord’s Supper. We also call it the Sacrament of Holy Communion. The very definition of communion is an act of sharing. An association or a fellowship. In the breaking and sharing of the bread we have a very special communion with the living Lord Jesus Christ.

Without Jesus there is no real hope. Viktor Frankel wrote about a time in his life when everything of value was taken from him. He lost his family, job, home, respect, vocation even his freedom. While he was in a concentration camp he realized that real meaning in life came in a relationship with God. That relationship gave meaning to everything else in his life.

Most of us will never experience anything as extreme as a concentration camp. All of us at times have expressed the hope there is more to life than what we are experiencing here. We hope there is a power trying to break through to us. To help us improve our lives and give us hope. The last place many people would expect to find that mysterious power is in the Christian Faith. We have allowed the faith to become dull. Nothing that we do here in church seems very exciting. And yet the presence of the living Christ gives us the hope we are looking for.

The events of Easter should never be reduced to a creed or philosophy. We are not asked to believe the doctrine of the Resurrection. We are invited to meet this person, Jesus, who was raised from the dead. We find hope when we move from belief in a doctrine to a knowledge of a person. Ultimate truth and hope is in a person. That person is Jesus.

I’ve mentioned before how I have been blessed by reading Charles Sheldon’s book In His Steps. This is the story of how a church was transformed when members began to ask:”What Would Jesus Do, if he were here?” They would attempt to do the same. We really don’t have to wonder what Jesus would do if he were here. He is here. Jesus is the most powerful force in life. The question for us is: “How can I be a part of what Jesus is doing in the world around me?”

The travelers made time for Jesus. They invited him in and he came in and stayed with them. Jesus said in Rev.(3:20) “I stand at the door, of your heart, and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in.” I invite you to clear your minds and hearts of any distractions this day, and to make room for Jesus in your lives.

Sometimes in life we are blind to Jesus’ presence among us.

Our eyes are so focused on secular problems we don’t recognize the sacred. In those times we thought, in despair, we were all alone. But all the while Jesus was with us. We ask God, this day, to open our eyes to Jesus pardon, presence, and purpose. Jesus walks with us, teaches us, and makes himself known in the breaking of the bread. And through it all, he reminds us there is hope after all.