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Redford Aldersgate
United Methodist Church
Sermon
Close Encounters of the Risen Kind: Cleopas' Wife
May 7, 2006
Since Easter Sunday, we have
been looking at the encounters people in the Bible had with the risen
Christ. You might say these are “Close Encounters of the Risen Kind.” It
was these encounters that changed a group of scared, frightened,
fainthearted followers into believers who would courageously stand up
against angry crowds and even lions in arenas because they knew the
wonderful truth that crucifixion and death had not defeated Jesus. Jesus
is alive and is victorious. It was not just an empty tomb or even words
of an angel that convinced them. It was a close encounter with the risen
Jesus that brought the truth alive to them.
In much the same way, it is those close encounters that we have with the
risen Christ that sets our hearts afire. It is those experiences that
can’t quite be explained. It is those moments when there is an assurance
in our hearts that Christ is with us and has somehow helped things to
work out in a mysterious way. These are the “God moments” in our lives.
But there are times when we almost miss those encounters just like these
two almost did as they were on their way to a village called Emmaus.
Let’s hear the story as told in the Gospel of Luke.
Luke 24:13-35
“Their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” That seems strange to us.
How could Jesus walk along beside them and they not recognize him? That
seems strange to most of us, but it doesn’t seem strange to Diana at
all. Most of you probably know that Diana has some rather unusual eyes.
It appears that she sees like most of us. She functions pretty well most
of the time so it is easy to forget that actually she is legally blind.
She has an eye disease called Retinitus Pigmentosa which has destroyed
most of the back part of her eyes called the retina. The results of this
disease has left her with eyes that see only what is directly in front
of her in a little round 8 degree circle. Most of us with normal eyes
see to the side and up and down for 180 degrees. She sees 7 degrees on
one side and 9 degrees on the other. So if you come up from behind to
her and she doesn’t see you coming, it would be very easy for her not to
recognize you because at a close distance she would see only one eye or
a part of a nose. Sometimes, especially, if you aren’t expecting to see
that person, it’s hard to recognize someone by just an eye or a nose.
For
example, who knows who this is? (Picture of an eye) It’s hard to
recognize someone by just an eye isn’t it? How about if we add part of a
nose?... or even the other eye? Now come on, I thought by now someone
would have guessed. You see a picture of this person most every day.
O.K. now stand back and get a better look.... George Washington! You got
it ... but I guess that isn’t really fair because usually, we are used
to seeing him from this angle! (Picture of a dollar bill)
Anyway, you get the idea why Diana has a special affinity for these two
people who didn’t recognize Jesus right away. She figures they might
have had R.P. just like she does. R.P. is what we call Retinitus
Pigmentosa for short. But it could also stand for several other things
that limit our vision as well. So as you meet one of those persons who
was walking along the road to Emmaus, listen carefully and see if you
can pick out some R.P. words that might limit your vision, just as it
might have limited the vision of those two on the road to Emmaus.
(Entering from the back, very excited) Jesus is alive! Jesus is alive!
We’ve seen him. Cleopas and I saw him! That’s right, we saw him! It was
amazing! Jesus is alive! It was the strangest thing. Cleopas and I were
walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. And Jesus just came and walked along
with us! But, dumb us, we did recognize him at first. I know that sounds
really stupid. I don’t know what was wrong with us, but we just didn’t
realize it was Jesus. Well.... I guess I do know what was wrong with us,
we were really preoccupied with our own thoughts and concerns. After
all, Jesus had just been crucified. It was a terrible turn of events. We
couldn’t get it off our minds and hearts. We were really preoccupied
with the thought of it. You know what it’s like, don’t you... to be
really preoccupied with certain kinds of situations? Maybe you’ve been
that way when you were concerned about your job, or a family member or a
health issue or even a church issue. We’d try to change the subject to
get our mind off of it, but the conversation would just keep coming back
to the whole terrible mess. So when this guy came up beside us and asked
us what we were talking about, Cleopas stopped right there in the road
and said, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn’t know the
things that have taken place there in these days?” We couldn’t believe
there was someone who didn’t know about it. Then the stranger said,
“What things?” So we told him all about Jesus and how great he was and
our chief priests and rulers had handed him over to be crucified. We
also told him about the incredible story some of the women of our group
had told us about Jesus being alive. We even told him about some of the
disciples going to the tomb and finding it empty but not seeing him.
When I think back on it now, I feel so stupid. Here we were telling
Jesus about himself. We were also essentially telling him that we didn’t
really believe what the women had said about him being alive. Because if
we had believed the women, we would have had our eyes open, looking
around, thinking: Where is Jesus? Maybe he’ll be around the next corner!
I can’t wait to see him! If we would have believed the news, I think
that’s how we would have reacted ... But, no ... that’s not what we did.
We were walking along with our heads hung low, rather pessimistic about
the whole thing! That old pessimism does terrible things to you, believe
me. I’ve had it happen to me more than once. When you can only think the
worst, then you miss out on the possibilities. I bet you know what I’m
talking about. We’ve all struggled with being rather pessimistic at
times haven’t we? But take it from me, open your eyes. Don’t let them be
clouded with that rather pessimistic attitude. The women had told us the
wonderful news, but we just thought it couldn’t be true. Cleopas kept
mumbling what the other men had said about it being an idle tale of
women. That kind of teed me off. I didn’t like him putting down my women
friends like that, but really, I figured they were suffering from some
kind of anxiety attack or something. Really, it all seem too improbable,
too impossible, too incredible to be true. So like Cleopas, I didn’t
believe them either and my eyes were clouded. I wasn’t seeing clearly.
