Unexpected Crucifixions

Let us turn to the Word of the Lord in Luke chapter 24, verses 13 through 27, and I want us to reflect on unexpected crucifixions, but also unexpected resurrections. And here in this text we are told: “Behold, two disciples”—not the eleven or twelve we are accustomed to thinking of, but two followers of Jesus—“were traveling that same day,” that Resurrection Sunday, “they were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was about sixty stadia,” some distance, right? from Jerusalem, “and they were talking with each other about all those things that had happened in Jerusalem.”

“It happened that while they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were veiled”—that is, it was as though their understanding was covered so that they would not recognize Him—“and He said to them, ‘What are these things you are discussing with each other as you walk, and why are you sad?’”

“One of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered and said to Him, ‘Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem who has not known the things that have happened there in these days?’ Then He said to them, ‘What things?’”

“Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a man, a prophet”—listen to that, “was a man, a prophet,” in the past tense, right?—“mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to be sentenced to death and crucified Him. But we had hoped that He was the One who was going to redeem Israel.” I want us to pause there, at verse 21: “But we had hoped that He was the One who was going to redeem Israel.” May the Lord bless His Holy Word.

I have always been fascinated by the account of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. On several occasions, over the course of many Resurrection Sunday sermons—three or four times, perhaps, in thirty-some years—I have preached about this particular message because it contains so much substance, so much teaching for our lives, practical teaching. It is like a little thing that in the dramatic arts they call a “vignette,” like a tiny drama, a small picture within the larger narrative of the Resurrection, a brief episode from real life.

Because in this case these are not the disciples we know—Peter, John, James, right? the famous disciples, the Twelve, even Judas in some sense. It is not about those disciples, but about other, practically anonymous followers of Jesus. These disciples were among hundreds of other people who identified with Jesus; they were followers, evangelicals, we might say, but they were not among the leadership, they were not the principal ones. They were people who had a certain affinity for the Lord and had followed Jesus with certain hopes. They were godly people, and they thought: Wow, perhaps this is the One we have been waiting for throughout so many centuries.

And that is why I believe this narrative is so interesting and so important, because it is easier for me to identify with them than with the great disciples. They could be any one of us returning home, ordinary, everyday people, and they reflect what hundreds of the Master’s other followers must have been thinking and experiencing, followers who were not as well educated and instructed as the Lord’s closest followers. And notice that even they, the leading disciples, were experiencing the same sense of disappointment and of having been let down. Things had not turned out as they expected, and now they are returning to their village saddened. That is why the Lord says: Why are you so sad? Why are you so downcast? They were clearly walking along defeated.

Has anyone ever felt defeated at some point in life, felt like, wow, things did not turn out the way I expected? Have you ever left church disappointed, thinking that you were going to receive a burst of energy or something like that, only to return home just as depressed as when you left?

And these men represent the people of God. That is why I believe God chose to have this passage recorded, because these people almost seemed to have no right to be in the narrative; they had done nothing exceptional. But God wanted to minister to them too. God wanted to remind them that He has a purpose for simple, ordinary people who have never preached a sermon, who are not destined to do great things in the economy of the Kingdom of God. Yet God is interested in what they think and in how they feel; He wants them to have a personal experience with the Resurrection of Jesus.

That expression of theirs intrigues me, right? “But we had hoped.” They are speaking in the imperfect past tense. When they speak of Jesus, they say that He was a prophet. He was a prophet, right? They have already downgraded Him. He is not the Messiah, but “He was a man, a prophet,” because He has died, He is buried, and He has already lost the credentials of the Messiah they had been expecting.

We had hoped—goodness, what a shame! We had bet on that horse, and it disappointed us. We hoped that He was the One who was going to redeem Israel. We thought that candidate was going to win the presidency, and what a shame—we had to put away the champagne and those little noisemakers people use, and go back home defeated, right? But we know that everything Scripture contains has an instructive purpose, right? What does God want to teach us through this particular passage?

