Jesus is risen!
Have you seen the Lord?
Have you seen him, still alive in the world, still going about the same kind of work that he had always been up to? Jesus has risen. Having found that empty tomb, we can leave it behind: we are not searching for the living among the dead any longer. Have we seen our Risen Lord?
Now, where was it that we have seen him?
And how could we tell that it was Jesus?
These two disciples, Cleopas and an unnamed companion–possibly his wife, for all we know–presumably had at least seen Jesus in person, in the pre-resurrection flesh, so it seems to be only due to a very great distraction or some kind of divine intervention that they do not recognize him as he walks alongside them all the way from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They couldn’t tell that it was him, looking directly at him.
But you know what? I probably wouldn’t be able to identify Jesus that way either. Now, if he were showing off his scars–the holes in his wrists and at his ankles where nails held him to the cross, scars we know he keeps even in his resurrected body–then, I might recognize Jesus. But there’s nothing else about Jesus’ appearance that I would actually recognize on sight.
Our Wednesday class was studying the Servant Song of Isaiah 53 this week, which Luke applies to Jesus, so if we trust that there is “nothing in his appearance that we should be drawn to him” then we have some clues about how Jesus looked. “Normal” appearance in first-century Galilee would mean brown skin, near-east features, probably a little shorter than most of us. But that describes countless people; I don’t imagine that any of us would be able to identify Jesus by looking at his outward appearance.
These two disciples couldn’t either. Not knowing that it was Jesus, they were astounded that this “stranger” did not know what had been happening in Jerusalem for the past week, although he too was walking out from Jerusalem that day. We as the readers are usually so distracted by the irony of trying to explain Jesus’ own story to Jesus that we might not hear how well-put their summary is of the events:
- Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet mighty in word and deed before God and people.
- Chief priests and leaders desired his death and handed him over to be crucified.
- We had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel. (That is, the Messiah.)
- On the third day, women found the tomb empty and angels said that he was alive.
- Some of the men went and found the tomb as the women said, but did not see him.
Those of us who were here last week might recall that when Pastor Irv preached on the story up to that point, and no further, we were challenged to do as the angels said and remember his words, to draw on more than one experience and to share together all of Jesus’ story. If the disciples had remembered Jesus’ words–and trusted the women!–then they would already have been rejoicing. He’s alive, just like he said! But Cleopas and his companion were sad, even as they reported these things to Jesus, who was standing as though a stranger before them.
Can you hear Jesus’ loving rebuke? “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!” And he proceeds to interpret scripture to them, from “Moses through the prophets,” which would basically mean, “through the entire Old Testament,” all the ways that he fulfilled the scripture.
Except that, since it was Jesus, and they didn’t know it was Jesus, he must have been referring to himself in the third person–as he was known to do before resurrection as well: “the Messiah” must suffer these things and then enter into his glory, or “the Son of Man” will come and be rejected. Jesus never says, “when I return in glory…”
It makes me wonder: when Jesus was twelve years old and stayed behind in the Temple in Jerusalem when his parents were heading back to Galilee, was Jesus already speaking about himself in the third person? Jesus has always been the master interpreter of scripture, right? Already, at twelve years old, his questions astounded people and they were amazed at his wisdom. But we don’t have any recording of what was actually being discussed. And, even if he was talking about himself in the third person starting way back then, how would anyone have recognized it? He hadn’t started his public ministry, and nobody recognized the boy Jesus as a prophet!
But to return to our story, where Jesus spends an entire day of traveling interpreting scripture to this foolish pair of disciples who were still sad after hearing even of the empty tomb, Jesus is still doing two things that he’s done from the very beginning: interpret scripture with astounding wisdom, and refer to himself in the third person. But that wasn’t enough for the disciples to recognize him.
When he makes it as though he would continue, never staying long in one place –which is also something that Jesus would do since well before the resurrection–that wasn’t enough for them to recognize him. When Jesus accepts their invitation, they still have no idea who he is. But when Jesus suddenly takes the initiative and becomes the host in the place that he has been invited as a gust, when Jesus blesses and breaks the bread for them, in those actions they finally recognize him. And he vanishes from before their eyes.
Now, although the bread we probably have foremost in our mind is the bread from the last supper, the first blessing and commandment for remembrance of communion, Cleopas certainly isn’t one of the Twelve, and wouldn’t have been at that meal. So that’s probably not the association for these two in Emmaus. Why do they recognize Jesus at the breaking of bread?
