00:00:00.000 - 00:00:39.040

The scripture reading of the morning is taken from the gospel according to Luke, the 24th chapter. We begin the reading at the verse which is numbered 13. That very day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and

00:00:39.040 - 00:01:05.280

discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk?" And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things

00:01:05.280 - 00:01:26.320

that have happened there in these days?" And he said to them, "What things?" And they said to him, "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem

00:01:26.320 - 00:01:46.960

Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body. And they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and

00:01:46.960 - 00:02:08.960

found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see." And Jesus said to them, "Oh, foolish men and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures

00:02:08.960 - 00:02:32.200

the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him saying, "Stay with us for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it

00:02:32.200 - 00:02:57.640

to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them who

00:02:57.640 - 00:03:23.000

said, "The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon." Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. And I ask you to think with me especially of the thirty-second verse of the passage. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened

00:03:23.000 - 00:03:57.720

to us the scriptures?" And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Easter is not an argument. It is an affirmation. It is an announcement of the faith that routes

00:03:57.720 - 00:04:36.760

the enemies of good. It's the declaration of the truth that light triumphs over darkness. Lilies do not argue. They bloom. Spring does not mince. It explodes. Anthems do not whisper. They resound. Beauty does not present itself in cowardly fashion. It flaunts its glory. And love does not come as some icy proposition but rather as a red-hot proclamation. Easter

00:04:36.760 - 00:05:04.880

is the announcement that light is stronger than dark, that life is more powerful than death, that hope is greater than despair, and that victory belongs to heaven rather than earth, to goodness rather than evil. And it's this affirmation that I would like to share with you today in terms of one of the most thrilling short stories ever written.

00:05:04.880 - 00:05:36.320

It was written by the Gospel of Luke. It's recorded there for our study, but it's generally overlooked. And it is overlooked because it is not part of what happened on Easter morning, but rather is part of what happened on Easter afternoon. It's the story of two men who began by walking sadly into the sunset, but who concluded by running pell-mell into the sunrise.

00:05:36.320 - 00:06:02.900

I ask you to walk with me this morning the road to Emmaus. It was late on the afternoon of the first day of the week, and two disciples of Jesus, two who had seen him crucified, two who had seen him die, one named Cleopas, the other the name we do not know, were walking to Emmaus, a small town about seven miles west of Jerusalem. Because they were walking

00:06:02.900 - 00:06:30.720

due west, they were walking into the sunset. And that was somehow very appropriate because their spirits were very much saddened within them. The passage states in the subtleties of the Greek language that their conversation as they walked was very animated, but also very shadowed and gloomy. 48 hours had passed since they had seen the one they loved the

00:06:30.720 - 00:06:52.480

most put to death. They had stayed in Jerusalem for two full days and had been a part of that miserable fellowship there. But perhaps thinking that the walk would lift their spirits, that the beauty of the wilderness would somehow encourage them, that some quietness would make them feel better, they started walking toward Emmaus. But their grief was so great

00:06:52.480 - 00:07:22.040

that even in their walking, they talked a kind of vigorous despair. You see, they'd lost their hope. The one that they looked upon as being the best who had ever lived, this one had been opposed by evil. He had been stripped and beaten, his young body humiliated and insulted, and then he had been killed. He had died in the maw of the mob. And all

00:07:22.040 - 00:07:48.800

about them, they saw only darkness. For them, the light had gone out. Now there are many people who can identify with precisely that attitude. There are a lot of people today who see this as a kind of nightmare time in which there is nothing about but growing darkness. I read it in the newspaper, so it may be true. It was a woman

00:07:48.800 - 00:08:12.960

who was visiting in New York City. First time there, had heard about all the crime and violence, was very anxious about going. She was staying in one of those large hotels that had a multi-level parking garage downstairs. She pulled into the garage late one night, got out of her car and started walking through the deserted garage to the elevator. She'd seen enough

