Tune in to Deep Creek Anglican Church as Megan explores the journey from the "fog of despair" to the "dawn of new life" this Easter. Discover how the disciples, lost in confusion after Good Friday, encounter the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus. This sermon unpacks the story of redemption, revealing how Jesus opens our minds to the scriptures, our wills to seek His presence, and our hearts to recognize Him in the breaking of bread —a journey for us every single day.
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We are a welcoming and growing multigenerational church in Doncaster East in Melbourne with refreshing faith in Jesus Christ. We think that looks like being life-giving to the believer, surprising to the world, and strengthening to the weary and doubting.
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How wonderful. Thank you so much. My name is Megan. If you haven't met me before. I'm one of the ministry team here at Deep Creek. And what an incredible privilege it is to be together on this day. Might not be shining outside, but, that's kind of a good thing, actually. We definitely need the weather to cool down. but we are here on this most brightest of days where we celebrate the dawn, the dawn of resurrection, the dawn of new life.
The Beginning of the Story: Redemption
So, this morning, we begin with a story. And every story begins somewhere. This one appeared to begin on a morning very early in the morning on the first day of the week. We hear that echoed in all the Gospels, but actually this story began a lot earlier. This story began with the birth of a baby. And at the beginning of this same Gospel of Luke, there is a woman who has been waiting, who has been waiting for this baby. And she says, that this is the one who would bring the redemption of Jerusalem. There was a prophet, Anna. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day fasting and praying. And when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple, she sees the baby. And she gives thanks to God and speaks about the child to all who are looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. This is the beginning of the story. The story of redemption.
Now, redemption is not a word we use very often today. It means setting free by the payment of a price. In the Old Testament, it was used to refer to the buying back of slaves. It was used of God acting to free his people from their enemies and from oppression. But when Anna, at the beginning of this story, looks at this baby, she is thinking of far more than just the buying back of a slave or the redeeming of Israel. She is seeing the setting free of the whole world. How then do we get from this? Baby.
From Hope to Despair: The Fog of Disappointment
To two people walking along. In the fog. The fog of despair. The fog of confusion, sadness and disappointment. The story began like so many stories do, with great hope and potential. Like when you and I might see a baby. Or the cutest ones are here and you know there is so much hope. And you see the child as such a gift. And yet as life goes on, hard things happen, unexpected things come. And maybe the potential and the great hope that you had when you looked at that child seems very hidden indeed.
And so that's what we find when we have these two disciples walking along after Good Friday. The story that began with the great potential of a baby, the one who would be the redeemer of Israel and the whole world. Seems to have ended in not victory, but defeat. There was a glimmer of light and now, because of Good Friday, they walked in the long shadows of disappointment, the potential, everything that they'd seen in this man who had healed, who had blessed, who had welcomed, who had seemed to hold within himself the very power of God, had died on a cross. And they use the same words as Anna. They say about this one. We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. In the Gospel of Luke. You actually only get the words redemption twice in the beginning, in the kind of infancy parts of the story. And then here. Here, when the story seems to have come to an abrupt end. We had hoped, like the prophet Anna, that this was the one to redeem Jerusalem. And yet it's been three days, and our hearts are broken. They started off on a journey with Jesus. And they've heard that there's an empty tomb. But it was not simply a matter of hearing that the body was no longer there. They have to put a great deal together because they have been through so much. The traumatic events of Jesus arrest and execution. They'd heard prophecies concerning the Messiah Jesus had said. What would come and they had experienced and learnt so much, but this had not yet come together in their understanding. The journey had begun, but it seemed to have become very clouded indeed.
Jesus Journeys With Us in Confusion
But the risen Lord Jesus never, ever leaves us in our doubt and confusion.
As they talked and discussed these things with each other. Jesus himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him.
We have this strange collection of stories about the resurrection of Jesus, and I tell you, if you were making it up, you would not have these. Strange. Did we recognize him? What was he doing? Was it him? Was it a gardener? Where were we? Where were they? What was going on? We didn't believe them. We thought it sounded like nonsense. You wouldn't make this up. But what you would do is tell the stories of exactly the confusing moments that you had, where resurrection life broke through into your normal, everyday existence, where someone who was dead was suddenly alive again and you did not recognize them because they were now both alive and a heavenly being ready for eternity. You would not have said, ah! We were standing together and we were really sad. And then suddenly we. Someone walked through a wall and there he was in our midst. All of these stories, the disciples trying to make sense. Of the spiritual, of the eternal, of heaven's life breaking into this one.