Perhaps they were among the thousands on one of the occasions where Jesus blessed, broke, and multiplied bread to feed the crowds who had followed him into the wilderness. Those crowds, too, wanted Jesus to be their king–they wanted a leader to give them independence from Rome, solve their political problems, and bring a peace better than the Pax Romana–a peace that would put bread on their table. If these two disciples of Emmaus were amongst that crowd, it is no wonder that they thought their expectations were in vain when the Romans put Jesus to death, rather than Jesus kicking the Romans out of Jerusalem.
When Jesus blesses and breaks bread, do they recognize him because of the miracles? Do they only see their Lord when he is acting in the pattern they’ve come to expect of him: miraculous provider of sustenance? Something in that act of breaking bread jogged their memory or matched their deepest imprint of who they thought Jesus was, and they recognized him.
So I wonder: would we only be able to recognize Jesus if he were performing miracles? Could we only identify our Lord by seeking miraculous and astounding signs and wonders? Since we don’t have the advantage these disciples did, who had known Jesus’ face from the time before his death, would we have any other way to recognize Jesus? How would you know if you’ve seen the Lord? Would you tell anyone?
These two disciples, although they have already traveled a day’s walk, “that same hour, got up and returned to Jerusalem,” Luke tells us. Now, from what I can tell, the location most likely for Emmaus in this story is about 7 miles from Jerusalem. So, if the disciples left Jerusalem after lunch and got to Emmaus in the early evening, and then jumped up immediately and ran all the way back to Jerusalem, it’s a plausible story that they would get back to Jerusalem before the disciples still gathered there would have gone to bed–especially if we consider all the adrenaline they’d have pumping! Jesus is alive! We have seen the Lord!
Of course, Jesus is even faster, and by the time they have returned, Jesus has also already been seen by others, including Simon. Now, even though the men had denied Jesus, fled into hiding, and considered the women’s first (accurate) reporting “idle tales,” now it was indisputable that Jesus was alive, and had risen indeed.
But how did they recognize him? In the verses just after where we stopped our reading today, Jesus appears again:
Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
And, of course, Jesus interprets yet again: “he opened their mind to understand the scriptures,” telling them that they would be sent as witnesses when they had received the Spirit, to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations.
In those few verses, there are many things that are shown about Jesus, even in his resurrected body, that are consistent with how Jesus has always been known to them. Which of these helps them to recognize their Lord?
- Is it that he asks for and eats fish? No; although Jesus grew up in a fishing region and had probably been eating fish his entire life, that’s probably not how he recognizes them.
- Is it that he’s made of flesh and blood? No; although that too has been true of Jesus since his birth, that’s not how we know who he is! We’re all flesh & blood.
- Is it that he interprets scripture, calls them into ministry or proclaims a message of repentance and forgiveness of sins? Well, maybe… Those are very characteristic of Jesus, especially since his baptism, but other folks (including John the Baptist) also did those things.
In this particular section of the story, Jesus is identified beyond doubt by the markers he bears of the death that he accepted, once for all. “Look at my hands and feet; touch me and see.” In this section of the story, the disciples identify their lord by the proof that he had suffered on their behalf–and yet stood before them, victorious over death.
Returning again to Isaiah 53, as the friendship class discussed Wednesday: “He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked, and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.” And later, “the righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”
Jesus indeed fulfills these scriptures. He was the one who suffered for our transgressions–suffered because of our transgressions. But in doing so, he fulfilled something that the whole people of God had been called to do and to be; the whole people descended from Abraham were intended to be called apart as a blessing to the nations of the world–even though sometimes following their God’s call would involve suffering. Where we have all fallen short of that call, just as all our ancestors in the faith from Sarah and Abraham through the generations have fallen short, Jesus did not; Jesus uniquely succeeded in offering a full life of perfect obedience to God. And yet, his story demonstrates, the powers of this world are arrayed against God’s kingdom, so that life of perfect obedience will lead not to an easy road, but the cross.
Is that how we recognize our Lord? By looking for the cross, and the marks that it left upon his body? Do we only know Jesus by the cross?
The cross is unmistakable as a symbol of Christianity; and the cross is also an instrument of tragedy, torture and death. In our tradition, I think our discomfort with that suffering is one of the reasons we don’t depict Jesus on the cross, as you might see in a Catholic crucifix. We would rather proclaim Jesus risen–and true enough, he has.
