"Dancing the Two-Step"   Cicero United Methodist Church      Jack Keating

May 8, 2011              Text:  Luke 24:13-35             Easter 3

            So we are in the middle of this "Dancing" theme and today I'm going to talk briefly about the Two Step. Now, although I am not much of a dancer, I do know that the Two Step is a dance in which the participant takes 2 quick steps forward followed by two slow steps backward.
I have also learned that there are many variations of the two-step .... There's the Texas Two Step,
the-Country Two-Step, the Houston Two-Step and even the New York Two-Step! For guys like
me there should be the Two Left-Foot Two Step!

            But now my task is to show you what these dance steps have in common with today's

scripture lesson from the Gospel according to Luke. And what I've figured out is this...  just like the dance step, which we could probably call the Human Two Step, the two people we meet
on the road are taking 2 steps forward, only to be followed by two steps backward!

            So the story comes out of Luke 25 and it tells about two people who are walking along
from Jerusalem to their home in Emmaus, about 7 miles away. Here's what we discover from
God's Word .....

            THERE WERE TWO OF THEM

            We don't know much about them. There were two of them but we don't even know if
they were two men or a man and a woman. All we know is that one of them is named "Cleopas"

            Whoever they are ... they are completely disheartened. After following Jesus for a week,
a week that had started out to be a glorious week, they see Jesus arrested, tried, and crucified.
Now all their hopes and dreams were shattered and gone. Now it was all over and slowly they
were making their way home. So it was not a happy trip at all.

.           Yes, they had waited a little while this morning after hearing some rumors about an
empty tomb. Some of the women had been to the tomb. Why they'd even heard that Jesus had
appeared to them as they were coming back, but the apostles just didn't believe it. Peter and John
went to the tomb and had confirmed that it was empty, but how or when nobody seemed to know.

            So, confused and disheartened, they leave Jerusalem and are traveling the road back
home to Emmaus. As they walk along, talking over all the things that have happened this week,
Jesus joins to them on their walk.

            But listen to the last part of verse 16, "but they were kept from recognizing him." Every

time I read that verse, it disturbs me because I wonder, "Would it actually be possible to meet
Jesus and not know it?"

            The Bible tells us that whenever two or more are gathered in His name, Jesus is there,
too. Now I don't think that implies that it has to be a physical presence, but what if Jesus came
here this morning in the flesh? What if He put on a tie or sport shirt and came to worship with
us? What of He walked out the door and shook my hand and said, "Fair sermon, preacher!" How
would I react? How awful would I feel if I actually looked into His eyes and shook His hand and
didn't recognize Him?

            Yet, here are two people who didn't recognize Him. They were His followers. But right
now, in His resurrected state, they didn't recognize Him. Kind of a disturbing thought, isn't it?

            Now let's stop to think about this for a moment. We all have our Gethsemanes, don't
we? Times when we feel like crying out, "Father, please let this cup pass from me. I don't want
to drink it! It's too much! It's too hard for me! Why is everything happening to me?"

            We also all have our Calvarys when we feel so alone, and we cry out to God, "Why have
you forsaken me?"

            It is also possible for us to have a resurrection, too. In fact, Paul reminds us that all who
have been baptized into Jesus, have been baptized into His death. And, even as Jesus was raised from the dead, we too, are raised to walk in a new life. In Jesus we can pass from death to life eternal!

            Now, if we have our Gethsemanes, our Calvarys, and even our resurrection, is it possible
that we can have our Emmaus journey, too?

            Here we are, traveling down the road of life. Our hopes and dreams are broken and
shattered, and our prayers seem unanswered. We're trying to deal with everything all by ourselves and suddenly Jesus comes. He walks beside us, he encourages us and He never leaves
us alone.

            THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT JESUS

            As they were walking, verse 17 says that Jesus asked, "What are you discussing together
as you walk along?" Cleopas answered, "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who doesn't
know what things have happened there in these days?" "What things?" Jesus asked.

            "About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed
before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced .
to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem
Israel."

            You see, the key is to realize what this hope was that they had. Their hope was that Jesus
would redeem Israel. Now what did He do when He went to the cross and died? He redeemed
Israel. And He did not only redeem Israel, He redeemed the whole world. He redeemed the
world from sin and death.

            But these folks walking along that road weren't concerned with sin and death .... They
had hoped He would redeem them from Rome! They had hoped that He would redeem them
from human misery, from poverty, from hunger, from disease. But He came to redeem them
from sin and death.

            We haven't changed much in all these years have we? We still want the same things.

We want a Messiah who will make life a bed of roses, who will take away all our problems and
worries. We want resurrection without death, victory without defeat.

            And so Jesus responds to them in verse 25. "How foolish you are and how slow of heart
that you do not believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these
things and then enter His glory?" There is no way to have a resurrection without death. And, as
in the two-step dance, sometimes there is no way to take those 2 quick steps forward without
taking those two slow steps backward first.

            What Jesus is saying is that, "I had to go through this. You have to go through it, too.

I'm not going to take this road and this journey away from you. But I'll walk it with you, even
though you may not recognize me, I will walk it with you, empowering you every step of the
way."

