Broken Bread, Open Eyes
Rev. Richard A. Bolland

Luke 24:13-35
(April 10, 2005 Sermon Transcript)

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        Dear people of God, in the Holy Scriptures there are eleven accounts of our Lord’s post-resurrection appearances to men. All of them are wondrously amazing and strengthening to our faith. But Jesus’ appearance to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is especially interesting and helpful to us who live 2000 years later.

        Why? Because, at first Jesus chooses not to reveal His identity to these two followers of His. Instead, He relies on what we ourselves have as we give witness to the faith that we believe and teach and confess.

        Indeed, Jesus uses the plain, powerful word of God to bring these two men to the conclusion that all that had happened during Holy Week and Easter was bound to happen. It was intended to happen. It was foretold to happen. And indeed, it should have been expected!

        In the end, Jesus, having made His point, then reveals Himself to their eyes, as well as to their hearts.

        I would suggest, in a remarkably similar way, we have come to know the truth about the Lord ourselves. Having heard and experienced the power of His Word, it is our eyes that are opened, and our hearts that are found to be having Christ revealed to us in them, that we too may see Jesus.

        First, perhaps, it would be necessary to realize, like these two disciples, that a lot things can happen that interfere with our ability to hear God speak in His Word. Indeed, Satan has a vested interest in making sure things get a little fuzzy, or cloudy, or obfuscated, or blurry, so that we don’t always hear what we should hear.

        Now mind you, it wasn’t as though these two disciples, who had been following Jesus for some time, and who had witnessed everything during Holy Week at the cross, and heard the report from the women who had gone to the empty tomb, and the disciples who had followed. It wasn’t though they hadn’t gone to the synagogue, or listened to their Lord teach throughout the course of His earthly ministry. Indeed, they had.

        But the experience of Holy Week had left them and Jesus’ other followers literally and emotionally numb from the experience of the cross. It really wasn’t what they had expected. They expected something more, well, shall we say, under control. More victorious.

        Despite the clear words of prophecy regarding that the Messiah had to come, had to suffer, had to die, somehow it just hadn’t clicked with them. Perhaps the words of Isaiah in the 53rd chapter just didn’t register with them, when the prophet writes, But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

        After all, Jesus had been so totally in control in every situation they had ever seen Him in. As He went about in that public ministry, I think, perhaps, none of them could fathom that the cross was essential. That the death was critical. That the suffering was necessary, if indeed there was to be salvation for you and for me, and for them.

        Like the disciples of old, I suppose, we too, as followers of Christ, often think that things ought to be a bit more glorious. A bit more victorious. Indeed, we look for the theology of glory, that conquering, overpowering kind of faith, that should be the mark of Christians, rather than the theology of the cross. For, quite frankly, the cross just isn’t that much fun. And doesn’t look all that successful.

        Perhaps you’ll recall when Jesus was taken into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan, it was precisely to the theology of glory that Satan appealed to our Lord, when he requested of Him that He would bow down and worship him, saying "Look! All these kingdoms of the world I will give you! You don’t have to go to the cross, Jesus! You don’t have to go through this! You can have it all without paying the price!" That was the nature of that temptation. And had our Lord succumbed to it, and ulterior motive of Satan would have been gleefully fulfilled.

        For to avoid the cross would thus remove salvation from us. And we would be Satan’s possessions, rather than the Lord’s.

        A lot of us would rather look for the theology of glory. And quite frankly, utilizing bad theology is one of Satan’s favorite ploys. And he does so on a regular basis.

        The theology of glory always focuses on men and what they do to please God, rather than the theology of the cross, which focuses on what Christ does in order to redeem us and to save us and to sanctify us and to bring us home in heaven.

        The theology of glory is all about how well we behave, how obedient we can be. Then, if we are obedient enough, we can demonstrate that we are truly in the faith. But that is not at all that on which our faith depends.

        Not that we have license to become disobedient. As St. Paul says in Romans 6, may it never be! We will not sin that grace may abound, but rather, we do what we do because of who we belong to, whose we are. For we belong to Christ crucified and risen, and in Him we have the Holy Spirit. And because of that indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we do the things of God. Not out of compulsion, not of necessity to prove whose we are, but just because of whose we are. Precisely for the theology of the cross.

        In lots of ways, many Christians focus on that theology of glory, however, which is more about us rather than Christ. It’s how we respond, rather than how God gives good gifts and forgiveness to us. It happens when we focus on how well we behave, trying to impress not only ourselves, but other people, with our Christian faith. We attempt to demonstrate its validity by our behavior. And, in so doing, we have fallen quite nastily in the trap of the theology of glory.

