Welcoming Strangers

[00:00:01] That was a tough crowd. [00:00:07] Before we get started this morning, I wonder if you would look in the rack in front of you and find your pew Bibles. [00:00:14] This version says Holy Bible and a brown one. In this book, I'm going to ask you to open to Psalm 16 on page 437, if that helps you to find it. And just put a finger there and hold onto it, because we'll come to that. Okay? We will come to that. [00:00:35] Psalm 16, page 437. [00:00:41] That account on the road to Emmaus was, well, I would say it's probably my favorite little Easter vignette because it's got. [00:00:54] Well, it's got humor, it's got irony, and I don't know, I get this way, like if I'm watching a sports event, like a football game or something, and I know that the players can't possibly hear me, but it doesn't stop me from shouting at the television screen. [00:01:16] Oftentimes, I open your eyes, guys, you know? You ever do that? Probably you don't. I do. [00:01:26] And we're burning in those moments because we know, well, in this particular account, we know this visitor who's walking alongside them and with whom they are sharing this really sad tale of all their hopes and dreams of Israel, that all of those hopes are dashed because their Messiah is crucified. [00:02:02] And we want to say, open your eyes, guys. [00:02:07] Open your eyes. [00:02:10] They're a little bit like, do you know about Oli and Sven? [00:02:16] Who knows? Olen, Sven, North Dakota. Yeah. [00:02:22] Oli and Sven are not too bright. [00:02:26] The best Oli and Sven stories have kind of a one, two punch. Sven will say something unbelievably stupid, and Oli is amazed that Sven could be so dense. And then he tells him something like, oh, Sven, don't be such a dummy. [00:02:46] Like. [00:02:47] Like when Oli and Sven were up on top of a roof fixing it, and Sven would pick up a nail and look at it, hammer it in. He'd pick up another nail, look at it, toss it away, pick up another nail, look at it, toss it away, pick up another nail, look at it, hammer that one in. [00:03:10] So Ole says, sven, why do you go and be throwing away half the nails? [00:03:20] And Sven says, ole, don't you see they have points on the wrong end to which Ole says, sven, don't you be such a dummy dozer for the other side of the roof. [00:03:40] So when Jesus walks up to these two on the road to Emmaus, he says to them, he says, so, fellows, how you be doing? [00:03:51] And can I walk along with you? And which way are you going? And hey, whatcha been talking about? [00:04:00] And that's why they didn't recognize him, because he was speaking in a completely unrecognizable accent. [00:04:11] Okay, so our text this morning called him a visitor. Other translations say, he's a stranger. [00:04:24] And they invite this stranger to walk along with them. And the stranger asks his heart stopping question, and they just stop. [00:04:40] They just stop. You can just see the body language, the slumped shoulders, maybe even looking down. [00:04:46] Their world has absolutely fallen apart. [00:04:52] And one of them finally says, are you the only stranger to Jerusalem who doesn't know what things have happened? [00:05:02] And the stranger says to him, what things? [00:05:12] You got to see the humor in that. You know, what things? [00:05:17] And so they told him about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. And now our chief priests and rulers condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hope that he was the one to redeem Israel. And it's been three days now. [00:05:34] Guys, open your eyes. [00:05:39] And some of our women said that they had seen angels who said that he was alive. And some of us went to the tomb, and it was empty. All right? But they didn't see him. [00:05:52] And here's where the stranger starts to talk. [00:05:58] Well, guys, do you recall Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? [00:06:08] God said he would put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. [00:06:18] Or do you recall when God promised to Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his seed? [00:06:32] Or how about when God's people were wandering in the wilderness and their disobedience was a cause for serpents, snakes, to come and be biting them, but if they would just look at that brass serpent hanging on a pole, they would be saved. [00:06:50] Do you remember that? [00:06:54] Or how about that promise that was given to David that God would make one of his descendants to be king one day? [00:07:06] Or what about those hundreds of years of animal sacrifice, animal sacrifice that was offered up so that people's sins could be taken away? Or how about in Isaiah, when it describes the exact sequence of the king's suffering and death? And it says, all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him, on him the penalty of us all? [00:07:42] Or how about in Jeremiah, when it says, I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more? [00:07:49] Or in Zechariah, where God pours out his grace and his mercy on those who look at the one whom they have pierced and mourn for him as one mourns for an only child. [00:08:03] Or how about in Psalm 16, fellas? [00:08:08] Now look at it. Psalm 16, about verse 8. [00:08:14] It foretells God's suffering servant rising from the dead. Listen to this. [00:08:20] I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. [00:08:25] Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices, and my body also will rest secure. Because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see. Dec. [00:08:39] They probably thought, well, this is just a wonderful prayer by David, claiming God's care and love to watch over him always. [00:08:53] And yet this is a prophecy of the resurrection because it says, you will not let your faithful one see decay. You make known to me. This is Jesus praying, make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand, which we know Jesus has ascended to be present. You just confessed it in the Apostles Creed moments ago, Or Psalm 22. I'll let you search that one out today in your quiet time or devotions. [00:09:37] Because these psalms and Jesus had to have been using them to show how it was foretold that God's suffering servant would rise from the dead. [00:09:52] And it's like this stranger looks at the guys and says, is that the one you're talking about? [00:10:02] That guy? [00:10:04] That guy your hoped for Messiah? [00:10:07] Hmm. [00:10:11] Of course, it said that their eyes were, well, somehow blocked from recognizing him. [00:10:29] The Messiah came