            Well, they traveled along and pretty soon they would pass through the gates of Emmaus.

Verse 28 says, "As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if He
were going further."

            I like that verse because it tells me a couple of different things. First of all it tells me that
Jesus never invades our area of privacy.

            When I get home at night, the telephone seems to ring with people trying to sell me all
kinds of things. And if they're not trying to sell me something, or request my donation to their
cause, they are trying to secure my opinion of some political issue of the day. Now, I try to be
courteous, but I have to confess, I resent it. You probably do too. But Jesus never invades our
area of privacy.

            These folks finally arrive at home and Jesus takes a step, ready to leave them, but they
stop Him from going. The verse says " ...they urged him strongly." In the King James Version

the words are "they constrained Him." "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost
over. So he went in to stay with them."

            The second thing that tells us is this, "It doesn't take much to get Jesus to stay." All we
have to do is invite Him. Open the door, for He's knocking. So invite Him in. He'll be more
than happy to come and stay.

            Now in my imagination I can just see them enter the house and their spouses quickly
trying to wipe off the furniture because dust has collected while they've been gone. Then
someone quickly goes to the freezer, grabs three frozen dinners and puts them in the microwave.
Pretty soon they brings them out, piping hot, and they sit down to eat. In this relaxed atmosphere
they continue to visit.

            THEIR EYES WERE OPENED

            Verse 30 says, "When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke
it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him and he
disappeared from their sight."

            All this time they had been with Jesus, looking at Him but never seeing Him. Now
suddenly, as they eat together, their eyes are opened and they actually see Him for who He was.
After He left it says that they asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He
talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

            Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if the entire world could experience that same kind of
burning within us? It seems to me that one of the greatest plagues facing the church today is our
contentment with mediocrity. We are content to look and never see, to listen and never hear, to
be motivated and never respond. So we sit like bumps on a log, walking on the road,
complaining because we hurt now and then and never responding to His touch.

            But, how different for these two. Reading the rest of the story it says that "they got up

and returned at once to Jerusalem." It must have been 8 or 9 o'clock. It was a seven mile journey
back to Jerusalem. They could have waited until morning, but that same night they started back.
They couldn't wait to get back to Jerusalem.

            When they did, it says they found the disciples and those who assembled with them.

They rush to the door and knock on it, anxious to tell their story. But when the apostles open the·
door, the indication from Scripture is 'that the apostles speak before these two can speak.

            The apostles are saying, "It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon."

These two are standing there, blinking their eyes, saying "yes we know that it is true. He met us
on the way and we talked with Him and we recognized Him when He broke the bread."

            Can you sense the excitement there? All these people are trying to talk at the same time.

Everybody is saying, "It is true! He has risen! Jesus Christ is alive." What a time of excitement
and rejoicing that must have been!

            This morning, in some way, we are all traveling on that same road to Emmaus.

Sometimes our dreams are shattered. Sometimes we laugh. Sometimes we cry.

            Jesus said, "I didn't come to take the road away. I just came to walk it with you. I'm
going to walk with you until we're home. When your life takes you two steps forward and then
two steps backward, I'll be there with you. So until we get home, I'll open the Word to you so
that your eyes can be opened and your heart warmed."

            How long has it been since you've felt that warming in your heart and in your soul? It's
so easy for us to slip into neutral, spiritually, and just allow things to come and go. To go to
church because it's Sunday morning, but never experience the stirring of God's spirit in your
lives, the warmth of His love, looking but never seeing, listening but never hearing.

            I remember this story I heard about the man who stood before St. Peter at the Gates of
Heaven. The man said, "Peter, I'm ready to go in and receive my inheritance." St. Peter

answered, "That's fine, but it takes a thousand points. What have you done that is worth 1,000
points?"

            The man answers, "Well, I attended church and Sunday School regularly. If! wasn't sick
I was always at church and Sunday School." "Fine", says Peter, "regular attender at church and
Sunday School- 50 points. What else?"

            "OK, I taught Sunday School class for many years." "Sunday School teacher," Peter
writes down -"25 points. What else?"

            "Well, I gave 10% of my income to the Lord." "Hmmmm, a tither," Peter writes down-
"25 points. You now have 100 points. You only need 900 more. What else?"

            By now the man was perspiring, suddenly fearful that he was not going to be able to enter
heaven at all. He started wringing his hands and said, "At this rate it'll only be by the grace of
God that I get in."

            And Peter writes down, "Grace of God - 900 points. Enter through the gates of joy."
This morning, as you think about the road you're on, you might see that you've been
doing that old Human Two-Step for quite a while. Maybe you've been taking two quick steps
forward ... only to be followed by two slow steps backward. So my prayer for us all this morning
is that the Lord would wake us up for the plod of our religious dance. I pray that you'll develop
eyes that see and hearts that burn. And I pray that God will give us all souls that yearn to serve
and to tell the world that our Lord is alive. And we know that He is, indeed, alive because He has
raised each of us up from the deadness of our sin and given each of us new life in Christ. Amen.