Are you an optimist or a pessimist? What are the feelings that rule your life? Is it fear or faith that motivates your daily life? These may seem like strange questions for an Easter Sermon, but today's Scriptures really do provide a sharp contrast in terms of how our life view has a tremendous impact upon how we will experience the power of our Lord's resurrection in our daily lives.
First, we see in the story of two dejected disciples who were walking away from Jerusalem where our Lord's resurrection had already been announced by Mary and others not with any sense of joy or optimism, but rather so imprisoned by their own despair over the events of Good Friday that when the Lord first appears to them they aren't even able to recognize him.
Clearly, it was their fears and despair that ruled their lives at that moment. But then, there is another perspective. It is the best perspective that we can ever have in life. It is the perspective of a man who everybody else thought was defeated. It is the perspective that at times seems so far removed from what we call the realities of life that we would call it wishful thinking. It is the perspective of a man who hung from a Cross and who not with defiance or anger, but rather with faith and confidence could have his final words from the cross be this: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit and I place my trust.
Faith that is real on a day that is as glorious as Easter Sunday or in the midst of a tragic day like Good Friday, that is the faith that God offers us today and everyday but it is our responsility to claim that faith for ourselves and to do our very best to share it with our loved ones and all those who we might meet in what would be our equivalent of the dusty road between Jerusalem and Emmaus where the Easter miracle of renewal occurred in the life of Cleopas and his fellow traveler who were unknowingly on a journey from despair to hope. Let us look at their journey and see how it can provide guidance and inspiration for our journey also.
Friends, our journey must begin with the acknowledgment that the journey of life, even when we are blessed with a great faith, is a journey that at times is filled with challenges and uncertainties. You may think that I would want to illustrate this point by talking about Cleopas and his companion for surely at that moment they were overwhelmed with grief and despair. But there is an even more important illustration of how life can be challenging for all of us. Many of you heard me talk about this example in a recent sermon. It is the example of our Lord himself who at one point in his agony on the cross cries out My God, My God, why have you forsaken me. I will not reproach that earlier sermon, let it suffice for us all to remember that whatever challenges we face today or in all of our tomorrows our Lord understands the feeling of forsakenness that is part of our faith journey.
But praise God for the placement of these words of prayer that our Lord spoke from the cross. For you see if they were his final words, we might have to believe that the struggle of the cross had been greater than our Lord's faith but that is not the case. For yes, our Lord experienced the agony of spiritual and physical pain on the cross and he could have been overcome with despair but he was not. Rather, having gone through his dark night of the soul, having even reached the threshold of despair, at the moment of surrender his words were not words of defeat, rather they were words of hope, a hope that believes even in the worst of times we are surrounded and sustained by God's love. For it is in the confidence of that love that Jesus proclaims our Easter faith in these words Father, into your hands I commit my spirit and I place my trust.
Friends, isn't that an Easter faith that we need to possess. Clearly it was for Cleopas. For as their journey begins such faith and hope is not evident in their spirit at all. Not only don't they recognize Jesus but also as he explains to them how all of these events including the resurrection had been explained by the prophets, still there is no recognition. How deep their despair must have been. But again praise God for their faith journey was not to end on this note of despair. For as their journey continues, they sit with Jesus at a table and then as Luke's gospel expresses it they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.
What a wonderful line of scripture that we should think about next Sunday when we will again celebrate our Lord's Supper and feel and recognize his presence in our lives and our world in the breaking of the bread. Yes, that moment of recognition was also a moment of transformation in Cleopas's life. Gone was the despair and now, even at the end of a long day's journey when they should have been exhausted, they couldn't contain their joy and optimism and they rushed back along those dusty and now dark roads to bring the good news that we celebrate today Christ our Lord is risen, he is with us and God's love is forever.
There is where our story about Cleopas's transformation ends and our own story continues. For the risen Lord is with us not only in this time of worship but in all of the events of our lives. And this is his message to us that summarizes our Easter faith: No matter what joys or challenges of this day and all of our tomorrows, trust in God 's love and pray with me each day and in every situation this simple but profound prayer Father, into your hands we commit our spirit and place our trust.
Pastor Stephen Giordano — March 13, 2005