00:08:12.960 - 00:08:41.360

television programs to know what happens in deserted garages. She was very nervous. And just as she got to the elevator and pressed the button, there stepped out of the shadows a very large man with a vicious dog on a leash. He didn't say anything. The doors opened. She got in. He got in with her. The doors closed. And then he spoke. "Lie down on the

00:08:41.360 - 00:09:13.200

floor," he said. And immediately she dropped to the floor. And there was a kind of an astonished pause. And then the man said, "Madam, I was speaking to my dog." And he helped her up, brushed her off and gave her two tickets to a Broadway show. Well, there are a lot of people who are so broken by these times and so leashed by the circumstances which surround

00:09:13.200 - 00:09:38.440

them that when someone says, "Lie down," they do it. If they say, "Play dead," they do it. And they roll over, immediately responsive to negative command. There are a lot of people like that. In this country last year, 18,000 people were murdered. But 25,000 people committed suicide. They saw only darkness and were afraid of the dark. Many people look upon this as

00:09:38.440 - 00:09:57.440

the end of all those things that are good. The end of civilization, the end of law, the end of order, the end of responsible government, the end of financial security, the end of justice. They see it as the end of the family as they know it. They see it as the end of the church. They see it as the end of God. And confronting this bitter end, they do one

00:09:57.440 - 00:10:19.680

of two things. They either roll over on command or they go for the gusto to have a little bit of fun for as long as the light lasts. But there's no hope in them. It's like that elevator that got stuck between the floors in a hotel and the manager rushed to the floor above the elevator and crawled out onto the roof of the elevator and said down through

00:10:19.680 - 00:10:48.840

the grate to the man in the elevator, "Don't worry. Everything will be all right. We have sent for the elevator man." And the fellow inside looked up and said, "I am the elevator man." So these people see no escape. They see no exit. They see no way out. They see only darkness, only sunset, and their hearts are wet dry. I would remind you, of course,

00:10:48.840 - 00:11:14.400

that it is hearts that are wet dry that are most responsive to the incendiary touch of the Holy Spirit of God. But I'm ahead of my story. Now, as these two men walked into the deepening darkness, caught up in their conversation, they were joined by a third person. Now, I do not know why. Perhaps it was because the sun was in their eyes. Maybe it was because

00:11:14.400 - 00:11:36.400

of the involved nature of their conversation. Maybe they were blinded by their tears. Maybe the Holy Spirit made it impossible for them to discern clearly. Maybe the resurrection body of Jesus was somehow different from the body that he had inhabited before. Whatever was the case, though this third person was Jesus, they did not recognize him. The one

00:11:36.400 - 00:11:58.320

about whom they mourned was walking in their very midst. The hope that they had given up was present beside them, but they did not know it. I think it's very tender that Jesus was with them in their time of distress. Jesus is always with his disciples when he is needed. A number of years ago, a man named C.M. Sheldon wrote a book called He is Here. And it was

00:11:58.320 - 00:12:22.920

a series of fictitious stories about individuals who in times of great distress knew the presence of Christ in their lives. A surgeon who was about to operate on a terribly hurt accident victim only to discover that the victim was in fact his dissolute and estranged son. A timid girl who worked in a shop whose mean-spirited, invalid mother attacked her every day in a

00:12:22.920 - 00:12:48.240

multitude of different ways. These people, bullied and buffeted about by the circumstances of life in Sheldon's story, are all visited by a present and living Christ. Now the stories, as I say, are fictitious, but the truth toward which the stories move is undeniable. It has been validated in too many Christian experiences to be said to be untrue. Christ is with those

00:12:48.240 - 00:13:13.360

who believe, and not only in some mystical way, some voice or vision which comes in the darkness. It is in simple response to his own promise. He said, "Go ye into all the world and lo, I am with you always," and he's a man of his word. The unlearned have testified to this in my hearing. I remember a woman in the first church I served who had been

00:13:13.360 - 00:13:36.200

taking care of her son during his dying, and it was a long and a hard dying, and when it was over she said to me, "I never could have done it without Jesus beside me every day." Or at the other end of the spectrum, the vastly learned Paul Tillich, one of the great philosophical and theological minds of the 20th century, lecturing here in Pittsburgh,

