Adapted from my Easter sermon, 2001

It is a difficult world in which we live.  The issues go from absurdity to absurdity.  On any given day, we hear about shootings and attempted shootings at our public schools.  Grade school children write up “hit” lists of people they want to kill.   We know something about the unfairness of life and the self destruction of a society.  We know what it is like to hurt and suffer without understanding.  But we still cling to our hopes in this terrible darkness.  We do so because, even in the terrible shadows of death, we still recognize him. Like a Lighthouse, we can still see him in the storm.

We can understand the confusion and hurt felt by the Disciples.  Some were hiding in fear for their lives. The two disciples in our text, one named Cleopas and the other one unnamed, got up on Sunday morning and headed home to Emmaus.  Emmaus was west of Jerusalem about seven miles.

They were just out of town when a Stranger joined them.  This Stranger approached them while they were still talking about the weekend’s events.  “What are you discussing together as you walk along,” the Stranger asked?  Luke said that they stood there looking sad.  You can feel their pain.  This word “sad” draws a word picture of someone with a sorrowful countenance.  It is a look that reflects a dark, empty place in our soul, a look that cannot be hidden because our hope is gone.

Cleopas finally answered, “Are you such a stranger to Jerusalem that you do not know what has been happening here in the last few days?”  Cleopas was exasperated, how could he not know?  But it was Cleopas who did not know, his eyes could not see that the Stranger was Jesus.

So Cleopas explained it to him.  It was about Jesus of Nazareth.  He was a prophet from God.  He did mighty things like healing the sick and raising the dead.  But the chief priests and the rulers delivered him up and they crucified him.  “We were hoping that he would deliver Israel,” but now he is dead, it has been three days.  All of their hope was gone.

This Stranger who seemed so ignorant began to explain things to them.  “Foolish men and slow of heart to believe,” have you not read the prophets, don’t you know they said that the Messiah must suffer in order to enter his glory?  Jesus, beginning with Moses, explained all the things concerning what the Messiah must experience.  You would have thought that by this time they would have guessed who Jesus was.  But their grief was too deep and the disappointment too great, they had ears but could not hear, they had eyes but could not see.

They arrived at Emmaus and it was late, so they asked him to stay with them.  Jesus went with them.  When it was time to eat, Jesus took the loaf bread and blessed it and broke it into pieces and began to hand it to them.  Suddenly their eyes were opened, it was Jesus!  At that point Luke tells us that Jesus vanished from their sight.

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us on the road, while he was explaining the Scriptures to us?”  Their eyes were opened, they had known something was different about this man but they could not see.

These words, “were not our heats burning,”  are interesting.  The word burning means to glow like an ember.  Their faith was like small embers and as Jesus taught, the Spirit blew across their hearts and the embers became a glowing fire.

This was too great a thing to keep to themselves.  So they returned to Jerusalem to the very room where they knew that the eleven and the other believers would be.  Bursting in, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon,” even before they could open their mouths, they found that the others had seen Jesus as well.  So they shared their story, how they recognized Jesus when he broke the bread.

What happened?  What opened their eyes and caused them to run back to Jerusalem?  The answer is, they experienced the resurrection.  But, notice that it took Jesus to open their eyes.  It was only after Jesus broke bread that they could see.  There was something in the act of blessing that revealed to them that the Stranger who walked with them was Jesus raised from the dead.  Maybe for the first time they looked at him.   Maybe they heard his tone of voice.  But it was God who opened their eyes.  And it is the same for every person who comes to Jesus by faith. God opens their eyes and only then can they recognize him.
Do you recognize him?  He is the promised Messiah.  Can you see him?  He is the light of the world. He is the Vine and we are the branches and all who abide him will never die.  Do you know him?

In a world of ugliness he is our Rose of Sharon, the Bright, Morning Star. He is all that is graceful and beautiful and true.  He is the King of Glory, our creator and sustainer and all things are through him. He is the Door and though him we enter the Kingdom of God. He is the bread of life who feeds our souls.  He is the good Shepherd who gives us every good thing. He is the resurrection and the life, the First and the Last, the first of all things.  Do you recognize him?

“In Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form,  and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.”  “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”  Do you recognize him?

Jesus is our Passover.  He is the Lamb that takes away our sins.   He is our redemption, our propitiation, our substitute, our sacrifice, our ram caught in the thicket. He is our justifier who makes us right before the Father.  He is our sanctification who makes us holy. He is our glory and he causes eternity to flow through our veins.  Do yo recognize him?

