Stay With Us

The Third Sunday of Easter

Luke 24:13-35

April 23, 2023

 “Stay With Us”

If we can identify with Thomas in last Sunday’s Gospel lesson (John 20:19-31), the doubt and uncertainty which he felt, then we can also identify with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus in today’s Gospel lesson (Luke 24:13-35). Luke alone records this unique resurrection appearance of Jesus. On that first Easter evening, these two dejected followers of Jesus were making their way from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus, which we are told was about seven miles away. Discouraged and disheartened at the death of Jesus, confused and perplexed about the reports they had heard of his empty tomb, they are trudging along, trying to figure all of this out; trying to grasp what it all means. And then this mysterious Stranger comes alongside them, joining them in their journey. And that Stranger is no stranger at all, but the risen Christ who opened the Scriptures to them, and made himself known to them in the breaking of the bread. What those two disciples said to Jesus becomes the theme for preaching this day: “Stay with us” (Luke 24:29). May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

“Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent” (Luke 24:29). Those words are part of the opening verses for Evening Prayer, and that was the request of these two disciples, one named Cleopas, and the other who is not named. For them, everything seemed to be over and done with. All of their hopes and dreams about Jesus were shattered as they shared with the One who walked with them: “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). Had hoped – past tense. That’s a terrible place to be in life, when all hope is gone. In our own lives, we may know what this feels like. This mysterious Stranger, who didn’t seem to know anything about the explosive events that had happened there in Jerusalem, had to remind them about their own faith foundation: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:25-26). That word “necessary” carries a great deal of meaning. The word (έδει) “expresses a divine ‘must’; the Messiah had to experience these things…It had been prophesied, as Jesus demonstrates, in the Scriptures, which are divine and eternally true. But behind and above the sacred writings stood the will and plan of God for the salvation of the human race; in the Scriptures God’s counsel had been revealed… It was important that especially the necessity of Jesus’ death be stressed, because it seemed to be nothing but a miscarriage of justice” (Concordia Classic Commentary Series: Luke, by William F. Arndt. St. Louis: Concordia, 1956; p. 490). And then the mysterious Stranger opened the Scriptures to them, beginning with Moses and all the Prophets. They all point to Jesus, who is the Key to understanding the Scriptures.

The request of those two disciples is our own prayer: “Stay with us, Lord.” At the end of the day, at the end of our life, at the end of the world, what matters is faith in the One who gave his life on the cross for us, who shed his blood for us, and who rose from death and the grave for us. We are not left alone. The risen Savior has promised to stay with us, even to the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). He promises that he will be found in the Scriptures, where that written Word makes known to us the living Word, the Word made flesh (John 1:14). He promises that he will be found in the breaking of the bread, that is, the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:19ff.). And where Jesus is found, there is forgiveness, life and salvation.  

The individual who wrote the text to our hymn of the day, “Who Are You Who Walk in Sorrow” (Lutheran Service Book 476), is the late Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr. (1923-2007), a Lutheran pastor. I invite you to take up a hymnal, and let’s read the stanzas of this hymn together. Sometimes when we are singing and the hymn is not so familiar to us, we can get caught up in getting the notes right, and so the words of the hymn – the text – can be lost on us. And so reading through hymns can be a great blessing. But first, I would like to share some background on this hymn that captures today’s Gospel lesson so beautifully. “Herman Stuempfle (1923-2007) was asked to write this hymn, on the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), by the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, a Roman Catholic group… As Stuempfle read and meditated on the story, he focused on the two men ‘in mourning, confusion, and despair about what happened on Good Friday,’ but then, of course, there is ‘this mysterious third man walking beside them…’ Stuempfle observed that ‘we are all walking on roads to death,’ and he used that common experience as the point of departure for identifying the singer with those Emmaus disciples… the narrative of the hymn moves from the biblical past to the present and then to the future. The hymn opens up from the mourning of death to the hope of the resurrection and the life everlasting… The text moves from the bitter bread of death to the broken bread of Christ. On the way to His table, hearts distraught with grief begin to burn with His Word and Spirit. For He is the ‘mysterious third man,” who joins us on our journey of death and matches our stride in order to lead us out of death into life. He reveals Himself, His resurrection, and His Gospel also now to us in the Sacrament of His body and His blood” (Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns, Vol. 1, edited by Joseph Herl, Peter C. Reske, and Jon D. Vieker. St. Louis: Concordia, 2019; p. 375). As Stuempfle himself said in an interview: “The first stanza looks back and is in the past tense. But as the text goes on, it moves into the present tense to give more emphasis to the fact that we are those persons walking the barren road. But then it turns out to be not the road to death, for this mysterious companion, who is the Christ for all of us, opens our eyes to who He is – in the Scriptures, which He is unfolding to them, and then finally as they really recognize Him in the breaking of the bread. And so it is in the Eucharist today that we, too, have that encounter as His faithful ones. This brings the text to end on a note of joy, even though it begins on a note of sorrow” (Ibid.). Amen.

 Now let’s read the stanzas of that hymn together:

Who are you who walk in sorrow                                   Who are we who travel with You 

Down Emmaus’ barren road                                          On our way through life to death?

Hearts distraught and hope defeated                              Women, men, the young, the aging,

Bent beneath grief’s crushing load?                               Wakened by the Spirit’s breath!

Nameless mourners, we will join you,                            At the font You claim and name us,

We who also mourn our dead;                                       Born of water and the Word;

We have stood by graves unyielding,                              At the table still You feed us,

Eaten death’s bare, bitter bread.                                    Host us as our risen Lord!

Who is this who joins our journey,                                 “Alleluia! Alleluia!”

Walking with us stride by stride?                                   Is the Easter hymn we sing!

Unknown Stranger, can You fathom                               Take our life, our joy, our worship

Depths of grief for one who died?                                  As the gift of love we bring.

Then the wonder! When we told You                              You have formed us all one people

How our dreams to dust have turned,                             Called from ev’ry land and race.

Then You opened wide the Scriptures                             Make the Church Your servant body,

Till our hearts within us burned.                                    Sent to share Your healing grace!

Who are You? Our hearts are opened

In the breaking of the bread –

Christ the victim, now the victor

Living, risen from the dead!

Great companion on our journey,

Still surprise us with Your grace!

Make each day a new Emmaus;

On our hearts Your image trace!