to earth to supply what people need the most, the forgiveness of sins. [00:10:44] Forgiveness of sins. [00:10:46] To do that, he had to die. [00:10:50] For as it says in Leviticus 17, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiven guys. [00:11:00] If you think his death is that disturbing, what will you do when you realize he's risen from the dead? [00:11:11] So Cleopas and his friend, well, they only told half the story, right? They only got out the part about, well, his life, his suffering, his death. [00:11:26] They stopped short of the best part, the resurrection. But how could they know the best part? [00:11:32] There were only wild rumors from crazed women and angels, and they didn't see anything. But with burning hearts, they invite this stranger to dinner. [00:11:49] And it's when he breaks bread, they recognize him. [00:11:56] When he breaks bread. [00:11:59] I know, I know. We're supposed to welcome the stranger. [00:12:07] And look what happens, though, when the stranger visits you. [00:12:16] Look what happens when the stranger welcomes you. [00:12:22] Of course we know the stranger is Jesus, who tells the whole story, and especially the best part, that he is alive. [00:12:30] And so he welcomes these two to believe it, and he shows them himself in the breaking of bread and the resurrection. It brings power and purpose into their lives and suddenly they're energized to go and tell the whole story. [00:12:46] And I have to wonder, do we tell the whole story? You know, the birth, life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus? [00:13:00] Even more so, do we tell how it impacts us? [00:13:04] My sins are forgiven. [00:13:07] I have the ability to come clean and live free before God. I have peace with with God because of what Jesus did on the cross. Do we reflect those images like the stranger did? [00:13:23] Do our lives reflect the calm confidence that no matter what happens, that he is with us? [00:13:31] How can we if we haven't seen it? [00:13:37] How can we, if that wonderful truth has no impact on our lives? [00:13:45] If Jesus, life, death and resurrection doesn't burn within us? Did you hear that word in the text? [00:13:55] If it doesn't burn within us, then we won't talk about it. [00:14:02] If it doesn't overwhelm you, it's like a so what? Or maybe worse. If it does overwhelm you, if it does burn within you, and yet you never get around to telling that story or the whole story to someone, especially how we were and are so needy and that he made and makes all about our lives different. [00:14:32] Well, we'd just be only so much noise, you know, St. Paul's First Corinthians 13. Noisy gong clanging cymbal. People don't listen because there's nothing new to hear. [00:14:54] Now, I have to admit to you that I do understand. Telling the whole story does take time and it does take relationship. [00:15:06] It does take an element of thinking about and being about hospitality. [00:15:13] I'm reminded a little bit of this woman who invited a whole bunch of people over to her house for a supper, and she turned to her little daughter and said, would you like to say the table prayer? And the little girl replied, well, golly, Mommy, I wouldn't know what to say. [00:15:33] And the mommy said to her, just say what Mommy says. [00:15:42] And so she bowed her head and she said, dear God, why did I invite so many people over for dinner? [00:15:57] Well, Inviting the stranger takes time and relationship in the Middle East. I learned in some of those Middle Eastern cultures it's kind of an unspoken code that if a stranger shows up at your door, you feed him and you rest him and you care for him, and only after three days can you talk about what he wants. [00:16:28] And only after hearing his story can you tell your story. [00:16:37] Do you get that? [00:16:39] Takes time, takes relationship, which by the way, goes against everything in our culture today, doesn't it? I mean, we live well. I don't. Maybe you don't, but there's gated communities and neighborhood watch programs that prove we do not trust our neighbors. [00:17:01] Or this example, which drives me crazy. You ever get those text messages that bring up a topic you had just googled moments before, or worse, that you were talking about with somebody else just moments before? [00:17:16] Does that feel a little bit like an invasion of privacy, especially when they want to sell you something? [00:17:25] I think it's abuse. [00:17:28] But my point is it's so immediate. You know everything so immediately. [00:17:37] Today, a stranger, a real stranger, can be the person who lives next door in your neighborhood, or a workmate or an acquaintance on your child's sports team, or a young person who actually wants to talk with you. If you're an older person welcoming strangers, well, it can't have the agenda. To try to convert somebody like that person is a project. It has to carry a sense of listening, a sense of loving that person just for who they are, nothing more. [00:18:16] However, never underestimate the power of breaking bread. Never underestimate the power of hospitality. [00:18:29] Jesus walking with those two disciples on the road to Emmaus has a lot to do with how we can be the stranger in someone else's life and that we can be the bearer of God's presence and help to open the eyes of someone else to know and believe God's truth of salvation. [00:18:54] Building walls up, protecting against people you don't know is to build walls up against the possibility of encountering the disturbingly overwhelming realities of God's truth. [00:19:09] The disturbing and overwhelming realities of that burn inside of us, of the good news of salvation. [00:19:23] Just think of the people these disciples hon the road to Emmaus. [00:19:33] So that when you walk alongside someone, well, you're liable to get their story, their whole story. [00:19:50] That's what happened to Cleopas and his friend Jesus brought. [00:19:55] Well, we could use Paul Harvey's words here, the rest of the story, right, Jesus brought the whole story, and it was loaded with power. And as a result, those two were able to go and tell the glorious news, the whole story to others. [00:20:21] And that's us. [00:20:23] It's got to be us. [00:20:25] We've been welcomed into God's kingdom by Jesus. [00:20:30] And think about it this way. Before faith, before the faith that he put in us. He was a stranger to us, nothing more. [00:20:43] And there's not much more than stranger, but he's given us his story. [00:20:49] And when you get Jesus story, well, you can tell it to others.