The SIGN of HIS PRESENCE
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. Luke 24:29-32 13 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.17 And He said to them, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” 18 Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?” 19 And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21 But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 22 Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. 23 When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. 24 And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.” 25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them. 30 Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. 32 And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… Few Biblical stories are more dear to us than the story of Emmaus. Here in a few sentences all the comfort and glory of Easter are applied directly to the problems of life and living. Here we see, clearly and finally, what Christ’s empty tomb means for our own journey toward heaven. The entire story is a striking parable of human life. It began in confusion and pain but ended in faith and joy. It began in darkness but ended in the white light of the Sun of Righteousness. It began in loneliness but ended in the magnificent truth that since Easter morning no believing heart need ever feel alone again.
On the afternoon of that first Easter Day, two of the sorrowing disciples, weary with the heavy memories of Good Friday, were walking toward Emmaus. The name of the one man was Cleopas. We do not know the name of the other man; apparently the Holy Spirit did not consider that information to be important. These men’s hearts were filled with sadness and fear. Three days had come and gone since the news of their Lord’s death had reached them. Nothing more had happened. True, a few faithful women had been at the tomb that morning and had reported that the Lord’s body was not in the grave. That, however, seemed to be only a wild rumor.
As they walked and talked, Jesus joined them. Their eyes, dark with sorrow and blinded with tears, did not recognize Him. He asked the reason for their sadness. They told Him the story of the mighty words and deeds of Him whom they had now lost, of His shameful death, of the ruin of all their hopes and dreams, and of the strange report of the women on that third morning. Their recitation of those events ended with the simple, sorrowing words: “But Him they did not see.” No matter what they had heard, they wanted to see Him. If only they could see Him once more. If only they could know and see for themselves that He was alive. Then all that had gone before would be lost and forgotten in the glorious light of His presence.
And then the Stranger spoke: “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Jesus reached back in time in order to show the Emmaus disciples why Good Friday and the Cross had to come. He spoke of Moses and David and Isaiah. He showed them how the prophets had foretold everything that had happened. This was no sudden and unexpected event planned and executed by the powers of darkness. All of it – every single step – was a part of the perfect plan of the Holy Trinity, conceived in eternity and executed in time. Jesus, not yet known to the men, said, “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” This was the divine “ought,” the eternal “must.” All these things must be, HAD to be, He told them, in order that through the glory of Bethlehem, the pain of Good Friday, and the victory of Easter, the souls of men might be redeemed.
But they still did not know Him. Only after He had performed the simple little act of taking, breaking, and blessing the bread were their eyes suddenly opened so that they knew Him. Perhaps their memory suddenly went back to the days when they had seen Him do this in Galilee and Judaea. Nevertheless, now their eyes were opened; now they knew: the grave was really empty and its contents were standing right in front of them! Their Lord was alive! He had won the final victory over death. Now they knew that Easter had come. He really was with them! He did not leave the disciples afraid and alone.
Within a few days they became a conquering host. Confounded and appalled by the tragedy of Good Friday, huddled behind locked doors in hidden houses in Jerusalem, they became the invincible bearers of the Cross, the men and women before whom the Roman Empire began to tremble. And if they died, their faces at the moment of death were like Stephen’s, the “face of an angel.” They were bolstered wonderfully by the truth and power of their Lord’s resurrection.
It is true that we cannot see Him with our eyes or touch Him with our hands the way the disciples did. But we most certainly do “see” and “touch” Him, in even better ways. We do so in His Word and His sacraments. He comes to us through these means of grace. In them and through them He enters our hearts and bodies. There is no other way by which we can live in His abiding presence. No good works or seemingly holy life will bring Him to us like His Word and Sacraments do.