Well, as I was saying, right? First of all, look at the drama again: things have not happened the way their religious teachers had told them they were supposed to happen, and these people, with little instruction and little understanding of the depths of the Gospel and of the things of God, say, “The Master has died.” They expected that He would not even experience death, much less die and rise again, even though the Lord had told them all of this, right?

The Master has died; three days have already passed since they crucified and buried Him. None of this was in the movie script they knew, based on Scripture and their interpretation of it, based on what they had been taught. The Messiah was supposed to come in all His Glory on a great, strong white horse, arrive as a conquering King, defeat Israel’s enemies—in this case, the Romans, who had oppressed them for years—restore Israel as the powerful nation it had been in David’s time, and allow them to enjoy a renewed economy and new political power. And they thought: Wow, since we were also there with Jesus at the beginning, we are going to get something too. I will submit an application, and Jesus will say, “Yes, he is one of My followers; give him the position.” They expected everything to go very well.

You remember this, right? The disciples were fighting over positions because they said: When the Lord is in His Kingdom, He will place me at His right hand, me at His left. That was the framework they had, right? They saw no complexity, no problem that would interfere with their plan of a powerful Christ who would come and simply set everything up as it ought to be.

The problem with these men lay in the simplicity, the oversimplification, the excessively simplistic way in which they viewed God’s plans for humanity and for history. In their framework there was nothing about crucifixions, arrests, the torture of the Messiah, or scourging, nothing about complex processes between one event and another. It was going to be a leap from Wednesday, let us say, when the Lord is there—or from the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, at the entrance to Jerusalem, when they acclaim Him, “Welcome, Son of David, He who comes in the Name of the Lord,” and throw branches at His feet and all of that—they thought they would go directly from there to the glorification of the Messiah. They were not counting on Thursday’s arrest, the Lord’s agonizing night in the garden of Gethsemane; they were not thinking about the scourging, His agony in the high priest’s courtyard, His journey through Jerusalem along the Way of the Cross, the Via Dolorosa. They did not think of any of that; it was not there, they could not.

There were Scriptures that said this, but they did not know how to interpret them. They had focused only on the powerful Messiah, but they had not seen the Scriptures that said: No, He first has to go through this, this, and that, right? According to their framework, everything was positive and exclusively for Israel’s benefit. But God had a much more complex plan in His mind, and God had already warned them about it time and again. He had told them: The Messiah has to die and be rejected, and then rise again on the third day. The Lord had told them very clearly, but they had conveniently forgotten that part, as we often do.

Do you know that sometimes we hear what we want to hear and do not hear what we do not want to hear? And some things so completely violate our expectations of how things should be that it is as though the mind cannot process them. You hear the language, you hear the grammar, but psychologically it is as though they were speaking Chinese to you; you are not prepared to accept it. And that is how many of us are, brothers and sisters.

When we enter into the Gospel, we enter with very simplistic ideas about what the Christian experience ought to be like. In fact, many leaders reinforce that mentality: Look, come to the Gospel and everything will turn out well for you; everything will be prosperity and celebration and blessing; you will always get your way, and God will grant everything you ask for. If you tithe, you can be sure that money will come back to you multiplied. You will have two Mercedes-Benzes in the garage, a big house, very beautiful and well-behaved children, and a successful career, and everything will turn out well for you. And we forget that Scripture contains many passages telling us, for example, that “In the world you will have tribulation,” right? that there must be things in between.

Resurrections must also be preceded by crucifixions; before Resurrection Sunday, there must also be moments of crucifixion. And they had forgotten this; they did not even suspect it.

What is more, after the Resurrection, after they discovered that the Messiah had indeed risen, okay, fine, I understand, and I am willing to accept that He had to die—glory to God, He rose again—but what happens? At least two thousand fifteen years of history were going to follow. We are still awaiting the Second Coming, and interestingly, many of the first disciples believed that the Lord was going to come a second time immediately, that shortly after He ascended everything would happen, and that all of them would still be alive to receive the risen Christ when He came a second time. And now, more than two thousand years later, the Church is still in process, it is still being worked on. God is working in the world, in history, in our lives. Martyrs are being crucified right now; evil seems to be growing everywhere.

