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The Gospel of Luke May 17, 2020; Sunday School 2019/20

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The Gospel of Luke May 17, 2020; Sunday School 2019/20 The Gospel of Luke May 17, 2020; Sunday School 2019/20 Today’s Text: Luke 24.13-53 Opening prayer LUKE 24.13-35, on the road to Emmaus 1. Read Luke 24.13-35 2. The table fellowship of Jesus has been a prominent dynamic of Jesus’ ministry and mission throughout the gospel, a sign of God’s kingdom among us even now. This table emphasis continues after the Lord’s resurrection. In addition to the meal at Emmaus, Luke also records the fact that Jesus eats a piece of broiled fish with his apostles, proving that he’s not just a spirit but has a real body after the resurrection (vv 41-43). John also records Jesus eating a breakfast of fish with disciples after his resurrection (John 21.9-14). 3. In Acts 10.41, Peter’s sermon to Cornelius includes the apostle’s mention that he ate and drank with Jesus after Jesus had been raised from the dead. So in the apostolic witness and preaching, one of the historical proofs of Jesus’ resurrection was their testimony about having a meal with the Risen Lord. Table fellowship with the Lord and with other believers is perhaps the major theme in Luke’s two-volume set in the NT—the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Sharing a meal with the Lord in the community of saints thus serves as the central emphasis in the on-going life of Christ’s Body, the Church. 4. Let’s remember that the “great three days” in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ begin with the Last Supper and end with the Emmaus meal. On the Day of Preparation (22.14-23.56a), Jesus eats the Passover meal with his disciples, fulfilling the Passover, on Thursday after sundown. Since days begin at sundown in Jewish time keeping, while the Last Supper is eaten on Thursday in our way of thinking, it’s Friday in Jewish chronology. Jesus is arrested and crucified on Friday. He is buried before sundown Friday, before the Sabbath Day starts. All of these events take place on the Day of Preparation. On the Sabbath Day (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday), Jesus rests in the tomb, while his followers also rest (23.56b). On the First Day of the Week (Sunday in our time keeping, the great “Third Day”), Jesus rises from the dead in the early morning hours. Toward the end of that day, Jesus eats with his disciples at Emmaus (24.1-35). Holy meals with Lord form the framework of his death and resurrection. Such meals continue to unite us in true communion with him, even as we await the everlasting Marriage Supper of the Lamb. 5. While the Passover meal takes place in Jerusalem, as mandated by the Scripture (see Dt 16.2, 5-6), the Emmaus meal takes place outside of Jerusalem. Thus, the Emmaus meal anticipates the Church’s expansion into all the world where the Eucharist will be celebrated. 6. Who are these disciples on their way to Emmaus? They are not among the eleven remaining apostles but could well be from among the 72. They make haste back to Jerusalem after eating with the Risen Lord to report to the eleven, showing their respect for the apostles’ authority. One of these two, we’re told, is named Cleopas. Mary, the wife of Clopas, is mentioned in John 19.25, and Cleopas and Clopas may have been the same person. Moreover, the tradition from the early Church says that Cleopas is indeed Clopas, brother of Joseph, making Cleopas the uncle of Jesus himself. Tradition further says that the unnamed Eammus disciple is Cleopas’s son, Simeon, later the second bishop of Jerusalem, who served as the leader of the Jerusalem church after 70 AD. So by the time Luke’s gospel would have been circulating, the inclusion of Cleopas’s name would have lent great authority to the gospel and the eyewitness account of the resurrection. 7. The Emmaus disciples’ journey from ignorance to knowledge as they walk along with Jesus serves as a kind of template for all who would walk by faith in the Lord. We too need the Lord to speak to us in and through the Scriptures, that we might see with eyes of faith. 8. However, even though the Lord spoke to these two disciples on the road and opened up the Scriptures to them, they still did not have opened eyes (v 32). The instruction in the Word was a necessary precondition for recognizing Jesus, but we read see here how the Word must be combined with the “breaking of the bread” (v 35) for full recognition to occur that Jesus Christ is the Risen Lord and Savior. Likewise, the meal alone would not be enough. These disciples at Emmaus, like all disciples who will follow them, need both the Word and the Meal (that is, Holy Communion—the Lord’s own supper) for the fullness of faith and discipleship. The Word is to precede and accompany the Sacrament. This two-fold template becomes the foundation of our worship today. 9. Moreover, the meal at Emmaus reverses the first meal in biblical history, the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Through the meal given by the Risen Christ, eyes are now opened to see that Jesus is the promised Seed of the woman in Genesis 3.15. Just as Adam and Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit brought the fall of creation by sin, so this meal at Emmaus is the first meal of the new day begun with the Messiah’s resurrection. It takes place on the first day of the week, the start of God’s new work of the new creation in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 5.17). 10. In his teaching of these disciples, it’s essential to see how Jesus affirms that all the Scriptures (specifically here, the whole OT) ultimately concern him, especially his death and resurrection on the third day. So when we say that the whole Bible is about Jesus Christ, we are agreeing with our Lord’s own interpretation of the Scriptures. We must read the Bible “Christologically,” in other words. Jesus tells these disciples—and us—that his mission to die and be raised was “necessary.” The cross and resurrection are the heart of the Christian proclamation to the world. LUKE 24.36-53, Jesus eats with his disciples and then ascends 1. Read Luke 24.36-53. 2. We begin to understand now the vital importance of everything Jesus has said and revealed about the Word and the Sacrament of Holy Communion as he prepares to ascend to the right hand of the Father (v 51). By Word and Meal, the Ascended Lord will still be with us on earth. As we open the Scriptures and break bread together, our eyes remain open to the real presence of the Lord with us. 3. Jesus now appears to his disciples who are gathered in the context of a house-church setting. Once again, we see the importance of the community of believers coming together as the church where the Lord will come among them in worship. 4. Jesus greets the disciples with “the peace,” the very Jewish greeting of invoking God’s shalom upon our brothers and sisters in the faith community. He then immediately invites himself to have a meal with them—as Jesus is always wont to do! It is the meal that gives the disciples real peace proving that Jesus is not a spirit (or in the KJV, a “ghost”) but that he has been really raised bodily. Once again, the Risen Lord couples the meal and the proclamation of the Scriptures. In the Gospel of Luke, we always see the Lord holding those two dynamics together. 5. In particular, Jesus emphasizes that by his death and resurrection, he now gives the forgiveness of sins to all who repent. The free forgiveness of sins by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to all who repent and believe in him is the heart of the Church’s message to the whole world. 6. Luke’s gospel is the only one that concludes with Jesus’ ascension. Luke will provide greater details about the ascension in the opening portion of his second volume in the NT (Acts 1.1- 11). 7. So the gospel ends (vv 50-53) as it begins: in worship in the temple in Jerusalem (cf. 1.5-25). But with the coming of the promised Holy Spirit ten days later on Pentecost (Acts 2), worship will move forth from the temple to gatherings house by house (Acts 2.46). Foundational to it all is the Word and the Sacraments (Holy Baptism and Holy Communion), just as the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ has put in place. .
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