Sunday 23 APril, 2023

Reflection:    "New Life"

​Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19

Luke 24:13-35

1 Peter 1:17-23

---

​It’s hard to understand how two faithful disciples of Jesus could have travelled with him, side by side, mile after mile, without recognizing him.  
Maybe disappointment had blinded their eyes and hearts to the truth.
 
In Jerusalem, the pilgrims had learned the devastating news about the death of Jesus.
Despite having heard stories about the women and some of the other disciples reporting that Jesus was still alive, they continued to focus on his death, as they had hoped that he was going to be the one to bring redemption to the oppressed and subjugated people of Israel.


But, at this point in time, Cleopas and his friend had concluded that he was not the one.
They didn’t understand how he could now be alive, or how the transformation of life Jesus had begun, could continue.     For them it was still Good Friday, and so they left for home.
 
But their experience along the road and at dinner in Emmaus, changed their sorrow to joy and hope.
When the pilgrims heard Jesus blessing the bread for the meal and saw him break it and give it to them, they suddenly began to understand.
And as they recalled the glory of Jesus in his last days, remembering the insights they had gained on the road, when Jesus had recalled for them the great stories of Israel’s past and compared them with himself, their understanding deepened.
These actions provided a telling insight into the reality they had earlier missed.
 
Although Jesus then disappeared from their sight, they now knew they had experienced the presence of the resurrected Jesus.
By living out their disappointments, while somehow remaining open to what seemed impossible, they discovered for themselves that what the women at the tomb had witnessed, was actually true.
 
Luke’s story about the disciples on the road to Emmaus is also very instructive for us in current times.
Like the disciples in this account, we, too, can miss the resurrected Jesus in our midst.
And, like them, we can use our experience in recalling the deeper truths of scripture to transform our lives.
For example, our experiences in church on Sunday mornings and at other times in worship, help us to repeat again and again the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
We recall the scriptures and place them in the extraordinary context of Jesus, our Christ and we recall his powerful moment at the Last Supper, when he gave his closest followers bread and wine, his body and blood, to provide nourishment and meaning and direction for having a fulfilled life.
 
For us, in so recalling, we’re there on the road with Cleopas and his friend.
In so recalling, we’re there with the disciples at the Last Supper.
Instead of experiencing stress after the trauma of having our Lord killed, we recall and relive the most glorious reality of knowing the resurrected Jesus and feel that we are now as much in the presence of God as were the disciples of olden days. 
 
You might remember, from last week’s message, I pointed out that we didn’t have to have been there with the disciples, to believe in the risen Lord.
Because we have faith, we know that the stories we hear from the bible are real and meant for us.
 
From today’s gospel account we experience two examples of reliving the resurrected Jesus.
Both are critically important, and they are: word and sacrament.
They help us to recall who and what we are, as followers of Christ, no less “in the story” than were the two men on the road to Emmaus.

On our journeys of faith, we find truth in action, living out the reality of bringing Jesus into our presence.
Again and again, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, we can overcome our discouragement, our sense of being lost, and we can go to where the re-birthed action lies.
The resurrected Jesus shows us that the forces of evil and destruction won’t prevail over the power of love.
Again and again, we recall that we are the body of Christ – and so in our lives, in our actions and in our words, we can reach others, helping them understand the presence of the resurrected Jesus.
As Jesus did with the bread and wine, making it into his body and blood, God in our midst empowers us to discover, in the ordinary, what is truly holy.
 
The encounter of two disciples with the resurrected Jesus came in the commonest, most familiar of ways. They came to know him walking and talking on a road, sitting down with him to eat and pray.
We are able to encounter him in common, familiar ways.
The resurrected Jesus is with us, available to us, within us – always, as we live our daily lives.
 
When Cleopas and his companion began to realize that they had experienced the resurrected Jesus, they recognized that their hearts had been burning as he talked and taught them on the road.
They responded to their experience by going back to Jerusalem to tell the others what they had seen.
Can we also recognize the resurrected Jesus in the experiences of our lives, feeling our hearts burning?
Yes, when we open our hearts and our minds, the action of our lives, to the challenge of the resurrected Jesus, in order to live out in our time what he lived and died to prove.
We should then be open to using the life-giving force of renewal and newness to tell the gospel story.
 
When we encounter the resurrected Jesus in our midst, will we respond in joy and faith and commitment, as did the two men on the road to Emmaus?
Will we respond by moving from where we are, renewed by the resurrected Jesus and ready to meet the world head on, ready to face the risk and change that his presence allows?
 
The disciples discovered on the road to Emmaus that Jesus could be, and was, alive again, that God’s work, which was begun in him, could go on forever among his followers.
 
Let us pray too that we can become like them, so that our hearts will burn with the desire to use the power of the resurrected Jesus.
Will we use this burning as a light to recognize that God loves us and use it to help us reveal God’s love to others, continuing his ministry through our acts of compassion and caring to help heal a broken world?
 
I trust that your answers to these questions will be “yes”, and that you will take positive steps to working out what direction your “new life” in Christ will take.


As Nicodemus learned many years earlier, when he questioned Jesus about how we could have “new life”, we don’t have to return to our mother’s womb and be physically born again.
Spiritual rebirth can occur at any stage of our life, and it may just be that today will be your “rebirth” day.
 
I pray that, if it is, you will have a long and happy life in your journey with the risen Lord and you may encounter many days when your faith is refreshed along the journey of your life.
 
Pastor Rick