00:13:36.200 - 00:14:02.080

and he said, "In the moment that we feel separated from God and meaningless in our lives and condemned to despair, suddenly we discover that we are not alone." Now I know there are those who do not experience this presence of Christ, and that is so for a very simple and also a very sad reason. Jesus said that he would be with his disciples. "Go, and I

00:14:02.080 - 00:14:25.120

am with you always." If you do not go, his presence is not assured. If you offer nothing to faith, you can expect nothing in return. If you play at faith, it will be a game and nothing more. I had a strange uncle who liked Western stories, and one of his favorites was of two city slickers from Chicago who decided it would be nice to live off the land

00:14:25.120 - 00:14:40.640

to farm. They didn't know a thing about it, but they decided to try it, and they went out to Texas, and they bought a little spread, and they decided they would have to break ground and plant something and that they would need a mule, so they went to a nearby farm to try to buy a mule. And the owner of the farm knew that they were yokels. He said he

00:14:40.640 - 00:15:02.120

didn't have any mules, but he did have some mule eggs. And they said, "What do you mean, mule eggs?" And pointing to a big pile of watermelons by his barn, he said, "Those are mule eggs, and if you will take one of those home and hatch it, then you'll have a mule." So they bought a mule egg, put it very carefully in the back of their truck, started to drive

00:15:02.120 - 00:15:19.360

home, and on the way, the truck hit a bump, and the watermelon bounced right out of the truck right in the middle of the road and smashed open. One of them saw it in the rear-view mirror, so he told the other one, and they slowed down and turned to come back to pick it up. It was a big old Texas jackrabbit sitting by the side of the road, and when he saw that

00:15:19.360 - 00:15:37.840

watermelon, he just went out and jumped right in the middle of it and started to fill himself. And when they got back there, they figured that the thing had hatched, and there was the mule. "There he is," they said, and they started to chase him. Well, of course, when a jackrabbit is chased, it runs. And Texas jackrabbits always run in a circle for a while,

00:15:37.840 - 00:15:58.480

and then finally they head off in their own direction. And they chased him, and they chased him, never getting close, and finally he disappeared in the distance, and they fell on the ground, gasping with exhaustion. And one said, "Well, I guess we've lost our mule." And the other one said, "I'm not so sure that I would have wanted to have plowed that fast anyway."

00:15:58.480 - 00:16:34.280

Now, that's a kind of a silly story, but it has a very solid center, and the center is this, that a lot of people never really give themselves to faith because they're not sure they want to plow that fast anyway. They want a safe and a riskless religion, and so they never know miracles. They only know misery. That kind of believing is not honored by God

00:16:34.280 - 00:16:54.280

or by men. But these two disciples, they believed, and so Jesus was with them. And as he was with them, he said, "Say, fellows, is this a private argument you're having, or is it open to anyone?" And they poured out their hearts to him. "We had been trusting in this one to redeem Israel, and now he is gone." And with that sad spontaneity, which is so

00:16:54.280 - 00:17:19.880

typical of the bereaved, they told him their sad tale, and Jesus listened. And then he answered them. And as he answered them, their sunset began to turn into sunrise. This is what he said. He said, "What if back of all of the nations that have been built by strong women and men, and what if back of all the armies that have ever marched, and what if

00:17:19.880 - 00:17:42.000

back of all of the governments that have too much power and the cultures we labor too assiduously to defend, and what if behind this frightened existence which we have, but because it's the only existence that we know, we labor to hold on to, and what if back of all the hatred and distrust that's in the world, and what if back of evil's apparent triumph, what

00:17:42.000 - 00:18:12.040

if back of all of this, there is something stronger, a purpose of God which nothing can alter or destroy, and what if that purpose of God was old even before the world itself was new, and what if when God shaped his greatest creation, man, into whom he put his own image, the vistas of divinity, what if before man came into the world, this man who then tried