It is essential to use this medicine after consulting a medical professional. generic tadalafil 20mg Lemon Balm This is really a mild relaxant that happens to be used for treatment or prevention of benign prostatic symptoms, djpaulkom.tv purchase generic cialis erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disorders go hand in hand. Especially since several tiny objects are inserted into viagra sale the tip of it, you must ne’er self-medicate yourself to Kamagra. It visit here viagra online in uk increases HGH production from pituitary and improves the natural growth of reproductive organs. At Emmaus the disciples remembered that Jesus had opened the Holy Scriptures to them: “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” So He comes to us today through His Word, and our eyes are opened to His presence by His grace. When He ascended from the earth in His glorified body to rule from the right hand of His Father in heaven, He left us His life, His death, and His forgiveness in the pages of the Holy Scriptures and in the holy sacraments. Through them the story of Emmaus was to be repeated again and again, every day and every hour of Christian history. By them the Holy Spirit, the Comforter was to bring faith into our sorrowing hearts and companionship to our lonely lives. They were to bring us the blessed certainty of the forgiveness of sins, the true peace of God, and salvation.
God’s Law causes our hearts to burn within us as we remember today how often we have neglected these means of grace or been too easily satisfied to stay at home on any given Lord’s Day, or even to treat these things with indifference. Today our hearts are shadowed by the darkness of hate and by our countless, crippling fears over the present and the future. And we dare never neglect the only way our souls receive sustenance and strength – through regular and faithful attendance at the Divine Service through which we receive our Lord Jesus in all the ways He wants us to have Him.
By the grace of God this is our first lesson today: Our risen Savior always abides with us in His Word and sacraments. When we use them faithfully, regularly, and frequently, He draws near to us. You can never get closer to Jesus than right here in church where your Lord gives you Himself every time we are gathered together. Here our eyes are opened and we see Him. Our God-given faith beholds Him as He was foretold by prophets, born in the manger, dying on the cross, breaking the tomb, so that He may now abide with us forever, here in time by the means of grace, and there in heaven for eternity.
Everything our Lord does is done for us. We are the objects of His love and affection. When He comes to us and abides with us, He has certain definite purposes in mind; He wishes to give us something. His presence means something great and beautiful. The disciples at Emmaus knew that. Their plea, “Abide with us,” was based on the statement, “for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” It was growing dark. The Stranger who had opened the Scriptures to them would be good company for the coming night. As they had listened to Him, their hearts had burned with courage and hope. They wanted Him to stay with them because in His presence they knew they had life.
This has always been the blessed experience of the believing heart. The presence of the risen Savior changes everything in life. Forty days after Emmaus Jesus was standing with His disciples on a hillside in Galilee. His voice came to them like the rush of mighty waters “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them.” Because of the magnitude of this task Jesus immediately added the words, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” Although a cloud was about to take Him away from their sight, no cloud or shadow would ever come between Him and their faith. If happiness was to come to them, it would be the happiness reflected from the light of His presence; if honor, it was to be the honor of Calvary; if glory, it was to be the glory of His love. He would abide with them forever.
Dear fellow redeemed, “Abide with us” must also be our constant prayer. For if we ask Him, He always stays. His presence with us gives us certainty that, in the end, as well as through all of life’s stuff, we will be eternally OK.
Countless men and women have lived and died in the Lord. It is still the best way to live and, especially, to die. The second-last verse of Holy Scripture is, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20). Whenever and wherever these words are spoken in repentant faith, we hear His voice answering, “Surely I am coming quickly” (also Rev 22:20). And as we, by God-given faith continue to avail ourselves of His precious word preached and Sacraments rightly administered, there is absolutely no doubt that He abides with us and in us to the end. And that presence of Christ brings us all the certainty, strength, and peace we will ever need.
There is one more thing we have yet to mention, and it is certainly no small thing. Besides Christ’s abiding presence and the accompanying comfort that beautiful truth brings, Christ burst forth from the grave. He rose from the dead. He defeated death. That gives us even more strength and comfort because of our Baptism.
As St. Paul wrote in Romans 6:4-5, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” As a baptized child of God, you are guaranteed a resurrection also. When your mortal body dies, it will rise again on the Last Day. It will be laid in its earthly bed for a time while your soul goes on to be with Jesus. Then, on the last day, your body will be raised and changed into a glorious, powerful spiritual, sinless body that will be reunited with your soul. That means we will be perfect in body and soul for eternity with our dear Lord Jesus.
“Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” This is our humble and heartfelt prayer as we again behold the glory of Easter and its meaning for us. And it is our certainty that in the Word and sacraments our Savior is here with us and will never leave us nor forsake us while we wait for the day when He will come again to take us Home.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