But we also suspect that God was doing what God always does. Go on the journey with us. God knows that you and I need time to come to understand who he really is. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about how in Luke's gospel, he moves us from the mind to the will to the heart. That you see the evidence of who Jesus is, and you ponder it and you say, yeah, okay, I could believe. And then you see the call and the compelling nature of who he is, and you say, I want to. I want to believe, I want to be near him. But then finally, you see his heart. You see what it meant for him to weep over Jerusalem, to die on the cross, and to come and meet his disciples in the midst of their grief. And you say. I could believe. I want to believe. And now I believe and love this one. So, Luke, throughout his whole gospel does this mind, will and heart. But here, here in the journey to Emmaus, he does the same thing. Jesus takes the two disciples on that journey. The confusion of resurrection becomes the dawn of the mind, the dawn of the will, and the dawn of the heart.
The Dawn of the Mind
So we begin with the dawn of the mind. Jesus speaks to them and says,
How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.
There was so much to put together. And only the risen Lord Jesus could make sense of it all. So he speaks to them, and he tells them about this suffering and glory that the Messiah must undergo. And I wonder whether you've ever thought about where that might be in Moses, the prophets, and all the scriptures or the writings is how we sometimes call them. I sat with them for a while. I didn't go through with a highlighter the entire Old Testament. that's the good thing about having computers these days. But I sat with it for a while and I wondered what would he have been explaining to them?
Well, from the very start of the story in Genesis, death enters the world because of sin. And the promise is that the offspring of the woman will be bruised, but he will crush the serpent's head. There is suffering and glory, and only arisen Messiah can make sense of it. Abraham with his only son Isaac, or the son of promise, I should say, is there ready to sacrifice him. And yet God says, no. I will provide I will provide the sacrifice. And of course, the gift of that sacrifice would lead to the blessing of Abraham and the whole world, suffering and glory. Exodus 12. The Passover Lamb, the blood on the door before the Exodus into freedom, suffering, and glory in the prophets. Isaiah 53. The suffering servant pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. And yet remains obedient, confident that God would bring a victory. In Zechariah, God says, they will look on me, the one they have pierced before the promised last days, or the new covenant will come suffering and glory. In Psalm 118, which is used throughout the New Testament. There's a picture of a stone that the builders rejected, becoming the cornerstone.
Jesus wants his disciples to know that this picture of suffering, rejection, the one who would take death and sin on himself, was necessary, always necessary before glory. The only way for life to come to the whole world would be suffering. Followed by glory. It isn't a detour. It is the plan. It is the map. The cross wasn't a mistake. It was the fulfillment of the pattern that had always been foretold. For God to redeem a people who were stuck in slavery to death and sin and darkness. He had to enter into it and then break it open from the inside. So only a risen Messiah can make sense of it all. And so he explains to them, and he uses this Greek word day, and it means it is necessary. It must. It had to happen. And so he, of course, has showed that it had to happen from the Old Testament, from Moses or the the Torah, the prophets and the writings, the Psalms especially. But throughout Luke's Gospel, he's used that language already. He's said.
- Didn't you know I had to be in my father's house?
- Didn't you know that it was necessary for the Messiah to die? And on the third day rise again?
- I must go to Jerusalem, because that's where prophets face their suffering.
- I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God.
- The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected and be killed, and on the third day be raised to life.
There is a divine necessity in this, and only the risen Jesus can explain it to us in the midst of the mystery.
The Dawning of the Will
And so as they travel along this road, perhaps the fog is starting to lift. They realize they'd heard this before. They'd heard it must. It is necessary. They'd heard Jesus say that before. He's explained to them why he would say that they've seen the Old Testament in a new light. And so I think here is the dawning of the will. They want to be near him. They want to understand. So as they approach the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. I don't know if he was or he was like, come on, guys, come on. Where's that will? But they urged him strongly,
Stay with us, for it is nearly evening. The day is almost over.
So he went in to stay with them. Only a living Jesus can make us seek his presence even in the fog. I don't know if that's your experience even today. It's kind of perfect that we're sitting in this very gray moment, because it can be that life never looks as shiny as we want Easter Sunday to look. Easter Sunday never looks as shiny as we want Easter Sunday to look. But there's something about Jesus that makes us hunger and thirst for him. I know that when I became a Christian at age 14, I really had no idea who this Jesus was. But there was something about him. There was something about this one who would love me and call me to himself. That made me want to be near him. When I go to my professional supervision and I, say, this is so hard, this thing has happened. It's so hard. Ultimately, where I end up is wanting to be near Jesus. I don't have an answer all the time. Sometimes I'm still in the mystery and the fog of hard things that happen in life, including the life of faith. But there's something in my will that knows that if I could just be in a room with Jesus, if I could just take another step closer to him, then that would be part of what would make it okay. And I don't think that a dead messiah could compel that in our hearts. Only a living Jesus, only the one who was starting to lift that fog for those disciples, could make them say hi. Stay with us. We want you to be near us. We want to be near you. And so if if you're feeling in the grayness today, if it was a rush to get here, if you think, where's the light of Easter? Perhaps this is the message for you. Stay with us. We want to stay near you.
