The Journey Just Started (2)
Luke 24:22-32
In the Armenian sermon, we
were looking at passages from the Bible where the disciples did not recognize
Jesus.
- John 9:1-41. Jesus healed
the man who was born blind. This man had a direct encounter with Jesus
but did not realize it at first.
He said,
“The
man they call Jesus” (11)
“He
is a prophet.” (17)
Jesus
heard that the crowd threw him out, found him and asked,
“Do
you believe in the son of God?”
“Who
is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact,
he is the one speaking with you.”
“Lord,
I believe, and he worshiped him.” (35-38)
He had finally realized who
his healer was.
- John 21:1-14. This event takes
place after the resurrection. Peter and the other disciples were fishing - back
to ordinary life. The story repeats. They did not catch fish. They were tired
and despaired. This time Jesus is preparing breakfast on the seashore. He sees
them and asks them to throw the net to the right side of the boat. The result turns
out enormous. They realize that the Lord is present. Peter gives up his fish
and wants to approach Jesus. All the disciples come as Jesus prepares the
breakfast. “Jesus took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the
fish.”(13). The Word of God says none dared to ask him who he was; they knew
that it was the Lord.
All those events presented
situations where people did not recognize God’s presence in their daily life; they
did not see that God was there just next to them. All those stories tell us how
JESUS communicates with us. He never imposes himself on us. He
gently comes and does his work. We are the ones who do not see that God is
with us. In those stories, the disciples or the blind man are busy with
daily life pressures. Someone is sick, daily bread is not provided, something
is going wrong in their life, they are facing economical problems, or
expectations are not met. In summary, fear, worry, disappointment, unfulfilled expectations-
these are words we hear and experience everyday in our life. What is the
response of Jesus?
Let us go back to our story.
“When he was at the table
with them, he took the bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it
to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he
disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts
burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures
to us?’”(30-32).
“He was with us and we did
not realize it.” “We talked and talked. He was there and we did not see
him.”
They remembered the time they
sat with him and Jesus broke the bread. They remembered when the twelve told
them about the last supper.
Luke is the one of gospel
writers who presents Jesus often having fellowship around the table. Here we
see it again, even after the resurrection. Jesus is having a meal with the
disciples, with confused and disappointed humanity.
They finally recognize him
when he breaks the bread.
Two messages:
1- God is the provider. He is the provider of our daily bread. “Give us our
daily bread.” Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread. Martin Luther said
about daily bread: “ ‘Daily bread’ means everything we need for our daily
well-being. Food, clothes, shoes, family, friends, good government…. and so
on.”1
In one word, everything which is necessary.
Therefore, on one hand Jesus
is saying, “Listen my follow friends. Do not worry, I will take care of you. Peter,
I am giving you 153 big fish. Do not worry…”
2- On the other hand, Jesus
is breaking the bread. He is reminding us of his body, which was broken for
our sins. He is reminding us that there is new life in his body. He is the bread and the life. Jesus said,
"I
am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes
in me will never be thirsty (John 6:35).
This is more than the food we
eat. Jesus reveals a very important dimension that we who live after the resurrection
will experience. The game is not over yet; there is the second
half. The journey is not over yet; there is a new journey- the real journey
that just started with the resurrected Jesus.
This means there is new
tomorrow. I heard that there is
someone who usually calls Guam from
-As Jesus broke the bread
around the table, the two disciples suddenly saw the light. Their
argument stopped and they saw that there is a tomorrow, a new tomorrow for
them. They remembered all the talk they had had with Jesus. They remembered
the promises they had heard. Everything was being fulfilled.
It reminds us of King David
when he said,
“You have turned for me my
mourning into dancing” (psalm 30:11)
-The breaking of the bread represents
something else, too. There is a tomorrow with a new mission. The resurrected
Jesus is alive and giving them hope to continue what he had started.
In 1983 John Sculley
was the president of Pepsi Cola, one of the
Steve called John many times to
challenge him to leave his old job and come to join him. John was comfortable
in his job and was making good money.
He politely refused the
offer. Steve’s question to him was,
“Do you want to spend the
rest of your life selling sugar and water or do you want a chance to change the
world?”2
After Peter had caught 153
huge fishes, Jesus said to him. “I am sending you to be a servant of the Lord
catching humans.” After asking Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Jesus said,
“Go and feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-18)
The two disciples who had
bread with Jesus went out and told the story to the other disciples. We all are
invited to be fishermen in the way our Lord Jesus Christ invites us. This does
not mean you have to be a pastor to do this. No, all of us who believe in
Jesus, each of us with our abilities should be ready to be servants of the Lord.
The journey is going on. In fact, the JOURNEY JUST STARTED.
1-Johnon, Darrell,
“Fifty-Sevan Words that Change the World” Page 70
2- Youthworker, Spring 1993