Have you ever found yourself at the other end of finishing a milestone in life and then asking yourself- now what? I remember the weekend my family came up to visit me to celebrate my graduation from undergraduate college. It was a unique feeling that the time had come where there were no more classes to take, no more papers to write- nothing I needed to accomplish. After the graduation ceremony was over and my family left town, I said to myself now what?
As a child I always had heard about the goal of going to college, and now it was finished. I recognized my life had changed and I needed to answer the question of ‘now what’. My way of answering this question was to recognize that there was a lot more learning and reading I felt important to take on. Within a short time I started reading books just for pleasure, to make up for how long I was only doing school related reading.
In our readings today, a lot has changed for the disciples since the events of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection three days later. What was consistent and predictable in their lives was now much different. In our reading from Acts we hear from Peter as he explains what has changed since Jesus was crucified. In our gospel lesson we have an inside account of two followers of Jesus as they are leaving Jerusalem on the road to a town named Emmaus. In both cases the Lord answers the question of these followers of Jesus, of “Now what.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ since early in March we have been working our way through the season of the church year centered around our Lord’s Passion and the hope we have in his Resurrection. We have attended extra services and we have reflected on all of God’s promises for us. Now we are into the third Sunday of Easter- the excitement of Celebrating Easter is diminished. We have already sung some of the most beloved Easter hymns, only a few Easter Lilies remain adorning our worship space.
Like the disciples we can ask, “Now What?” Listen to verse 37 of our reading from Acts: “Now when they had heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers what shall we do?” In repentant faith and even in fear over their own contribution to the cross they asked of the Lord’s Apostle what they can now do. Peter answers them with a statement of gospel, The Lord it turns out is gracious and merciful and has planned for how people can respond to what Jesus has done for us.
“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Indeed the promise is for you! Jesus atonement on the cross is for all people, and in baptism the promise is available for all. This is a clear teaching from the Apostle Peter that the Lord designed that the fruits of His resurrection should produce repentance by the work of the Holy Spirit, and that this gift of new life in Jesus should come through the waters of Holy Baptism, the sacrament that brings entrance into God’s Kingdom.
This is the “now what” response of the resurrection of Jesus, this is why we gather for worship throughout life, because the resurrection of Jesus never ceases to be important for us.
In our gospel lesson we have a front row seat of some different now what moments. Jesus begins to walk with the two disciples who are on their way out of Jerusalem. Without realizing they are talking to Jesus they share the events of Jesus’ crucifixion from their perspective. After sharing their experiences they lament” “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
As they are walking there on the road telling their sorrows to Jesus, they are broken, deflated, and perhaps trying to transition through stages of grief. This language the disciple uses suggests a process of letting go- we had hoped. In the disciples eyes death has won, hope has died.
In this state of grief and hopelessness the disciple then shares another unique painful feeling- And on top of that, if that were not enough: Moreover some women of our company amazed us They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. The feeling the disciples are sharing is the emotional pain of a false hope- something that sounds great but is probably just too good to be true.
This is astonishing for us as the church to listen to. These two disciples walking with Jesus, yet not recognizing Jesus are sharing with Jesus that the worst part of all is not just that their hopes were crushed as the man who they thought was the Savior was forsaken to die at the hands of their own chief priests and rulers,
but that the body of Jesus turned up missing, and that the women reported a vision from angels that Jesus was in fact alive. They are saying that the worst of it all was the false hope spread by tales of his resurrection, and yet here they are, no Jesus in sight. They say to Jesus.
In mercy Jesus rebukes their skepticism and unbelief and thereby cuts down the scales from their eyes so that they can see him. O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
The reason these two disciples were so quick to skepticism is that they were attempting to understand the events of Holy Week only through their own eyes and through their feelings. They were lost as it were in their own depression and unbelief. They were not allowing Jesus’ own words to guide their sight. They forgot what Jesus had spoken to the disciples about how he would die and on the third day rise again. And they overlooked all of what the scripture said about the promise of a Savior who would innocently suffer for the wrongs we had committed. Isaiah had prophesied:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
They had missed it, but Jesus opened their eyes to hear God’s Word rightly: 27And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. The church in her history has long marveled at what Jesus taught to these two disciples. Yet we do have the outline for what Jesus taught them, as the New Testament makes many references to how the Torah and the prophets pointed to Jesus.
We only need to take the time to receive the Word and allow it to open our eyes to understanding how Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the scriptures. The more we hear God’s Word, the more our passion for knowing Jesus in the scriptures grows. It is just as the two disciples said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road, while he opened the scriptures to us.”
The more we walk with Jesus, the more we confess our sins and know his forgiveness in the Lord’s Supper, the stronger our passion to receive His Gifts in Word and Sacrament.
When the two Emmaus disciples say, did not our hearts burn within us, they are describing a discovery of divine truth that is awakening their very hearts, a truth that is reconnecting them with the clarity and joy of purpose that is part of the image of God that Adam and Eve held before the Fall into sin. Jesus came to give us the truth, to give us life to the full.
Satan, the world and our sinful nature can entice us away from this passion. So that our sin leads us away from the excitement of God’s Word and into second choices that represent settling for less and which cannot produce the same lasting joy and peace.
Here in this third Sunday of Easter, God’s Word invites us to see that the Resurrection of Jesus answers every “now what” period in our lives. As our Psalm of the day teaches: Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. 6 The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; 9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
Christ’s resurrection indeed means that at any time of crisis in life you can say, “I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” And it means that you have a specific purpose to your life in worship: What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord,
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.