How many of us might currently be asking ourselves: Lord, where are You? Where are Your purposes? How is it possible for one hundred fifty young people to perish in a school, beheaded, their necks broken, tortured; for Your children still to be persecuted; for there still to be martyrs in the Middle East and in other parts of the world? Terrible things are happening in our cities that make us say, wow, it seems as though evil is winning, the Church is retreating. Lord, where are You? Where are Your purposes?

And perhaps you look at your own life and see that it is not so easy. You come to church and experience a good season of victory and success, but afterward trials come as well. One day they tell you that you will have to take pills for the rest of your life because you have a health condition, or you lose your job, or you go through a time when you do not have enough money to pay your debts, and you say: Lord, hey, I did not sign up for this; this is harder than I thought. But the Word of the Lord is very clear and tells us: Hey, this is part of the process. It is there, and we also have to become accustomed to this part.

These disciples did not think these things were going to happen, and so they return home as though already defeated. But God had a beautiful plan for their lives. We too must be careful with those simplistic frameworks. We must remember that God has a greater plan and that He is at work.

Many of you, and I myself, when we began serving the Lord or walking along the path of faith, would have thought that many things were going to happen differently. If someone had asked me thirty years ago whether I was going to be pastoring a church, I would have laughed, brothers and sisters. My plans were different: to be teaching at a university, smoking a pipe over there, an elegant professor wearing a really cool jacket, looking very sophisticated. And glory to God, because when I look at all of you, I feel that God had an even better plan, and I rejoice to see this congregation, while you too are in your own battles, your own processes.

I want to encourage you in the Name of the Lord: never throw in the towel, no matter how difficult life may seem, no matter how many difficulties there may be. God has a beautiful plan for you, for your families, for your children, for your future. And even if things become difficult and it seems that Christ did not rise again, He has a plan; remain steadfast. Do not go to Emmaus too quickly, you know? Do not go to Emmaus too quickly.

I want to conclude with these points that I want you to remember concerning the applications we must learn from this. Number one—I have already said these things, but I want to state it in a more specific way—listen to this: God’s processes for our lives will generally be more complex than we suspect or desire.

If you are walking in the ways of the Lord—and I am speaking, for example, to many young people who still have decades, many decades, ahead of them—remember, young person, that God has a more complex process than you may think. Life is going to be harder, more complex; there will be much more of God’s process and dealing in your life than you think. You will have times of difficulty, testing, fear, terror, and failure. At times, things may not turn out the way you expected, but do not worry, because that will be part of a plan of God that is very complex in the way He does things.

Do not try to write the script He has for your life yourself; let Him do it, because when God does things, He does them well. Simply enter into that plan and live it, each day, by faith. Take that blank page I talk about—take a blank page, sign your name at the bottom, and say to the Lord: Father, whatever You want to write on that page is Your business. I am going to bless You, I am going to love You, and I am going to believe that I will never be defeated, because Your Word says that for those who love You, all things work together for good. You have a purpose.

As the Word of the Lord says: “My ways are not your ways, nor are My thoughts your thoughts.” “Things no eye has seen nor ear heard are what God has prepared for those who love Him and those who believe in Him.” And among those things prepared for you, there are things that may not be so good and others that are very good, or better than you expected. But I want to tell you that, when everything is said and done, the net result will be glorious; it will be good. Trust in the Lord.

When we enter the ways of the Lord, we must remember Jesus’ words to Peter—that fiery, young Peter, full of life, thinking he could eat children raw. And the Lord says to him: Peter, remember, when you were young, you dressed however you pleased, went to the nightclub whenever you wanted, and had yourself a little drink there whenever you felt like it. But you know what? When you are old, He says, when you are older, someone else will dress you and take you where you do not want to go. And it says that He was speaking about the death that awaited Peter, which was a martyr’s death.

And so I encourage you in the Name of the Lord: enter the Christian life knowing that God has a narrative that is greater and broader than you think. But believe and trust in the Lord, and each day renew your trust in Him and in the fact that He knows what He is doing. “Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord,” says the Word. So that is one lesson, isn’t it? God’s plans for your life will always be more complex, but likewise, they will also be more glorious than you expect.