But have we seen the Lord? How could we know it was him?
James Cone has seen the suffering Jesus, and recognized his Spirit present in the pages of this country’s history, although that Jesus seemed to be a stranger to the white Christians doing most of the preaching. In his landmark text, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, James Cone spells out the connection, plain to see in the eyes of the Black church, between the innocent one hung outside Jerusalem and the many thousands hung from trees across our country’s landscape in the period of lynchings–children of God whose guilt or innocence was no more relevant to their deaths than was Jesus’. As someone called to preach the word of God, I am haunted by what Cone points out: in the whole period of lynchings, decades-long in America, he could not find even one sermon by a white preacher that directly addressed them as evil. Never, across decades, did any white preacher ever recognize the Spirit of their Risen Lord in the faces of these men and women, children of God who shared in a death like Jesus’ humiliating, public death at the hands of an angry mob.
Would we recognize our Lord by the marks in our Lord’s body? Would we recognize the wounds, and see that this one beloved by God has suffered a death that should have been reflected back upon us? “Wounded for our transgressions,” the prophet says; “crushed because of our iniquities…”
Cleopas thought Jesus was “the stranger in Jerusalem,” who didn’t know what had been happening in the past days. Cleopas could give a good summary of what had happened, but he was sad when he should have been rejoicing! He didn’t understand, and he had no idea who he was talking to.
Centuries later, thousands of white pastors preached as though everything was fine, even the morning after lynchings in their own town across this country, because they, too, thought the ones hung from the tree were just “strangers.” They didn’t recognize the image and Spirit of their Lord, suffering unjustly at the hands of a mob.
With thankfulness that I have Cleopas’ story and James Cone’s writing to learn from, I have tried not to make the same mistake. I don’t want to let anyone’s outward appearance lead me to assume that they’re a stranger when I should be aware that I am coming face-to-face with my risen Lord and Savior. Jesus has sent his Spirit, breathing life and power into the disciples as they have gone out from Jerusalem into all the world, as we’ll hear about in the coming weeks. Will we recognize Jesus by his Spirit, when we see that Spirit empowering people to keep doing the things that Jesus has always been doing? Jesus might not look like what we’re expecting.
- Have we heard anyone interpreting scripture with power, fresh for today? They may be preaching by Jesus’ Spirit.
- Have we seen the ones who freely give of their time to the children, considering their needs as important as adults? They too are doing Jesus’ work.
- Have we heard what is happening to little ones bearing Jesus’ image at the border? Jesus’ family fled in fear of violence too, and they were not turned aside. I don’t know whether Mary and Joseph would have sent Jesus into Egypt alone if that was the only way to keep him from Herod.
- Have we seen someone come across something they disagree with so strongly online, but then seek out the conversation in person, trying to find understanding and restore the relationship? Jesus ate with Pharisees–and loved them too.
- Have we heard how easy it is to get a vaccine in this country? There are basically medical miracles available to us–because of the work of so many professionals and volunteers, working for healing as Jesus did.
- Have we seen enough evidence of rising discrimination against Asian-Americans that we’re ready to step in, rather than remaining a stranger standing by? Jews considered Samaritans as dangerous strangers not to be contaminated by, but Jesus drew near the woman at the well, and through her testimony, salvation came to her whole town.
Today’s story is about two disciples who spent nearly an entire day with Jesus, in his bodily resurrection, without realizing who he was. Rather than recognize their Lord and savior, they thought he was a stranger. When they finally recognize him, their sadness and confusion turned to overflowing joy that they rushed to share with others.
So I ask us to consider, as followers of Jesus just a week past our celebration of the resurrection: Have we seen the Lord? How do we identify Jesus’ Spirit, in the world and alive today?
Let’s not act as though strangers to our contemporary sisters and brothers bearing the Spirit of our Lord, but draw near and walk alongside them: Where do we see Jesus, the healer, and teacher of compassion? Where do we see Jesus, the one who accepts suffering to confront injustice? If our Lord is risen indeed, we will find his Spirit still at work in this world, and our sadness and confusion can also be transformed into an eagerness to share the good news we have in Jesus.
Caleb Kragt is a minister 2/3 time and 1/3 stay-at-home Dad. He and his wife Allie have just moved into their first house with kids age 3 and 6. Caleb and Irvin Heishman are co-pastors for the West Charleston Church of the Brethren in Tipp City, Ohio.
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