APRIL l2th, 2026
A GOSPEL OF GRACE
PASTOR DON PIEPER
2 Cor 3:16-4:7tLk 24:13-35
Welcome to Resurrection Day, part2t Thesee events...happened the same day..., but as Luke
continues his narrative it sounds like he's about to tell a joke. "Now that same day two of Jesus'
followers v,ere on their way to Emmaus when afunny thing happened on the way." (Luke 24:13)
That would be funny not in aha-ha kind of way but the kind when you tell others about it they
respond by saying, "you're funny!" That's uazyt So why are they going to Emmaus? I suspect it's
not to get a cup of espresso, as much as they could use a latte', but to put as much distance as possible
between themselves and the dangers of Jerusalem, for "they were talking with each other about every-
thing that had happened..." (Luke 24: l4) So what do you suppose was the tone of that conversation?
Luke provides a clue by describing their non-verbal response to the stranger's question: "'What
&re you discussing together...?' They stopped in their tracks; with theirfaces downcast (Luke 24:17)
If you asked a child a question and they suddently stopped what they were doing, and stood
there looking at their shoelaces, faces as long as the day, what conclusions might you draw? Busted!
Reminds me when my brother and I tied my sister to a tree and were whispering together when my Dad
walked up and asked us,"What are you doing? What are you talking about? " (looking down) "Nut'n.
She pale face, we injun'. We got a bit defensive and so do these guys. "Yoa must be the only person
in all of Jerusalemwho hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there these lastfew
dayslu (Luke 24:18) What rock did you uawl out from under mister?
Funny they should put it that way. This stranger didn't crawl out from under a rock; he waltzed
right passed it when he rose from the grave that am! Jesus presses the issue: "What things?' Qa: I9)
I love that! He's not asking out of ignorance but to get a sense of their take on it, to help these
guys sort it out, to move from disillusionment to enlightenment. He's teaching by asking questions....
The question pushes a button. Cleopas and his buddy become indignant. "What things? The
things that happened to Jesus, the manfrom Nazareth! (Jesus shrugs) Don't tell us you don't who
he was! He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of
God and all the people. But our leading priests...handed him over to be condemned to death, and
they cruciJied him We had hoped he was the Messiah who'd come to rescue Israel..."
(Luke 24: l9-21)
So there it is. They believed he was a prophet, a miracle-worker, a great teacher..., even hoped
he was the messiah, but note how that last statement is expressed in the past tense. They had hoped -
but no longer. They've lost all hope and perspective..., so this mysterious stranger provides it...
'Wasn't it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these
things before entering his time of glory?' Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses
and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself," (Luke 24:26-27)
Jesus takes them from cover to cover through the Scriptures showing how it all points to him...,
and yet remarkably, even still, they fail to recognize him. They're not the only ones. "Mary suw Jesus
standing outside the tomb but she did not realize that it was Jesus..., assuming he was the gardener."
(John 20:14-25)-2-
John also tells us that Jesus later appeared to Peter and the other disciples as they were hshing
and told them to cast their net on the opposite side of the boat but they didn't recognize him, initially
perceiving him to be a busy-body, a kind of back-Seat fisherman.
And when Cleopas and his friend returned to tell of their adventures on the road to Emmaus
Jesus appeared to his disciplesbut "they were startled andfrightened, thinking they were seeing a
ghosl" (Luke 24:37) So why do they all have such a hard time recognizing him?
In Mary's case it would seem that grief and confusion play a role. For Peter and company, those
who denied and abandoned him and now mistake him for a ghost, it is more a case of fear and guilt.
For Cleopas, his false assumptions have led him to becoming disillusioned. "We had hoped he'd come
to rescue Israel..(from Rome!)" (Luke 24:21) Cleopas wore political blinders. And Jesus'response?
"Howfoolish you are, and slow of heart, to believe oll that the prophe!;have spoken!" (Luke 24:25)
As oppposed to what? Who was he quick of heart to believe if not those who agreed with his politics?
I'm not sure our eyesight is any better. How quick grief, or relational hurt, or political fallout
causes melus to become a bit cynical or angry, evident in how quick many are to leave the community
of faith of which they've been a part, just as Cleopas and company are doing in route to Emmaus. The
good news of their experience on the Emmaus road isn't just that they see and talk with Jesus along the
way, but that this encounter prompts them to reeunite with the family of faith.
Luke notes that once "their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus....they got up and
returned at once to Jerusalem andfound the Eleven and those with them assembled together."
Interesting wording as the word, 'assembly', is used by Luke and Paul to speak of the church.
(Luke 24:31,33)
There's a pivotal moment in the book, Prince Caspian, in which the four Pevensie children are
trying to find their way to the prince, but wind up losing their way & perspective, and tensions arise...
"Look! Look! Look!" cried Lucy. "Where? What?" the others asked. "The Lion," said Lucy
"Aslan himselfl Didn't you see him? " Her face had changed completely and her eyes shone.
