Quick Links
Sunday Worship
8:30 a.m. - Worship Service9:45 a.m. - Sunday School
11:00 a.m. - Worship Service
Contact Us
Address:First Baptist Church, Ashland
800 Thompson Street
Ashland, VA 23005
Phone:
(804) 798-9014
Fax:
(804) 798-9043
E-mail: fbcashland@verizon.net
Sermon for Sunday, April 6, 2008
“He Is Here — All the Time”
Luke 24:13-35
I was reminded of a practice that the Puritans used to have when I read this passage. Their practice was called “Reading the Evidence.” What they were to do was to take some time each evening to look back over the day and see the places where God might have been at work in the day that just ended.
It is an interesting idea. Fred Craddock has written that God might be easier to spot looking back on things. He writes: “Remembering experiences in which we encountered God in some way, we can find deeper understanding and recognition of what has transpired.” (Interpretation, Luke, John Knox, pg. 287)
The two walking on that Emmaus road did not recognize Jesus. To be fair to them, it seems like it was not their choice to recognize him. The scripture says, “they were kept from recognizing him,” giving the impression that God might have been a part of them not recognizing Jesus. Just think of how much easier it would have been. Why not just relieve a little grief when He could? Why not, since He had been risen, why not just let them know everything is all right? Interestingly enough, it may have been a little something to do with this whole idea of looking back.
When Jesus first comes upon these men, they were sad, distraught, and grieving. They were grieving the loss of friend but also grieving the loss of some hope. They just knew he was going to be the one to deliver them from an oppressed life with the Roman government.
What does Jesus do? He begins to take them back, going through the scriptures and past events with them. In the gospel lesson, “And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the scriptures.” (v. 27)
“Don’t you see,” He seems to be saying, “don’t you see that just because things don’t turn out exactly the way you thought, that all is not lost?" But God has been working through all these events. God has been there at every step of the way and it is there for you to see if you look more closely. People are tempted to think that the resurrection was the only place where God was at work, instead of seeing it as the culminating factor of God’s work in the life and ministry of Jesus.
If you want to see God, look and see how He has worked through out history. God has been here all along. Nothing was the same because the God who had been at work in Jesus through every interaction with poor and outcast, with those no one else would touch, in his teachings, at his trial and in his suffering and at his death is the same God who when all seemed lost, lived again. This is such an important reminder in the weeks following Easter that God is always with us, in our times of greatest sorrow and in our times of greatest triumph.
The gift that Jesus gave to those two walking in sorrow was the looking back to see God. The gift Jesus gives of walking with them in their journey means we can understand that in our everyday living. God is here. In our deepest places of sorrow, regret and failure, God is here. In times when work is hard and the economy is pinching us at every turn, God is here. In the struggles of cancer and every other disease, God is here. When life seems to be caving in with family and relationships, God is here. In places called Iraq, Afghanistan and in every other spot of danger when things seem so dangerous, God is here. In those places where children are suffering and starving, God is here.
Just as He appeared to those two men, we can be assured that no matter how grim the picture looks, no matter what pain life brings, the God who struggles with us in that pain assures us that He will have the final word.
Perhaps that is why the risen Lord walked those weary Emmaus travelers back through the Old Testament; to show them that the resurrection was just the latest, most amazing, most recent mighty act by a God who had already had a long career of doing something wonderfully new, just when everything seemed hopelessly lost.
My friends, Emmaus is not just a place, not just an historical event. Emmaus is that time when Christ appears to us, is present with us and stands beside us.
Claim that presence in your past journeys, where your Emmaus road is as rocky and painful as any road can be. And above all, claim it when we gather at His table. Who knows? Maybe in the breaking of bread, He may be more alive for you than ever.
The table is now set. Won’t you join him? He is here.
Church News
Special Events
