The Road of Broken Dreams

Acts 2: 14a, 36-41
Luke 24: 13-35

The road of broken dreams, the road to Emmaus is where Jesus finds us and brings back to fullness and light.

Sometimes we are blinded by our pain and loss and confusion, and we wonder if even God knows what comes next for us. In the midst of our pain, do we sometimes limit our viewpoint, and obscure our own vision from seeing the pattern and path that we are to follow?

The road leading away from the holy city these two men are traveling is the road we are taking too. Where have our wounded hearts and downtrodden spirits blinded us to the truth that Jesus walks with us and talks with us? The text today makes us ask ourselves if faith can be found in the garbage of a shattered life and faith? Well, the heart knows more than the head!

As the men are walking along, Jesus shows up on the road and they begin to talk to him. They mention what has happened in Jerusalem this last week when Jesus asks questions about it. Sadly, they tell him they had hoped Jesus would redeem Israel, and now something even more strange has happened in that the women in the group had been told by an angel that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, but had risen from the dead. They had gone to the tomb and it was as the women said, but they did not see the angel or Jesus himself.

Jesus’ response to their pain is to begin a long recitation of the Torah scriptures. Where is the sensitivity of the one they called Messiah? But Jesus shows his connection to the faith tradition of these men’s past when he begins speaking of the Torah to them and making connections between those scriptures and the one they had hoped would redeem Israel. He is forming a bond with them since they have yet to recognize him AS the risen Messiah. He is merely a stranger walking the road to Emmaus with them and who does not seem to know what has taken place these past few days.

These two men walking down the road, know that the women of the group had seen Jesus as well as an angel. They had heard that “Easter” had arrived in the resurrected body of their beloved Messiah, but it has not sunk in yet. They do not feel it in their heart and souls. They are dejected and miserable because of the awful way Jesus died. The humiliation and pain he suffered as well as the horror they felt at the killing of not only Jesus, but their hope in a greater good. Their anguish prevents them from fully believing what Mary and Mary Magdalene had seen that Easter morning.

And so, it is for us sometimes. We go through the 40 days of Lent, and we try to pray more and seek out God’s face and to feel the Holy Spirit more truly in our lives. And then comes Good Friday and we experience the utter loss of hope and then Easter arrives and for whatever reason, the joy is not present. We cannot get past our pain. The anguish in our souls is too heavy and deep to experience true happiness at knowing that the Christian story does not end in death and loss, but in the joy of a resurrected Savior and life eternal for us.

Easter does not always come in three days. Stones are rolled away, but sometimes we stay deep in the tomb. There are a lot of things that prevent us from enjoying Easter the way we are meant to. Sometimes our hearts are burdened with too many cares for us to fully let joy bubble to the surface on Easter morning.

What should we do when we have reached our wit’s end, when what we thought was worth our lives has left us washed up emotionally, financially, physically, and spiritually?

There once was an ant that felt imposed upon, overburdened, and overworked. You see, he was instructed to carry a piece of straw across an expanse of concrete. The straw was so long and heavy that he staggered beneath its weight and felt he would not survive. Finally, as the stress of his burden began to overwhelm him and he began to wonder if life itself was worth it, the ant was brought to a halt by a large crack in his path. There was no way of getting across that deep divide, and it was evident that to go around it would be his final undoing. He stood there discouraged. Then suddenly a thought struck him. Carefully laying the straw across the crack in the concrete, he walked over it and safely reached the other side. His heavy load had become a helpful bridge. The burden was also a blessing.

Sometimes we are so blinded by our burdens that we cannot see how they could possibly become a blessing. But the truth of the matter is that if we stop our grumbling for a moment, if we close our eyes and take a deep breath, if we allow for just a moment our minds to empty of our troubles we are able to see things more clearly. When we stop our busy-ness and our complaints, it gives the Holy Spirit a chance to speak to us. It gives us a chance to open our eyes and see the troubles in our midst hold a purpose and the stranger we encounter on this journey is there to help us.

As the two men walked along the road to Emmaus, Jesus walked with them until the end and then he went to leave them until the men protested and asked him to join them for dinner. Jesus had given them renewed hope as they walked along, and then he offered them a choice. Did they want him to continue to walk with them or will they let him walk away? They ask him to dinner and it is as he takes the bread, blesses and breaks it and gives it to them that they finally see that the wise man on the road walking with them is none other than their risen Lord and Savior, the one they had mourned and missed the last three days.

Jesus always leaves us free to turn our backs on him. We must choose to let him into our hearts. It’s always a choice to see the hope rather than the darkness; to enter the light of the garden rather than stay in the darkened depths of the tomb. I urge you to invite Christ back into your heart today. I urge you to see where God has been working in your life, even in the darkest and most trying moments you have experienced. I urge you to remember that your God is one that does not leave you alone to walk through the desert, but instead he is ahead, behind, and with you at all times.

A little boy was eagerly looking forward to the birthday party of a friend who lived only a few blocks away. When the day finally arrived, a blizzard made the sidewalks and roads nearly impassable. The lad’s father, sensing the danger, hesitated to let his son go. The youngster reacted tearfully. "But Dad," he pleaded, "all the other kids will be there. Their parents are letting them go." The father thought for a moment, and then replied softly, 

"All right, you may go." Surprised but overjoyed, the boy bundled up and plunged into the raging storm. The driving snow made visibility almost impossible, and it took him more than half an hour to trudge the short distance to the party. As he rang the doorbell, he turned briefly to look out into the storm. His eye caught the shadow of a retreating figure. It was his father. He had followed his son’s every step to make sure he arrived safely.

We spend so much of our time wanting life to be a certain way and experiencing a much harsher reality that sometimes the scriptures seem to be unrealistic to our jaded eyes. You have spent enough time experiencing the desert wilderness. Although God has walked with you every step of the way, it is time for you to enter the garden, to find that Promised Land, to experience Easter joy at the idea of your Savior defeating death and sin for your sake.

Let your eyes be opened, feel that burning in your heart, and may your life be changed forever by the knowledge you do NOT have to stay in the darkened tomb! Come out and rejoice for Jesus has set you free!

Amen.