The Dawn of the Heart
But finally, there was the dawn of the heart.
When he was at the table with them. He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
Of course, when we see and hear these words, that Jesus was at the table with them, and he took bread and gave thanks, and broke it, and began to give it to them. There are two places in the gospel account that we go to. We go to the time when Jesus fed 4000 5000 people with just a few loaves and fishes. We know that he is the one who provides all we need and this desire that we had to be near him because we didn't know why. But we think I just have to suddenly make sense. He's the one who can feed our very souls. But of course, also it reminds us of the table of the Lord that Last Supper, the Lord's Supper, where he sat with his disciples and he said, this is what I do for you. I give my body, I give my blood, and we will share this meal again in my kingdom. Suddenly, the crucified one is sharing this meal with them again in his kingdom. And they realize that the new has come, that the dawn of God's kingdom, where they can be welcomed, has come. And as soon as they recognize him, he disappeared from their sight. Why? Well, I suspect that he had more announcing to go. And do I suspect that when we get to the end of this story and it says he's appeared to Simon. that's what was happening. You guys have worked it out. Here I go to make sure the rest, because only the resurrected Lord can open our eyes and hearts to the dawn of the new creation.
Now, the breaking of the bread takes us to those two places. But I was reading, and I don't know if Luke meant this, connection, but I think it's powerful. Right back at the start of the story. There was another time when humans ate food and their eyes were opened. In the Garden of Eden, and that first moment of turning away from the leadership of God, the kingship of God. There's the picture of rebellion and eating fruit.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. She took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves
at the beginning of the story. Food was taken. Food was given. Food was eaten and eyes were opened. And what those eyes opened, discovered. Was shame exposure. A desire to hide and cover up. Was an unwelcome opening of the eyes to a middle of the story, which would be exile from the presence of God. But. And it was not right that did this connection for me in my reading. And he says, but this, this breaking of bread, this giving of food, this taking of it and eating it, this eyes opening is the ultimate redemption. This is the meal which signifies that the long exile of the human race, not just of Israel, is over at last. This is the start of the new creation. If the creation, which had so much potential, so much promise, like a newborn baby. Fell into this fog of sin and death. Then, now, as Jesus gives this meal and they take and eat and their eyes are opened, they see that the new creation has come. This is why right says repentance and forgiveness of sins are to be announced to all nations. The impact is not simply for the people of Israel who had a Passover meal. The impact is not simply for all the people who gathered and who had that meal on the hillside with the 4000 or the 5000. This is worldwide. This is creation wide. This is cosmic. And of course, in Luke's gospel, we've already seen Jesus say, if you don't praise me, if you don't love me, the whole creation will cry out. The rocks will cry out because this is the beginning of the new creation. The kingdom that I promised that I would share this meal with you is the restarting, the restoration of human hope and eternal life.
The Journey Back: Hearts Burning
And so they say, well, we're not going to stay here in this town where maybe was their Airbnb, where they'd, you know, had their lodgings for the night. We're not going to stay here. We have to go back. So they start their journey back again. And they say to each other,
Were not our hearts burning within us as he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us
, the intention of Jesus opening and the dawn of our realization of who he is. The intention of Jesus opening our will. And the dawn of us desiring to be near him. The intention of Jesus in opening our heart are all connected. He always intended, and his word is never separate from his intention to create in us hearts that love him. That we would enjoy him. That we would know him. We don't need to have an Easter day that's shining because we know him in every moment, in the fog, in the darkness, in the brightness, in the potential.
And so they got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the 11 and those with them assembled together and saying, It is true, the Lord has risen, and has appeared to Simon, Simon, Peter. In Luke's gospel we'd only seen Peter see an empty tomb. But Jesus has done that work with him as well. And so the two told them what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
This is Easter Sunday, but it is a journey for us every single day, every single moment. Because Jesus is not content to leave us in the fog of our journey. Whatever your disappointment, whatever the greyness that you bring today, Jesus comes alongside to make sure his light opens your mind, opens your will, and opens your heart.