Number two: God is not as interested in benefiting us as He is in using us. God is not only interested in benefiting us; He also wants to use us. Why do I say this? Because the disciples—and Israel itself—thought that everything that was going to happen in the drama of the Messiah was for their benefit and their use, and that it was all simply about restoring Israel’s kingdom and its national might. But God wanted to use Israel; He wanted to use the disciples; He wanted to use the Gospel narrative to bless not only Israel at that point in its history, but countless generations after them, right up to today, 2015. He wanted to bless not only Israel, but also the Aztecs, who were over there in Latin America or perhaps migrating from the East to Latin America; Africa, India, North America, Australia, Asia—the Chinese and Japanese over there. He wanted to bless all humanity.

That little piece of land was simply the starting point, and God wanted to use these men. That is why He had to put them through the crushing mill of the crucifixion, and they too were going to be crucified in many ways—some literally, while others would go through trials and difficulties until God formed them in order to prepare them. Peter, for example, was put through trials by God and defeated many times so that he could then become a true apostle and write two such beautiful letters about suffering as First and Second Peter. So they had to go through those processes.

Brother, remember that God is interested in using you, and that is why He often allows you to go through difficult situations. He allows that fiery man, full of strength, who thinks he is the greatest thing there is, to go through an illness that weakens him a little, so that he may become an elder in His Church, a loving father, a husband who supports his wife, a counselor. That woman who is frightened by anything—God wants to put her through a few scares so that she learns that she cannot fall any farther than the floor, that she is strong and can endure, that she will make it through, and that God has for her the spirit of Rachel, or Deborah, or Esther, or Ruth. He wants to use her for His glory, and He wants to train her, to temper her like a sword that must be placed in the fire and then in cold water so that it acquires strength and resilience. And God puts us through it.

Why? Because He is not interested only in that. Brothers and sisters, if God gave us only good things, how would we develop the virtues of Christ—patience, faith, hope, and endurance amid trials and difficulties? How could we counsel a young person who is saying, “Oh, I don’t know what is going to happen with my life, and I’m—I don’t know whether I’m going to graduate from high school,” or whatever it may be, and you tell him: “No, young man, I went through situations just like yours. I also doubted my own identity when I was your age, and God brought me through. He took me through fire and water, and here I am. The same thing will happen with you. Do not worry; God has good plans”? How can we do those things if we ourselves have not also been afflicted?

So God allows many things in a person’s life, and as we have said so many times, sometimes afflictions, trials, and crucifixions are God’s plan for strengthening us and preparing us so He can use us.

God is not as interested in your being comfortable as He is in your being powerful for His use, an instrument in His hands. Remember that, and when you are going through trials, tell yourself: God is preparing me; He is strengthening me; He wants to use me for His Glory. Amen? Just as He wanted to use these disciples.

Thirdly—and this is similar, but not the same—God wants not only your benefit, but also your progress, your growth. He is investing in you, and everything that happens in your life serves the purpose of making you more and more like Christ Jesus. That is what God wants most. He does not simply want to give you good things, and that is all; He also wants you to grow and become a powerful man or woman in God.

Fourth, we must enter the Gospel accepting everything God has for us, and even in the midst of the trial—or precisely in the midst of the trial—the risen Christ goes with us at all times. The apostle Peter says in First Peter, chapter 4: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share in Christ’s sufferings.”

When we are going through trials and difficulties, when life does not turn out the way we thought it would, when the narrative of our resurrection becomes more complicated and includes resurrections, remember that God wants you to share in Jesus’ experience; there is something mystical and mysterious in that fact. God does not want you to miss the privilege of suffering together with the Lord and of vindicating and validating His experience.