00:18:12.040 - 00:18:39.200

to wrench the world from the grip of God, and who stood there with his legs spread wide and his face set like flint against God, what if, what if before all of that, and during all of that, and in spite of all of that, God still loved, and sent prophets and priests and martyrs to teach man how to live, but man rejected what God sent, so that everything

00:18:39.200 - 00:19:02.840

that man touched worsened, and everything that he built had within it the seeds of its own dying. It was as if man were trying to commit some kind of independent, prideful, cosmic suicide, but what if even then, God would not forsake man, but would instead come in the person

00:19:02.840 - 00:19:21.520

of his son, and look man right in the eye and say, "I will die for you to fulfill my plan." Now, even as Jesus spoke, the light began to glimmer in their minds. You see, they realized that God wouldn't just brush away that which was difficult to handle.

00:19:21.520 - 00:19:42.680

God, you know, does not crowd into our experience, he does not pressure his way into our lives. It's not because he is weak and without strength, it is because he is great and strong. I mean, he could give us a head start as far as the North Star and outrun us every time, but it is precisely because this is so that he holds back.

00:19:42.680 - 00:20:01.160

When Adam sinned, he didn't cancel him. When Abraham lied and Jacob stole and David committed adultery, he did not cancel them. To have canceled them would have been to have denied the work of his own hands. So instead, he wove all of these things into his pattern and into his plan.

00:20:01.160 - 00:20:25.720

And finally, as it were, he tied his own hands behind his back and he came into life and he said very well, "I will not seek to exercise my power over you. Instead, I shall put myself in your power and you put me before any little pilot that you wish and I will stand there helpless and defenseless and friendless and you let your

00:20:25.720 - 00:20:54.120

evil try to defeat my good. Just try to frustrate my love." And he came to Calvary and he climbed the hill and he never stopped loving. And evil did everything it could do and he never stopped loving.

00:20:54.120 - 00:21:12.520

And he rose above what evil could do. Man had made the world a wreck, but God still held the whole world in his hands. And when evil had done its worst, he rose above it. But just then the two men interrupted Jesus.

00:21:12.520 - 00:21:22.440

Rose above it, you say? We understand God's plan. We understand you're speaking of his purpose. We can see how he would weave his providence through the experience of men.

00:21:22.440 - 00:21:31.400

But this Jesus who was God come amongst us. He is dead. I mean, there was the cross and the storm is over. I mean, can life come out of death?

00:21:31.400 - 00:21:50.600

You said there were stories, but there is no proof. I mean, and even as they spoke, they arrived in Emmaus and found themselves at the doorway of their destination. Now, Jesus, because God never pressures and never pushes, made as if he would go on.

00:21:50.600 - 00:22:00.600

But they said, "Come and spend the night with us." And he made immediate response. And they went into the dim coolness of the home. And while they were bringing the food, they continued with their questions.

00:22:00.600 - 00:22:10.160

I mean, explain this plan to us. And how does life end up being victor over death? And how does good triumph over evil? And what happened to Jesus?

00:22:10.160 - 00:22:38.960

I mean, if you could only explain to us what happened to... And just as they said those words, he picked up a piece of bread and he gave thanks for it and he broke it and he handed it to them. And in that instant, their eyes were opened and their spirits caught fire with a flame

00:22:38.960 - 00:22:54.960

which has never stopped spreading in the world. They moved to a new level of living, subspecie eternitatis. They moved to the level of eternity. They suddenly realized that life had risen above death, that good had risen above evil,

00:22:54.960 - 00:23:04.720

that Christ had risen. And it was not just a historical fact. It was a firm ground on which they could stand. The testimony of the scriptures was this.

00:23:04.720 - 00:23:20.000

You see, we're like flies that crawl across the face of some Rembrandt masterpiece. And we think we know the picture. And we don't know a little of it. We can tell whether the terrain is rough or smooth.

