Sonrise Sermon
Every Easter we come back to the same stories. Every Easter we enjoy the traditions that our parents did before us and their parents before them. We get together possibly the night before, or at least sometime before, and decorate fresh eggs. We come together with loved ones, and as I reflected earlier in the week, have our glorious ham. But most of all, we come to church yet again and we hear yet again all the things the youth have proclaimed thus far.
I can remember a lot of Easters. I can remember one Easter in which my dad painted huge rabbit feet upon our front side walk. We were so excited that the Easter Bunny had come and left his tracks. We looked around for the eggs in which we ourselves decorated like I all ready mentioned most people do sometime before Easter. But I still think the Easter Bunny came.
I can remember different church services that reminded us about what Jesus did for each and every one of us. Even today we are reminded how the Prophet Isaiah’s words eventually come true in light of Jesus. He tells us of a servant who was despised and rejected by others and that surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases. We further heard about Luke’s portrayal of how Jesus himself most likely referenced Isaiah himself when Luke tells us in verse 27 that Jesus began with Moses and all the prophets and interpreted to the two he walked with all the things about himself in all the scriptures. So now we will all remember this year in which we learned about the Gospel, which is re-iterated here in the verses that have just been read from Luke.
What I find is more interesting though is the fact that the disciples first tell Jesus about what has just happened because they themselves are kept from recognizing Jesus. We might ask why they were kept from recognizing, but I am not sure that is the point we should be worried about. The fact of the matter is all the disciples know are the stories of the women. They themselves didn’t see the angels, and they themselves only saw an empty tomb. By no means should they think at all, even if this man walking with them may looked like Jesus, actually is Jesus.
To the point though, the two disciples are probably a lot like you and I. In being Jesus disciples they believed in the words that Jesus proclaimed through out all of Luke. And every day before Jesus’ death they heard what Jesus had to say about a true faith, a divine kingdom, and a loving Father. All the while paralleling what we hear every year when we yet again hear just how it was that Jesus suffered, died on a cross, and rose again.
But even more so, while the disciples tell the story to this ignorant stranger. they continue to be ignorant themselves that Jesus is the one talking with them and walking with them for about seven miles. Before they reached their destination Jesus spoke in response to them about the things He always has. And they still do not recognize their Lord, The Son of the Father, who only three days ago died for their inequities.
They do not recognize Jesus until he distributes the elements to the two at Emmaus. Only then does the light bulb finally go on and the disciples realize how their hearts were burning from the truth of the words and the reality that Jesus had taken the time to walk the seven miles from them. Realizing what had just happened, they ran back to
Yet, once again, as I was working on this Sermon I began to wonder if the way the disciples do not recognize Jesus throughout their seven mile journey is not similar to each of our journeys. Weather it be seven miles, seven weeks, or seven years I wonder how long each of us will be able to proclaim the exact things the disciples did and still not recognize Jesus for who he is. I wonder how many of the Easters we can remember are done exactly in the same fashion.
We will show up on Easter morning and we will declare to any stranger who may not know the events over 2000 years ago. We will tell them that Jesus was handed over to be crucified by not only his enemies, but was also betrayed by his friends. He was forced to carry his cross to the very place they crucified him to that very cross only for the first time in his entire life be separated from his Father. Then he died.
Then the Sermon will tell each one of us the truths found in the Scriptures. The Sermon will reflect on the Old Testament in which it speaks of someone who has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases. The Sermon will tell us how we cry out to the Lord and He and He alone was the one to reach down and save us. And finally, the Sermon will tell us that the disciples went to see an empty grave three days later.
But the Sermon will not help you see what some of us for many years have missed. Amongst all the Easter Eggs, the glorious hams, and even the Sermons that speak of Jesus did for us some of us will not realize that Jesus himself is walking with us without us recognizing he is doing so. We are kept from doing so for many reasons.
For whatever reason, I pray that on this Easter we would realize just how much Jesus enjoys walking however many miles with us. He will walk with us and listen to how the past few days have unfolded. Then he himself will continue your story to the day you were born. He will recount everything you have experienced up until today as you sit so graciously listening to my words.
But if you hear nothing else, hear this. Jesus did rise from the grave so that he could continue walking with us for eternity. He bore our sins upon the cross he died only to rise on the third day from Hell itself in victory. He did this for each and every one of us because of one concrete and eternal reason.
As you tithe and as we finish this Sonrise Service and as you go down and have a doughnut I hope you will know the truth of what Jesus wants you to know. I pray that you will know that He walks with you on this day and forever more onto eternity. But most of all I hope you hear him whispering to you his one concrete and eternal reason:
“Because I love you.”
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