Paul says that we are called to complete the sufferings of Christ, and that often grace is released through those crucifixions. I believe, for example, that what has happened to these martyrs whom we have seen in the Middle East, and whom we have now seen in Africa on several occasions, mysteriously—we know that it is the devil who wants to steal, kill, and destroy, but God is using it. I believe that from those lives cut short in the Name of Jesus because they were Christians—they did not sign up for that when they accepted Christ—but mysteriously, the Bible says that the death of the martyrs is precious in the sight of God.

The Bible says that the death of the saints is precious in the sight of the Lord, and there is something about that shed blood that fills a cup and mysteriously releases blessing for humanity. The lives of those young people and those others were not poured out in vain. There is something very precious there. God was with them at that moment, you know? I believe there were angels there to usher them directly to the Throne of God—and us too, brothers and sisters.

When we suffer in Christ and for His glory, we are participating in something very precious. It says: “So that we may also rejoice with great joy at the revelation of His Glory.” Verse 14 of First Peter 4 says: “If you are reviled for the name of Christ”—I would also say: if you are tested, if you are put through agony and suffering for the Name of Christ—“know that you are blessed, because the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.”

My brother, my sister, I want to tell you that when you are going through a trial and a difficulty and believe that you cannot go on any longer, that you do not have enough strength, I want to tell you that in a way you cannot understand, Christ is there. The glorious Spirit of the Lord rests upon your life, and God is there to tell you: Keep going; do not give up, because you are almost at the point of victory. God will be there with you, just as He was with the disciples.

Those two men were going to Emmaus defeated, disappointed, and broken, returning to their ordinary lives after having had great hopes. And they did not know that the Lord Himself was beside them, informing them and explaining things to them. When you are going through difficulties, when crucifixion comes and you were not expecting it, speak with the Holy Spirit. Just as these two men spoke, the Holy Spirit will be asking you: What do you think about this? Why do you think this is happening to you? What did you expect was going to happen? What can you discover about what I have for you?

The Lord will be with you. The Lord will walk with you on the road to Emmaus. That is why I believe this is so important. Because in one sense, we are now on the road to Emmaus, or we are in Emmaus; we are in the normal course of life, but the risen Christ is there with you and with me.

Remember tomorrow, when you go to work again, the Lord will be with you in the factory, in the office, at school, at home while you wash the dishes. The Lord will be speaking with you. If you are going through tribulations or trials, if life has not given you everything you expected, if your marriage is not working the way you want, if your finances are not everything you desire, if your body is not as healthy as you thought it would be when you were eighteen years old, do not worry. The Lord says: I am glorifying Myself in all of that. I am risen within you. I live within you. I am using every process in your life to create for Myself a powerful man, a powerful woman. Enter into My plan and give Me time to reveal the perfect plan I have for you.

And what is interesting is that these disciples, enlightened by the risen Lord, return to Jerusalem to share with the other disciples that the Lord has risen. And we have to do the same thing when we leave here: we are going to share with others the drama and the good news of the Resurrection.

I would like us, next year when we are here on Resurrection Sunday, to have to hold three services instead of only two, so that the harvest may be greater. Do you know that can happen? Do you know that God can use someone like you, like me—ordinary people, a homemaker, a student, a factory worker, a taxi driver, an ordinary young person? God can use you to share the news of a Christ who lives within you and who is risen.

Share your experiences. Share the work God is doing in your life. Share your vitality in the face of trials and difficulties, and let them see a man, a woman, who trusts in their God and trusts that God is at work in their drama. Invite them to come to Church.

That is why God included this passage, because this passage is for ordinary people, common people—not the great Peter, not the great John, not the great James, who were going to write Epistles and other things. No. Two ordinary, simple evangelical men, and the Lord took the time to enlighten them, equip them, and then send them out to share the account of salvation.

Do not think too little of yourself, my brother, my sister. The risen Christ wants you to be a bearer of His message to others. Become someone who is a radical Christian. I encourage you this year to speak, to testify about what God has done and is doing in your life, and to bring others. The Lord wants to use you too. He wants you to go and say: You know what? I thought He had not, but the Lord has risen. The Lord is in my life. The Lord has a purpose. He is working in me. He has good things for me, and He has them for you too. Hallelujah! Glory to the Name of the Lord.