The text for today’s sermon is the Gospel lesson, with special attention to verses 30-35, which read as follows: “³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. ³²They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” ³³They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together ³⁴and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” ³⁵Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.”

Dear Friends in Christ,

Another resurrection visit! This time it is to two followers who were walking along the road to Emmaus. It was still the day of Jesus’ resurrection and these two disciples were walking along and didn’t know what to think. They were full of sorrow over the loss of their friend and Lord. But they were also quite confused. You see they had heard the reports of the women at the tomb – the empty tomb. They had heard from the other followers of Jesus who said that they had seen angels – angels who told them that Jesus was alive. And yet they knew that Jesus was in fact dead. So they didn’t know what to think.

Now, I have often marveled at what happens in the rest of this story. Jesus appears to them. But it isn’t a miraculous appearance. It is not like when Jesus appears inside locked rooms, the text says He came up and began to walk along with them.

And yet we are told that they were kept from recognizing Him. What does that mean? Did Jesus change His appearance, or did He just cause their minds to be fooled into thinking that it was not He. Or was it just the case where we often don’t recognize someone out of context – they were so blinded by the belief that Jesus was dead, they couldn’t see the truth? Only God knows, but we do know that they did not recognize that it was He.

“¹⁷He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. ¹⁸One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?” ¹⁹“What things?” he asked.” Jesus, of course, knew all the answers to these questions before He asked them, but He asked them anyway in order to use their answers as a starting point in which to begin teaching them.

And then we hear from these disciples a wonderful testimony about Jesus. “‘About Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied. ‘He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. ²⁰The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. ²²In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning ²³but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. ²⁴Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.’”

They got it! Don’t they? They sum up the whole story in such a short passage. They tell this “stranger” who is with them all about Jesus. They tell Him who He is, they tell Him about His life, His death by crucifixion, and about His Empty tomb. And yet they still don’t fully get it, do they? They have all of the information but they don’t put it all together. They have the equation but they don’t have the answer. They have the “2+2” but they don’t have the “equals 4.”

And Jesus lets them have it a little. Now remember, these are followers of Jesus – men who had heard Jesus tell them about His rising from the dead. Before His crucifixion, He had told them over and over again about the plan of salvation, but they still were confused. “²⁵He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’”

And then began something that we should all envy these disciples for a little bit. “²⁷And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Wouldn’t it be neat if we all got the opportunity to walk with Jesus and hear the plan of salvation as it is laid out in Scripture and as it is summarized by Jesus Himself? But these men still didn’t know that it was Jesus.

“²⁸As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. ³²They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’”

Finally, after all of that, the disciples know that it is Jesus that has been with them during their travels. And immediately, He is gone. One might think that these disciples would be disappointed that they didn’t get a chance to talk to their Lord once they knew that it was He. But we are told something quite different. We are told that they began to talk to each other excitedly. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Now please understand, I am not one of those overly-charismatic people that always talk about “feeling a burning in my bosom” or “being on Fire for the Lord,” as if you have to have a certain personality style in order to be a real Christian. That is definitely not my style. But yet these two men were in the presence of God Himself. And they had God Himself teaching them, giving them their own personal Bible lesson. And these men went from weary, downcast, sad, worried, upset men into men who were filled with excitement. From what? What caused these men to make such a change in such a short time? Well, again, Jesus taught them from the scriptures all about God’s plan of Salvation – from beginning to end and then quickly before He disappeared, Jesus showed them that all of what He had taught was for real. HE SHOWED THEM THAT HE WAS ALIVE!

And these men were excited. They had just seen the Lord! He was alive! They were truly on fire for the Lord!

Have you ever met someone who is like this? Someone who is always excited about what God has done in his or her life? Someone who is always “on fire for God?” Have you ever wished you were like that? Again, I am not talking about the goofy, hokey stuff, I am talking about genuine excitement and joy about who we are and whose we are. I don’t know about you, but I have. I have often wished that through all the struggles and hardships of this world that I could show more enthusiasm for what it is that we call Good News, that Jesus died in our place, forgiving all of our sins, and rising again on the third day to proclaim victory over sin and death! But the troubles of this world often weigh us down, don’t they? It is often that we find ourselves like the disciples on the road – sad and confused.

But, my friends, the answer that changed the lives of these two men can change yours too. We do have the opportunity to hear from the Lord about His plan of salvation and have our hearts set on fire like these two men. God has promised to be and always will be in His Word as it is preached, taught, and read. And He walks with us every day, teaching about what He did for us, what He is still doing for us, and what He is going to do for us.

Did you notice anything in our reading for today? What two things did Jesus do for these men before they recognized Him? He taught them from scriptures, and He broke bread with them. Now, I am not saying that they were having the Lord’s supper together, but take a look at how it is worded in our text. “³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him” He taught them from the scriptures, and then He ate a meal with them doing many of the same things that He did at the last supper, reminding them of that event. And it was after these two things that He revealed Himself to them. This is how He reveals Himself to us: through His Word and His Holy Sacraments.

So He reveals Himself to them and then disappears, leaving them excited and strengthened in their faith. They are on fire for God. And so what do they do? They run back to Jerusalem. “³³They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together ³⁴and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’ ³⁵Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.”

This is exactly what God does for you and me through His means of Grace. He calls us to faith, He teaches us and equips us with His Word, He strengthens our faith, and then He sends us out into the world to tell everyone we meet about what Jesus has done for us.

And so, even though we weren’t really there physically, you and I in a sense were there on that road that ended at Emmaus. Jesus does for you and for me what He did for those two men. Through His Word and sacraments, Christ sets our hearts on fire, so that we may be strengthened in our faith, and so that we can take advantage of all the opportunities that He puts in our paths to share the good news with our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers – so that they too may have their hearts set on fire by Jesus. In the name of Jesus, Amen.