The Historians have tried to eradicate him and the theologians have tried to explain him away.  The skeptics have twitched at his memory and the atheists have sneered at his name.  But, the soldiers could not destroy him, the grave could keep him. And he rules in the lives of literally millions who believe in him.  He storms the enemy’s gates and sets us free. He is the dragon slayer who destroyed Satan’s rule.  He plunged onto the bowels of hades and plowed open a hole so that his children can follow him into eternity.  Do you recognize him?

He is our eternal King at whose name every knee will bow.  John said:
And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war.  And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself.  And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God . . .   And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

He is the Sovereign King.   One day he will come, not as Savior, but as Judge and will judge the quick and the dead. He will separate the sheep from the goats, the holy ones from the dammed. And those who love his coming will reign with him in eternity.  And those who are his enemy will be cast into outer darkness, separated from him forever.

Do you recognize him? Have your eyes been open? Do you have eyes that see and ears that hear?  He is your Savior, your Lord and your King.

{I have removed some of the links in this article because they no longer work}

It is lenten season, so it must be time for another attack on Christianity. In recent years we had controversial books and movies attacking Christianity. They all seem to be released during Lent, to enhance sales. This year it is a Discovery Channel documentary on a a tomb discovered in the Talpiot area of Jerusalem in 1980. However, the documentary is suggesting that the tomb is the burial site of Jesus, his mother, his wife and son. Yes, you read that correctly. The Hollywood director, James Cameron, who brought us the “Titanic” and the “Terminator” now brings what he seems to think is the destruction of the Christian faith. He believes that Jesus died and was not resurrected and that he was buried in this tomb. Rather, he died and was buried in a expensive tomb along with his wife Mary Magdalene and a son name Judah. Ossuaries, or bone boxes, have these names inscribed on them. Sort of a second generation Da Vinci Code.

My first thought was this. If Jesus had died and his body was in a tomb, you have to know that the first century authorities who hated the Christian movement would have known about it. There is no way to keep this kind of thing a secret. Furthermore, the followers of Jesus would have been insane to do what they did if they knew that Jesus had been buried and not raised from the dead. The New Testament says that over 500 people saw him alive after the death, burial, and resurrection. Those people went on to evangelize the world and they died for their effort. I find it hard to believe that this non resurrection could have been hidden from them or that if they knew they would have died to cover it up.

Quite a bit has been written this week about the “discovery.” Several scholars have spoken out against the interpretation that Cameron is putting on the tomb. Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film’s hypothesis holds little weight. He said that he does not think that the name “Jesus” is on the box. Instead, he thinks it reads “Hanun.”

Prof. Amos Kloner is the scholar who originally discovered the tomb in 1980. His original report can be found at

http://www.discovery.com/tomb.

It is in the PDF format. The file contains photos and drawings of the tomb and the ossuaries found in the tomb. There are close up photos of the inscriptions. One can clearly see that the inscriptions were poorly done, which is ironic since the boxes are rather ornate. In an interview, the professor seems to give very little credence to the theory that this is the tomb of Jesus of the Bible. He said that “Jesus son of Joseph” inscriptions had been found on several other ossuaries over the years. Further, he says it is unlikely that the family of Jesus had a family tomb, especially one in Jerusalem. Jesus’s family came from Galilee and were poor. The tomb was that of a middle class Jerusalem family.

A number of scholars have written their own blogs about the tomb. I recomend that the reader take a look at http://www.christilling.de/blog/2007/03/guest-post-by-richard-bauckham.html

which has a posting by Richard Bauckham. I also recommend that you ready Ben Witherington’s blog:

http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/02/problems-multiple-for-jesus-tomb-theory.html

Darrel Bock is also keeping a running blog on the issues. http://dev.bible.org/bock/

There are many more blogs and web sites. Some of them scholarly as I cited above and some of just crack pot sites. There are may other issues to be dealt with as well. For instance, what does DNA evidence had to do with this? Yet, the producers claim that they use DNA to establish the relationship of the people buried in the tomb, even though there are no bones in the boxes. The more questions raised about the claims, the sillier the claims seem to be.

Condemnation has run from conservative to liberal scholarship. We all need to remember it is the Lenten fraud season and consider the purpose of the documentary. It is to make money, not to reveal truth. It will probably happen in the next Lenten season as well. We probably should spend more time thinking about Lent and why Jesus died on the cross.