In order to create a "Christian Nation", you have to believe that we can produce a Christian culture through a Christian government. This belief would in turn result in a Christian people. This false hope began 17 centuries ago. And in Europe today – it has virtually failed. And it is also failing in the United States. Secularism seems to have won over the culture that we find ourselves in. Many Christians keep asking, "Where is prayer in school? Where are the families that used to attend church on Sunday mornings?" Maybe our hope, like the disciples on the Emmaus Road, is placed in the wrong story.

Some just deny this observation. They simply don’t believe it. Others lash out and blame other people in our culture. It’s those people. It’s the Liberals. It’s the Conservatives. It's the Democrats. It's the Republicans. And we blame them and we desire to change them. Most people tend to daydream of a mythical past in our country. The so called "golden days" of the United States, founded on Christian principles (see my post on Columbus Day), when prayer was in schools and most families went to Church together. The Jewish disciples on the Emmaus Road thought much the same way. Their hope was that their Jewish Messiah would, “make Israel great again”. Many in the Western Church desire this same outcome today.

But the false hope in these two disciples ended in failure and despair. That false story is always bound to fail. It's bound to fail for us to - we need eyes to see and ears to hear. I believe we have some beautiful spiritual insight to gain from this story. It has a prophetic timeliness - and we should be paying attention. I believe there is insight that must have space to be nurtured in our hearts and souls...

It’s about two disciples – Cleopas and an unnamed disciple. Probably his wife (see John 19:25). But we don’t really know. We know it is the afternoon of the first Easter Day. All sorts of strange things have happened that morning - rumors of visions and of an empty tomb - and the disciples still don’t have a clue as to what is really going on. As the day wears on, two of them set off to go home to Emmaus. Then they are joined by a mysterious stranger, who engages them in conversation about the new events that have just happened. If we are to understand this section historically, it is vital that we grasp the central point stated in verse 21. “We had hoped,” they say, “that he was the one to redeem Israel.”

These two disciples, like everyone else, were living inside a story that they felt confident in. They expected a King on a political throne - like King David. They had no prophetic imagination. They wanted their Messiah to "make Israel great again".

To some degree, they weren’t completely wrong in their hope. Their hope goes all the way back to the Exodus story – like we learn at Passover – where God had delivered his people from Egyptian slavery and bondage. And the hope was that one final time in all of history, God would intervene when Israel had been oppressed long enough and rescue her once and for all. They just didn’t understand how it would play out. They had ultimately placed that specific hope in Jesus.

All of their hope was lost. Their hope was lost because of the crucifixion. The crucifixion of Jesus meant that the exile of the Jewish people (the time of waiting) was still continuing, that God had not forgiven Israel’s sins, and that pagans were still ruling the world. This is why they were in despair. How could they have been so mistaken?

So they walk the Emmaus road on Easter Sunday in soul crushing disappointment. In their deep disappointment, Jesus comes to them. As is so often the case. Jesus comes to them as a stranger, and he walks with them. And he tells the story of Israel – but differently. In the seven miles that they walk, this "stranger" explains the Scriptures to them. He starts with Moses and goes through the Prophets of Israel. Jesus is teaching them to see how the Scriptures point to him! They point to how it was necessary (a word Luke is very fond of) that the Messiah was to suffer on behalf of his people. It had to happen this way! We need to get this.

It had been, a matter of telling, and living, the wrong story—or, at least the right story in the wrong way. But now, suddenly, with the right story in their head and hearts, a new possibility started to emerge before them. All the while, their hearts began to glow. A fire was being kindled in their hearts and souls. A strange new hope was coming alive.

At last they arrive at their destination. The stranger on the road pretends like he’s going farther. But they insist that he stay with them. He comes in and a meal is prepared. The three of them sit down together. And this stranger quietly assumes the role of “host”. He quietly assumed the role of host, taking, blessing, and breaking the bread. For a split second they recognized him - "it's him!", and then he vanished! He’s gone. But... the broken & blessed bread remains on the table.

A moment of clarity. They rush out the door as they hurry back to Jerusalem, where their own news is met with answering news from the eleven: The Lord has indeed risen—he has appeared to Simon (24:34)! Then they told what had taken place on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread (24:35). We are told that their "eyes were opened and they recognized him". Their sorrow has been turned into praise!

The way in which Luke has told the central story of this chapter invites us to compare and contrast it with Genesis 3. Genesis 3 begins with the man and the woman in the garden - Adam and Eve - God’s image-bearers in his newly created world where their vocation was to bring God’s love, care and wise order to be upon the whole earth. The woman is deceived by the serpent. She takes the forbidden fruit and gives it to her husband Adam, and they both eat it. We are told, “The eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7). And they begin their life from that point on in sorrow and shame. They begin to argue about their vocation and are released out into a cursed world of thorns and thistles.

Luke wants to tell us that this story has now been reversed! We are told that when the disciples at Emmaus ate the bread, their eyes were opened! And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight (Luke 24:31). New creation has begun!

The meal that was shared between these disciples and Jesus in Emmaus is the eighth meal scene in the gospel of Luke, where the Last Supper was the seventh: the week of the first creation is over, and Easter is the beginning of the new creation. The new creation of the world does not look the way these disciples thought it would look, but they must get used to the fact that it is here and that they are not only its recipients, but also its representatives and witnesses. We must see this the way that these disciples saw it. Within this new world, there is a new awareness of who Jesus is.
 

It’s a beautiful symbol. And we need to symbols and actions to remind us of the true story. We need more than just words. Jesus tells the story with words and marks it by the bread. Symbol and action. Scripture and Communion.

Jesus comes to us and gives us hope. This Hope comes to us from God’s future to shape us into the people through whom God can carry out his work in the world. Jesus is not present with us through political power. Jesus isn't present with us when we finally have a "Christian Nation". Jesus isn't present with us when we finally have a "Christian People".


This is why we practice coming to the communion table to receive the life of Jesus. Because Jesus is present with us. He is the bread on the table.
 
Jesus isn’t interested in power politics to change the world or a nation, he’s interested in a meal. Jesus heals, forgives, and provides for us - always. But he is always on his way to have a meal with someone!
 
Jesus believes the world will change one life at a time at His table. It’s where we find his forgiveness. Where is your hope placed? Receive the life of Christ from the bread on the table. It's a mystery - but it's true. Maybe somehow the life of Christ comes into you, and that disappointment of false hope disappears. And in its place, true hope becomes alive. And you think – it’s really going to be all right.


Grace and peace,
BT

(The artwork is The Road To Emmaus by Daniel Bonnell, 2011)