00:23:20.000 - 00:23:41.920

We can tell at the point where we are whether the colors are bright or shadowed. But Easter was the time when the whole picture was revealed, when the purpose of the painting was made clear, when the pattern of the painter was revealed. Easter was the time when God came into history and took all those pages on which man had

00:23:41.920 - 00:24:01.320

scribbled and with his blue pencil edited out everything he did not want to be there and said, "There will never be any darkness that does not end with dawn." And that's the echo of what the psalmist said when he wrote, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?

00:24:01.320 - 00:24:16.800

Hope thou in God." And that is why Paul wrote what he wrote. We are utterly crushed and despairing of life itself. But if God be for us, who can be against us?

00:24:16.800 - 00:24:29.960

And that's what that little boy meant when he talked to that man in the street in Chicago - the two of them were standing looking through the window at a picture of the crucifixion and the man, wondering what the little boy understood, said, "What is that a picture of?"

00:24:29.960 - 00:24:38.440

And the boy said, "Don't you know? That's Jesus." And those people around him, they killed him. They killed him until he was dead.

00:24:38.440 - 00:24:49.860

And the man, satisfied that the boy knew, turned and started to walk away. He walked only a little distance, however, till he heard the sound of little feet running behind him and a voice calling, "Mister! Mister!"

00:24:49.860 - 00:25:01.160

He rose from the dead, you know. He rose from the dead, you know. And that's what we must never forget to tell. Because you see, that's the answer to every hurt in history.

00:25:01.160 - 00:25:20.820

That he rose from the dead. That the worst that evil could do had been undone. And that the victory had been won. And when they grasped that, Jesus vanished from their sight.

00:25:20.820 - 00:25:37.980

And the one said to the other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the way?" And though they were very tired, they got up immediately and started back toward Jerusalem. They could not restrain themselves.

00:25:37.980 - 00:25:59.800

Their hearts were on fire and they set their feet to the trail of the blazing heart. And they went to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to all the world, announcing that every darkness had its dawn. Their hearts had become altars and God's power, the flame.

00:25:59.800 - 00:26:10.960

Only now you see, they were moving from Emmaus to Jerusalem. They were traveling due east. They were moving into the sunrise. That's what the word Easter means, you know.

00:26:10.960 - 00:26:21.520

It means sunrise or dawn. They became the pilgrims of the dawn. And that is why we're here. That is why we assemble here in great numbers on this day.

00:26:21.520 - 00:26:42.480

Because we want to say and remind ourselves that we are not people of the sunset, but people of the sunrise. And here we bring our cold ashes of regret and exchange them for an incendiary conviction. The Easter gospel is this.

00:26:42.480 - 00:27:11.880

My beloved people, you must never permit anyone or anything. You must never permit anyone or anything of high estate or low estate, anyone or anything upon the face of the earth, you must never permit it to bluff you or bully you or bribe you into a defeated spirit.

00:27:11.880 - 00:27:36.800

For this is God's world and he has won it precisely according to his plan. We then are not the people of the sunset. We're the children of the sunrise. We're the pilgrims of the dawn.

00:27:36.800 - 00:27:58.320

And we've set our feet, praise God, on the trail of the blazing heart. Let us pray. Let that fire abroad in us. Kindle it in our spirits.

00:27:58.320 - 00:28:20.880

Illumine our minds. Inflame our desires to spread the truth throughout all the world. Give to us that strength which comes from deep conviction. Take away from us any darkness of defeat, any hint of hopelessness, any iota of despair,

00:28:20.880 - 00:28:44.400

and repace it with the truth that because Jesus Christ rose, every darkness will end with God's dawn. This is our prayer. We pray it in your son's name, our Father.

00:28:44.400 - 00:28:54.960

Amen. Now by popular demand, we're going to close our service with an Easter hymn you may not know but you're going to like. It's called "Every Morning is Easter Morning."

00:28:54.960 - 00:29:18.800

The choir will sing it for you and then we'll all join in. Come on. Come on. Come on.

00:29:19.800 - 00:29:39.480

Come on. Come on. [static interruption]