In sixth century Ireland there was a legend about a group of monks who traveled in a small boat made out of leather. These monks were led by their abbot, Brendan the Navigator. The legend of Brendan tells of a seven year voyage around the North Atlantic Ocean where Brendan and his companions possibly come to America 1000 years before Columbus. The legend has many far-fetched elements to it and is obviously being written to teach spiritual truth as much as to tell a story of something that actually happened.
One of the events during the voyage happened on Easter morning. Brendan and his companions came to a rocky shore and brought the boat ashore. They spread out to pray and observe Easter individually with the understanding that at noon they would come together and share in a feast. As they prepared the fire to start cooking the meal, the island began to move, then it began to sink. The monks, well they freaked out. They ran back to the boat as fast as they could and got in it watching the “island” swim away.
What had just happened to them, islands don’t swim, nor do they sink. They were very frightened and did not know what to make of their experience. Brendan explained to the rest of the monks what had happened, for he had had a dream the night before explaining it to him. They were not actually on an island, like they though. Really, they had landed on the back of a giant whale named Jasconius. Everything they thought they understood about the ocean, about the island they had been on, was wrong. The world was very different than what they believed it to be. And this frightened them.
What is amazing is that in the legend, each Easter the monks came back to the same whale and celebrated Easter on its back. They remembered the fear, they remembered the fact that their understanding of the world had been wrong.
Easter is a time where the world is turned on its side. We look at what seemed to be the greatest defeat in the history of God’s relationship with humanity. God sent his son to the world, to be the Messiah, and the very people who Jesus came to killed him and he hung defeated on a cross. But this horrendous defeat is actually the greatest victory… and this happens with the Resurrection. We, like the monks on the back of the whale, see that the world is not how we understood it to be. God, through the resurrection, has given us a change in perspective… Like Brendan and his companions, we are right to be a bit fearful at the majesty and wonder of God. But then we can celebrate and rejoice, for Christ has risen from the dead… and that changes the way we see everything.
I. Wrapping your mind around the Resurrection
In the scripture read this morning we are introduced to a couple of the followers of Jesus who are traveling along the road to Emmaus. They are discussing the amazing things that they have just witnessed and heard of. They are trying to wrap their minds around the things that have happened. Like the monks in the story I just told… they are in need of an explanation that re-focuses their understanding of the world around them… they are in need of an explanation that re-focuses their understanding of their religion. They had grown up reading the scriptures a certain way and understanding what it was the Messiah was about.
Was the scripture that they had been reading their whole lives wrong? No. The truth was in the scripture… it had been there from the beginning, but their worldview… the things they had been taught… the things going on in the world around them caused them to interpret scripture in a certain way. And they interpreted it wrong. What they expected from God in the world around them is not what they got. And this frightened and confused them.
It took revelation from God… it took God’s Word in the flesh for them to understand the words they knew.
So these two disciples walk and discuss and they come upon a stranger who joins them in their walk. Now we know something that they don’t, this stranger is the Word of God, himself. It is Jesus. But these two disciples, these two followers of Jesus are unable to recognize him.
The stranger asks these two what it is they are talking about, what it is that troubles them. They respond by telling the stranger about the strange things that have happened in their lives. They tell of following Jesus because they believe that he is to redeem Israel. They tell of the horror of his death and how shocking and painful it was to them. They tell of the seemingly amazing resurrection that they have heard about but not seen.
Then the revelation comes. The stranger, who they still don’t recognize, tells them how what has happened fits into the scripture and is actually the very thing that that they should have been expecting. Jesus explains to these two what it is that scripture said about the Messiah and they were amazed. They were unable to see the truth in the Scripture until God gave them inspiration.
II. Inspiriation
We like to talk about the inspired word of God, the Bible, our scripture. Yet it is possible to read the Bible without inspiration. It is possible to use the very word of God to bring harm to God’s kingdom. And this seems to happen when we forget to rely on God, and instead rely on our own understanding. I have heard people preach hate from the Bible, I have heard people preach a pseudo-love from the Bible that tells us that God loves the world so much that he is going to leave each of us the way we are without bringing change in us. Neither of these are true to the message that is really there. When people take God’s word and use it to their own ends without allowing God to be present at their reading of scripture… this is a desecration of the very thing we hold so high.
Scripture is so much more than a place to go to find a text to back up a point that we want to make. This is what was done by the religious leaders of Jesus’ day… and they ended up killing Jesus because of it.
God honored the disciples desire to know the truth. They came with questions and God gave them answers. God gave them answers that transcended their culture, their teachings and their understanding.
As the disciples on the road to Emmaus searched for the truth the Word of God appeared to them, though they did not recognize him and answered the questions that they had. If they had tried playing games with him they would not have listened. If they had argued with him, they would not have listened. If they had held onto their own pre-conceived notions… they would not have listened. Instead, they humbly listened to the Word of God, and found truth.
Today, are we willing to humbly listen to God? Are we willing to put our preconceptions at the side so that we might sit and listen to the Word? God is ready and willing to teach us and is just waiting for us to listen. And how do we do this? I’m going to quickly give you three ways and they will sound familiar: reading scripture, prayer, and Christian community.
III. Three Tools
Reading Scripture: Don’t just sit down with the Bible and turn to your favorite passage… don’t read individual verses as proof texts. Read chunks of the Bible. Read the passages in context. Before you begin reading pray that God might speak to you and honestly open yourself up that the Holy Spirit might bring God’s word to you anew and fresh. Be ready to learn something new, be ready to see something in a different way. Let God be the one to speak through scripture… not yourself.
2. Prayer: When we pray we like to talk… we like to tell God what is going on in our lives and what our needs are. This is all well and good, but most conversations I enjoy are two sided ones. Actually, one sided conversations can be quite annoying. Thankfully, I have a wife to poke me when I start dominating a conversation and remind me that if I really want to participate in a conversation I need to take a breath and let others talk. Yet when we approach God in prayer we seem to think that we are to talk and talk and talk… Instead we can take time and listen. Try praying with your Bible in front of you… After saying some prayers spend time reading scripture. Then pray some more, then read some more scripture. Try spending time in silence. Open your heart to God and let God speak to you in the silence. Yes, talk to God in prayer… but listen to God in the midst of the prayer also.
3. Christian community: When I was in college, after a very difficult time in my life, I found myself very hurt, bitter and depressed. It is Christian community that helped me the most through this. I had people to keep me honest. I had friends to help me through the depression. One friend in particular had a nasty way of continuing to point me towards God. One night I was particularly feeling bad for myself and wanted to talk about what had happened. I wanted to talk and talk and I wanted pity. He let me talk, but then he led me towards God. Our evening ended in the chapel at my college and he left me in peace before God. That was the night that the most healing happened for me, because I had a friend who directed me away from myself and towards God. That is part of what we are to be for each other. We are there for each other to encourage and to point on the right path. We are there for each other to support each other in difficult times and to celebrate with each other in the joyous times. God will speak to each of us through each other, if we are willing to listen.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus were willing to listen and heard God’s revelation, God’s word spoken directly to them. And then they recognized Jesus when he broke bread. Let us pray that as we seek him in scripture, in prayer and in Christian community, we will also recognize him as our risen Lord. Amen.
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