The Gospel appointed for today brings us back, once again, to Easter Day.  … It is very late in the afternoon . . . getting on toward evening, in fact, . . . and we are with two disciples of Jesus.  These two particular disciples are not men from Galilee, . . . but they are a local couple (many scriptural commentators suggest); . . . they are a couple . . . a husband and wife . . . who had found God in Jesus . . . and who had come to believe in Jesus as the Christ, God’s Saviour Who would free the children of Israel from contempt and rough treatment by foreign governments and occupational armies.  . . . We are with two disciples of Jesus who probably kept Passover at home with their children and were not around for the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus . . . but rushed to Jerusalem when they heard the terrible news … and are only now piecing together the complete story as they return home to Emmaus, having taken leave of the dazed and disheartened company of believers staying in Jerusalem.

    We are with these two disciples when a man joins us.  . . . The man is Jesus, Himself, but Holy Scripture says that our eyes are “kept” from recognizing Him.  Now, you might be tempted to imagine that Jesus, like a celestial Obewan Kenobi, uses “the Force” or some other mysterious power to keep us from knowing Who He is, . . . but the Greek text suggests that it is not an act of divine misdirection that keeps the two Emmaus disciples from recognizing Jesus . . . it’s not an act of divine misdirection, but a fact of human misperception.  We do not expect to see . . . and so, we do not.  Our own eyes keep us from recognizing Jesus.  And, in fact, when Jesus asks the disciples what they are discussing, . . . the text says they suddenly stop in the middle of the road and stand there, . . . looking sad.  And how does one stand when they are looking sad:  . . . not with their eyes upon Jesus . . . but with downcast eyes; . . . with their eyes upon the dust of the earth.

    Anyhow, Jesus asks the disciples what they are discussing . . . and Cleopas pours out his sorrow over the death of their Saviour . . . and how the matter  became even more distressing this morning when some women of our company found the tomb of Jesus empty . . . and say they were met by angels who told them He is risen!  . . . “Some women” Cleopas says.  He means Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus had cast seven demons.  . . . By “some women” Cleopas means pitiful Mary, a disciple only by the ineffable grace and wholesome affection of the Christ.  … Only because Jesus was fond of her was Mary a member of the company of disciples.  . . . Only because Jesus was fond of her was Mary accounted as among   “ ‘some women’ of our company.”  . . . But it was to this Mary, the least of the disciples, that the Resurrection was first made known; . . . it was to this Mary, the least of the disciples, that the risen Jesus first appeared.  . . . It is to the least that the privilege and dignity has been given to be the first to say that Christ is risen; . . . I have seen Him.

    And so, when Jesus begins with Moses and all the prophets to show the two disciples from Emmaus how the Christ should suffer and enter into His glory, . . . I imagine that He must have included the Forty-third Chapter of the Book of Isaiah in His talk, . . . especially where it says,

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.  For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

. . . Do you remember what I said to you last Sunday about the risen Christ?  . . . I told you that He is a transfigured soul; . . . His body still bears all the marks of His mortal life, but they are borne by a body which has been infused with the divine life so as to become a spiritual body which cannot be defeated by mortality.  . . . Jesus is a transfigured soul, Who neither comes to you . . . nor does He depart.  . . . Jesus is a transfigured soul who is present to you and brings you into the presence of the divine life in all its fullness.  . . . And so, Jesus knows you by name, . . . you are His.  . . . The ancient injunction from Heaven spoken by the angel at the Birth of Jesus and the angel at the Empty Tomb, and spoken beforehand by the Prophet Isaiah at the urging of the Lord God Almighty; . . . the ancient injunction not to be afraid is true . . . and dependably so.  For, when you pass through the waters Jesus is with you; and the rivers shall not overwhelm you.  . . . When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, . . . and the flame shall not consume you.  For, Christ is risen!  And because Christ is risen . . . He is present.  He is present when you refuse to believe.  . . . He is present when you are faithful.  He is present not as a spy; not to keep track of your life in order to judge it.  . . . But, because Christ is risen, . . . He is present so that there is not a moment when the fullness of Heaven’s power and grace does not surround you . . . in order to protect you . . . and bless you.  . . . For, you are known to Jesus by name; . . . you are His.

    And so, Jesus first explains these tremendous things . . . not to the important disciples -- He doesn’t first explain them to Peter and James and John; . . . rather, as with Mary Magdalene, . . . Jesus first explains the ineffable glory of God’s love to a man and his wife; . . . Jesus first explains the ineffable glory of God’s love to two common disciples from Emmaus.  Jesus doesn’t first explain the precious truth of His Resurrection to Apostles; . . . He doesn’t first explain the truth to bishops.  . . . He explains it first to the simply faithful.  He does it that way, I guess, so that bishops might know that they are entrusted with preaching something which is not theirs; . . . they are entrusted with preaching what is yours.  It is the common faith; … it is your faith that the Apostles are entrusted to faithfully preach.

    When the two disciples from Emmaus reach their village, they invite their loquacious companion to remain with them for the evening meal and to spend the night in the safety of their home.  And at table with them, He takes the bread and blesses and breaks it, . . . and He gives it to them.  And in that moment, when their eyes are not fixed upon the earth but upon God’s precious blessing to be found even in bread, . . . in that moment, when their eyes are lifted up to look upon God’s simple blessings, . . . in that moment, “their eyes were opened”, Holy Scripture says; . . . their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus!  . . . And then a peculiar thing happens.  In the instant that the two Emmaus disciples recognize Jesus . . . “He vanished out of their sight” Luke says.  . . . The risen Jesus doesn’t seem to need to be bathed in the continual adulation of His believers, . . . nor does He seem to think we need to be energized by the continual spiritual high of seeing Him.  . . . The risen Jesus is known to us in the breaking of the bread, . . . you will see Him today, . . . and then, having reminded us that our lives are so sacred to Him that He is present to us, . . . the risen Lord Jesus is content that we should simply abide in His presence.  . . . The risen Lord Jesus is content for us to dwell in the presence of Heaven’s grace and power communicated to us in sacred bread and sacred wine . . . and in the Person of God’s Holy Spirit, Christ’s own first gift to those who believe.

    The consequence of this for the Emmaus disciples was that, in spite of it’s being very late in the evening and getting quite dark; . . . in spite of the personal inconvenience of walking all that distance back to Jerusalem, . . . the Emmaus disciples lose no time in going to their discouraged friends with the encouraging news of the living and attentive presence of Jesus Christ Who is risen!  . . . And now it is your turn to go and do likewise; . . . it is your turn to go to discouraged friends with the encouraging news of the living and attentive presence of Jesus, . . . Who is risen!  Alleluia.