"Where do you think you saw him? " asked Susan. " Don't talk like a grown-up, " Lucy shot
back. "I didn't think I saw him. I saw him!" "Where, Lu? " asked Peter.
"Right up there - this side of the gorge - but up, not down. Just the opposite of the way you
want to go, and he wanted us to go where he was - up there!"
"How do you know that was what he wanted? " asked Edmund.
" By - by his face. " The others all looked at each other in puzzled silence. " Her majesty may
well have seen a lion, " put in Trumpkin the Dwarf "There are lions in these woods, I've been told... "
"Do you think I don't lmow Aslanwhen I see him?" Lucy replied.
"Well, why didn't I see him? " Peter asked. "Maybe you weren't looking" she answered."
("from C.S. Lewis' Prince Cospian)
Grief and guilt, doubt and distraction, fear and anger can cloud our eyes. C.S. Lewis paints a
compelling picture here of five travelers who come to a kind of cross-roads. Most of them believe in
him...but they're not necessarily seeking his guidance from moment to moment. They're distracted.
Jesus shows up along the dusty roads of our journey to bring clarity amidst our confusion, hope
for the heavy-hearted and vision for the disillusioned. Question is, will we be looking for him?a -J-
In the book, Heaven Is For Real, four-year-old Colton has a vision of heaven during anear
death experience on the operating table. While there he sits on Jesus' lap and talks with him.
Among the questions his father later asks him is that of asking Colton what Jesus looks like. He
shows Colton painting after painting, asking with each one. "Is this what Jesus looks like?" No.
" How about this one? " No. "Well, how about this one, Colton...? " No, not really.
One day his father is online and reads the story of another child, a little girl whose paintings
have been acclaimed as authentic works of art, and were inspired by visions she'd had. Among them, is
a painting of Jesus' face. He shows Colton, who says, nYup
- thatts him!u and goes off to play.
(from Heaven Is For Real,)
It was instant recognitioni "Yup - that's him!" A side note: That little girl's mother was an avid
atheist but her daughter's testimony and paintings were so compelling, so genuine and beautiful, that
her mother began to pursue the man in that painting and now claims him as Lord and savior!
Is it possible that Jesus moves among us and we simply have not recognized him, that he wants
to bring clarity amidst our confusion as he did with Mury, Peter and Cleopas? As Paul wrote: "For
God, who said, 'Let there be light in the darkness,' has made us understand that this light is the
brightness of the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)
We too catch glimpses of Jesus at work as inner wounds are healed, grief is transformed into
hopeful anticipation and as lives are reconciled to God and to one another. In times such as those, we
can, like young Colton, say: Yup, that's him! He comes into focus as we immerse ourselves in His
Word whereby we come to recognize his voice and character, and as he reveals himself among His
Spirit-filled followers in the breaking of bread together in Communion with him all the saints.
In his book, A Glorious Dark Pastor Swoboda, serving Theophilus Church in Portland, tells of
a woman who came to his church in order to write a blog about it to her unbelieving audience.
"Amanda, a devout atheist, wrote about taking Communion served by a child. She said that in
being served communion by this little girl, something happened in her, something beautiful, and how
she was touched in her soul and began to cry when she took the body and blood of Christ. She wrote
in her blog about it: 'It was my first truly authentic religiou experience.' As tears filled her eyes, she,
for a moment - possibly without realizing it - was touched by the God she didn't even believe existed.
And encountering this Godwas an abrupt surprise. All of this, wrote Amanda, within a simple
community of Jesus people in the heart of Portland. Go figure!" "Yup - thatts him!'
It,sanelementofthisresurrectionappearan""",,"#!"!',T;#:!i!{^ffi,n"
surprise element of the resurrected Jesus! Cleopas and company give witness to this: uour hearts
were burning within us while he talked and walked with as on the road.." (Luke 24:32)
C.S. Lewis articulated the surprising nature of God's self-revelation in book he wrote entitled,
Surprised Bv Joy. The context in which he writes is that of the painful loss of his beloved wife to
cancer. By surprise, he doesn't mean that God suddenly changed or jumped out from behind from
something to startle us. By surprise he means the change happened within him, within us, and in such
a moment God is seen in a way we never thought imaginable. For the first time we catch a glimpse of
him as he really is, not as we think he is or should be.-4-
So it was for Cleopas. u(He) had hoped that Jesus was the one who was going to savq fsrael"
(Lulre 24:21) He put Jesus in a political box, seeing him as one who would make Israel great again, but
in this he failed to truly see Jesus. His eyes were opened after Jesus helped him to see him that the
messiah is the suffering servant spoken of by the prophets, the one one who came to save his people not
politically, or militarily, but spiritually. To rescue them from themselves.
This Jesus is so full of surprises - and He is still walking up behind us to surprise us today even
still. Question is, are our hearts open to that? Will we, like Lucy, be looking for him, ready to embrace
the one who reveals how God has escaped both the tomb as well as the boxes we try to and put him in?
May the God of surprises, surprise you, helping you to see him on his terms rather than your own. In
this way, may uour hearts (begtn) burning within ns" as well! (Luke 24:32)