So don’t be like Cleopas and me. If your eyes are clouded by that rather
pessimistic attitude, shake it off. Things are not as bad as they may
seem. Sometimes people mess things up rather badly, but God is always at
work to bring about something good. So start looking for the good
instead of being rather pessimistic.
Anyway, back to my story. There we were, telling Jesus all about how bad
things were and how we had hoped that Jesus would be the one to redeem
Israel. How dumb is that? Oyvey! I can’t believe we did that! I don’t
think Jesus could believe it either. He said, “How foolish you are and
how slow of heart you are to believe.” Then he started explaining the
scripture to us about how the Christ must suffer before he enters into
his glory. I look back on that whole conversation now and realize how
stupid I was. You see I had these rigid preconceptions about how things
should be. I thought the messiah would come and redeem Israel by leading
a military coup in order to over throw the Romans. I wasn’t thinking big
enough. I thought the messiah would be the redeemer of our little corner
of the world. I didn’t realize we were talking about the redeemer of the
world! I had this rigid preconception about the way I thought things
should be and it made my vision so narrow that I didn’t recognize a
miracle when it happened! I hope that doesn’t ever happen to you, but I
know it’s very possible. Because sometimes we just get certain things in
our minds and think “this is the way things must be in order to be the
right way.” ... but there are times that God just thinks much bigger
than we do. We have to break out of those rigid preconceptions that we
sometimes have.
Well, there my husband and I were. Walking down the road, talking with
Jesus, but being totally unaware of what was really going on. However,
when we got to our house, something just stirred in us to invite this
stranger in. It was getting late and, of course, it is our tradition to
be hospitable. So, at least, we did that right. We invited him in. What
a wonder that was. For as we were at the table, he took the bread -
bread that was very much like this bread - and he blessed it and he
broke it and then he gave it to us. It was amazing. That is what Jesus
had done so many times before: he took the bread, blessed it and broke
it and gave it to us to eat. That was Jesus! Instantly, both Cleopas and
I knew it was Jesus! Suddenly all our preoccupation - with all that
pessimistic news centered around our rigid preconceptions - just melted
away. We realized how our hearts had been burning within us. We were
ready to proclaim to everyone that Jesus is alive! We practically ran
that whole 7 miles back to Jerusalem! We were so excited. When we got
there, they were telling about Jesus appearing to Simon. Then we told
them about how he was made known to us in the breaking of the bread. And
that’s what we’ve been telling everyone since. Jesus is alive. We
realized it as he broke the bread.
Down through the centuries Jesus has made himself known to people
through the breaking of bread. It is my prayer for you today, that you
too, will have your eyes opened as this bread is broken. Believe the
truth of God’s great grace that is revealed in the Good News about
Jesus. Open your eyes to see the face of Jesus. Open your hearts to know
the redeemer of the world. Christ is alive! It’s amazing! It can make
all the difference in your life! Open your eyes, see the truth! Christ
is alive! Be ready to proclaim with me: Christ is alive! (Exits)
Wow! What an experience to walk and talk with Jesus and not to know it!
Those two on the road certainly had tunnel vision. But did you catch all
the R.P. factors that may have led to that situation? What words
beginning with R and P were keeping her from opening her eyes? ... As
they were walking along talking about all that had happened, they were
Really ________ what? Preoccupied. They couldn’t think of anything else
except the horror of what had happened. Like she said, there are times
all of us can be preoccupied with problems .... problems on the job, or
with relationships or even with church situations. We can let our
concerns about these various things narrow our vision so that we might
be in danger of missing a possible encounter with the risen Christ. Then
there was their attitude. It was Rather ____________ what? Pessimistic.
They had been told the wonderful news, but they couldn’t believe it. How
many times do we let pessimism cloud our vision? We walk around with our
heads low acting like we don’t realize that Jesus is victorious and that
God is in control. Let’s stop being pessimistic. Let’s realize that God
is at work and look for the good that is coming about! And then there
was the problem of
their
Rigid __________ what? Preconceptions. They thought the redeemer of
Israel would do certain things, but their vision wasn’t broad enough.
How many times do we have set ideas about things? For example, for those
of you who may have been familiar with this story... how many of you
have always assumed that those two on the road were both men? I have to
admit that I thought that. Of course, it may be that they were both men.
However, it doesn’t say that. It names one of them, Cleopas. They
believe that is a man’s name, but the other one isn’t named. So it is
very possible it could have been a woman, especially his wife. That’s
just a small example of ways that we get preconceptions in our minds.
For various reasons, we get certain ideas in our minds about how things
should be. Then when things don’t work out the way we think they should,
we just can’t bring ourselves to see the way that God is working. So we
miss an opportunity to encounter the risen Christ. There may have been
other reasons the eyes of those two in the road were kept from
recognizing Jesus, but these are certainly good possibilities ... and
they are possibilities of factors that keep us from encountering the
risen Christ in our midst today. However, like the woman in the
monologue said, “Down through the centuries Jesus has made himself known
to people through the breaking of bread.” As Jesus took the bread,
blessed it and broke it and gave it to them, their eyes were opened. The
restricting R.P’s melted away and a new kind of R.P. took over. They
were Ready to Proclaim.
I want to invite all of you today to come to the table of our Lord. Come
as the bread is blessed and broken and given to you. Come, let it be an
opportunity for you to encounter the Risen Christ in our midst. The
table is open to everyone. You do not need to be a member of this church
or any church. The requirements are simple. You need only to be open to
encountering Christ and receiving the love, forgiveness and acceptance
that is offered to you. So, let’s take a moment of silence to be honest
with ourselves and God about our rigid preconceptions that might be
blocking our vision of God’s work. Let us ask God to help us let go of
our pessimism and all those worries that are causing us to be
preoccupied with other things. Let us open the eyes of our hearts to be
ready to encounter Christ.
.