        The disciples in this text were longing for the theology of glory themselves. That’s why they didn’t expect the cross. That’s why they didn’t expect the suffering. That’s why they didn’t expect the death. They wanted a powerful victory, for the Messiah to come, to wave His hands, and let the Romans be gone, crushed in defeat. Not those who would instead turn and crucify the Messiah.

        They wanted glory, not death. And so do we. That’s what we all want. But the theology of the cross is revealed by the word of God, and it brings comfort despite our failures, and despite our sins. And thank God it does!

        That is the wisdom God revealed by the prophets and the apostles, that which Christ unfolded in many and various ways to these two disciples as they walked along the road. It was precisely to the theology of the cross that Jesus pointed these disappointed and dejected disciples.

        By the way, if we focus always on the theology of glory, I would suggest that disappointment and dejection is what you will normally experience, because life is not normally so terribly victorious, is it?

        No. Instead, our Lord, directing them to many, many Old Testament passages that foretold in much detail of the Christ who was to come, who was to suffer, who was to die, it became clear to them that, by the power of that Word, that what they had witnessed was always what the Lord had intended to accomplish and do.

        They said it pretty well, don’t you think? Did not our hearts burn within us? And they hadn’t recognized Him at that time. It was just the power of God’s Word at work. It was exactly that plainly proclaimed Gospel that God graciously moves them to hear and to understand.

        We in the New Testament era can add more. We are most blessed in that, not only do we have all the words about the Christ in the Old Testament, the Messiah, we have the actual accounts of what happened after He came. We see the end game. We see the resurrection. We know the crucifixion, and we know that God has graciously given His life that our sins might be paid for, that our souls might be purchased forever.

        And that is done precisely through the theology of the cross, not the theology of glory.

        And so, they shared. Immediately, when Christ broke the bread, their eyes were opened. They recognized who He was and, poof, He disappeared from their sight.

        You can almost imagine these poor men sitting there, their eyes blinking at where Christ had been sitting, and wondering, "What’s going on here?" And then realizing precisely what’s going on here.

        And so, up they get, at the end of the day, having been ready to settle in for the night, retracing their steps as fast as they could back to Jerusalem, they find the disciples gathered together in the upper room, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, of course. They pound on the door and they are admitted.

        And they hear the report. They hear the report of the disciples who came. And they did see Jesus after they had left town! And then they too report that they had seen Jesus, and gave an accounting of all that had happened on the road to Emmaus. In verse 36 it reads, While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."

        And then, of course, He asks for a piece of boiled fish to prove the point, and consumes it in front of them.

        I would suggest that it has never been a matter of clever marketing or advertising technique that has fostered the proclamation of the Gospel. Indeed, I would suggest to you that the apostles, empowered by this resurrection and by the power of Pentecost, as they went into the world to proclaim the Gospel, never once read a book about Madison Avenue techniques for winning hearts, and minds, and souls.

        All they did was proclaim what they had seen, and what they knew to be true. And it changed the world.

        That is the power of God’s means of grace. That is the power of Word and Sacraments. That is why the proper proclamation of the Word, in all of its truth and purity, is one of the marks of the true church. That is why the proper administration of the sacraments, in accord with Christ’s institution, is exactly the thing that the church is called to do. And so we do it!

        Will it always look successful? Of course not. We preach the theology of the cross, not the theology of the glory. And so, as we look at great huge mega-churches scattered throughout the land, and we say, "My goodness, why can’t we be like that?", don’t worry about it. We preach Christ crucified and risen. We preach the true and pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. We administer the sacraments as Christ instituted them. And that is what we are called to do.

        Let the Lord take care of the harvest.

        Then, remember this. Just as it was with these disciples on the road to Emmaus, you have a true gift. God did not avail of Himself in Christ, His supernatural powers, to wow them and to convince them. Indeed, He concealed Himself to these men, and He used the same Word of God that you and I have. And with that plain proclamation, did not their hearts burn within them? And did not the truth of the Scriptures find its target?

        And so, likewise, as we gather this day to hear that Word and to receive these sacraments, let it be understood that God is equipping you. Let it also be understood that, as you have called this poor servant to be your Pastor, that you have called him to preach and to teach to you, and to equip you with that same powerful Word, and these same powerful sacraments, to go into the world and to open the hearts and the minds of men. Not by your finesse and power, but by the simple power of the Word, that people will believe, and know, and their eyes will be opened to see Jesus.

        You and I are privileged. I mean that. We are privileged, as were those disciples on the road to Emmaus, to have this sacred task given to us. To the sharing of this word, to speak this divine and inspired word, that He too has opened our eyes and ears, so that we might be the instruments of His grace in doing the same for those who do not know Him.

        As a result, we have been redeemed by Christ, the crucified, who went to the cross to bring us His grace. And, redeemed by His grace, purchased by His suffering and death, we too are privileged to open the Word of light and life to others, in His name.

        In the name of Jesus, Amen.