Sermons for the Month
"Cross-Eyed"
DATE: April 14, 2002
TEXT: Luke 24:13-35“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
There is a Three Stooges shtick that goes like this: "I can't see! I can't see!" "Whatsa matter?" "I got my eyes closed." It just goes to show you that there can be any number of reasons why people are unable to see something that is right in front of them. Sometimes we're too far away and we need to move a little closer. On the other hand, sometimes we're too close, and we need to back off a little bit to see the situation in context, to see the "big picture," so as not to "miss the forest for the trees." Sometimes we miss something important because let ourselves be distracted: "I'm sorry, Officer, I guess I missed that light when I was changing the radio station and accidentally dropped part of my sandwich on my jacket and I had to look for the napkins I always carry in the back seat…" Sometimes we fail to find what we're looking for because we're not sure exactly what it looks like, or what kind of packaging it's in; don't I feel silly when it turns out it was right under my nose, I just didn't see it because it didn't match the picture I had created in my mind. In the same kinds of ways, sometimes I don't quite see, or I'm totally unable to see, what God is up to in my life, or in this world. Something of that sort was going on with two of the followers of Jesus on that most incredible Sunday years and years ago. The betrayal and arrest and conviction and torture of their teacher and friend, his death on a cross within a few hours of crucifixion, the rolled-away stone leaning against the now-empty tomb were way more confusing than clarifying. In the swirl of events and emotions, Cleopas and his unnamed friend were overwhelmed, bewildered, not seeing rhyme or reason to what had happened; they were sorrowful and disappointed and unable to envision anything more hopeful coming in the future. "We had hoped," one of them sadly explained to this third traveler who had joined them on the road and who somehow had been oblivious to the news reports all weekend, "we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel." They had been drawn into the excited expectation that this Jesus, a "prophet mighty in word and deed" might be the One who would restore the fortunes of the people of God, might be the One with the wisdom and leadership ability to bring peace and security to that troubled land. "We had hoped"……but we don't anymore." Heads down and shoulders drooping, no doubt they expected it to be a long, long time before they would allow themselves to be hopeful about anyone or anything ever again. The last thing they expected to receive on the road back home to Emmaus was good news that would send them running back to Jerusalem like a couple of kids, laughing and shouting with joy. But the Good News of God is exactly what they were given, and so are we. The first piece of Good News I see in their story is the PROCESS. Notice how patient Jesus is with them. O.K., he does call them "foolish ones," or literally in the Greek, "brainless ones" - clueless - knuckleheads - but I'll bet He was smiling when He said it, in fact, Jesus was probably trying not to laugh. "We had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel" - um, guys -- I just did!! But Jesus recovers quickly, and with the infinite patience that accompanies His complete and abiding love, He explained to them what they had been witnessing. Going back to the Scriptures, the revelation of God's plan as it has unfolded in the story of His dealings with His chosen people, Jesus followed for them the thread that linked the centuries, from Adam and Eve to Noah to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph; through Moses and Joshua, Gideon and Deborah; through Saul and David and Solomon; through Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and Esther and John the Baptizer. Jesus traces for them the line of people and events that God had been using to work out His purpose for Israel and ultimately for this whole wide world, leading all the way up to the middle cross on Golgotha's hill just the day before yesterday - and then through the cross to the rolled-away stone in the garden that very morning. I don't know how long it took, but Jesus seemed to be in no hurry. Even though it was still Easter day, and Jesus had a lot of places to go and people to see, He was willing to walk for miles, to stay for dinner, to spend however long it would take to help these two begin to see what God had been doing. That wonderful patience and persistence and personal involvement surely is good news to me, since it typically requires multiple attempts for the Lord to overcome the near-sightedness, farsightedness, self-absorption, and distractions that keep me from seeing what He's trying to show me. Isn't it also an important model for us as we invite and encourage others to open their eyes to the truth of God's power and grace? The second piece of Good News is the CONTENT, summarized in the question, "was it not necessary that the Messiah, the Promised One, the Redeemer, should suffer?" There's a whole lot of theology packed into that phrase, enough to keep a preacher going for a long, long time; but let me lift the implication that stands out for me today. Jesus would have us understand His betrayal and arrest and conviction and torture and death did not happen outside of the power and the purpose of God. Within God's grand design, Christ's crucifixion was not unexpected; it was not random; it was not evidence of events swirling into chaos, of a situation out of control. It was necessary. Not because God wanted it to happen; but because it was inevitable that when the goodness, the truth, the utterly selfless love of God pushed itself into a world inhabited by sinful, deceitful, self-centered human beings, there would be a dreadful clash where they intersected. In Jesus, God went forward with his plan in spite of the cross He knew would be there; knowing what we would do to Him, He came anyway, wading into the chaos to rescue us from it, shining into the darkness so that we might have hope. In the cross of Christ, God Himself willingly absorbed the terrible cruelty that human beings, that WE, are capable of inflicting in our desire for power and control; and as only an almighty and eternal God can do, He worked our evil into His greater good. When I hear or read the news reports these days, it's not hard to understand the feelings of Cleopas and the other disciples that weekend. When I sit beside a hospital bed, or look down into the depths of a newly-dug grave, or when I'm privileged to hear you confide the uncertainties, the major upheavals and the seemingly small but mightily vexing day-to-day difficulties of your lives, and mine, it's easy to lose sight of the Lord's hand in all this and to wonder if maybe the situation has slipped outside His control. The cross of Christ, the Messiah who suffers alongside us in order to save us, opens our eyes to the truth, points us to the reality that there is nothing that falls outside the providence of God. We can't always see what He's up to - sometimes we're too far away; sometimes we're so close that we can only see our tiny piece of the puzzle; sometimes we're distracted; sometimes we're so fearful we've got our eyes closed; but Jesus does tell us what to be looking for. He tells us to look for the cross, that place where the world's evil runs right smack into the goodness of God, where human sin intersects divine redemption. There's where we'll spot Him, a crucified God, dying with and for His beloved children; and at the same time a Risen Lord who promises to redeem and to transform, promises to work all things together for our ultimate good, according to His purpose and toward His eternal goal. We can count on it, and sometimes, even now, we can begin to see it, in acts of love and kindness, great and small; see it in a moment when self-interest is transcended for the sake of another; see it in an instance of suffering that results not in bitterness and the desire for revenge, but by God's grace in forgiveness offered, and maybe even accepted. We see Jesus as we walk together along life's road, telling and retelling His story; we see Him where bread is shared to feed a hungry world, and we see Jesus where bread broken and wine poured to form a seemingly random group of strangers into the family of God. "We had hoped…" and now that Jesus has opened our eyes, our hope is so much greater. We walk along the road, with our Lord right at our side, by His promise trusting that no matter what we do or where we go, no matter what happens to us or around us, we are never outside the circle of God's embrace. There is nothing He can not or will not incorporate into His ultimate purpose and plan for us and for this world, and so we can live hope-fully and confidently, with our eyes on the goal of His New Creation which is unfolding already, and which in the end, is guaranteed to be glorious and good. AMEN