An Easter Recipe for Holy Heartburn

Luke 24:13-35
Easter
April 20, 2025
William G. Carter

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 

 

Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

 

Happy Easter, everybody! This is our big day.

I can imagine a church deciding to do something about that. They pool their resources to rent a billboard. The message goes up for a month before the holy day. “Come to our church and see that Easter is true and Jesus is alive!” Then they train the ushers to be super friendly, plan for good food at coffee hour, and start the countdown. The sign is in a prominent location. Thousands of cars pass by every day. There’s hope that the building will be full of fresh faces. 

And when the day comes, attendance is the same as it was last year and the year before that. Worried that they wasted money on advertising, a huddle forms in the back of Fellowship Hall. Why didn’t we see more visitors? Should we have used brighter colors on the sign? Should we have left the photo of the pastor off the billboard?

Nobody can say. Until one seasoned choir member says, “In all my years, I’ve never known a billboard to make more believers.” She has a point.

There’s something about Easter faith that cannot be flashed up on a sign. We can’t prove the resurrection by posting a picture of an empty tomb. Something else has to happen. Something that the Gospel of Luke is telling us some fifty years after the raising of Jesus.

All four Gospels tell us that it took a while for the Easter announcement to sink in. Mark says the women went to anoint the body of Jesus with burial spices. They ran away terrified and didn’t say anything to anybody. Matthew says the Roman guards were bribed to say the body was stolen; the lie was told for many years. John says there was confusion and tears. One of those closest to Jesus declared, “I won’t believe it until I can put my finger in the nail holes.”[1]

Luke adds a pathetic note of his own. The women return to tell the disciples what an angel told them, that Jesus had to be delivered into the hands of sinners, be crucified, and raised on the third day. Their report is dismissed as nonsense, an idle tale, a curiosity. It’s no wonder that a billboard won’t get anybody to church on Easter Sunday. The news is a lot to take in.

So, Luke tells us about two of Christ’s followers walking away from the whole event. Naturally, they are talking about their disappointment. They had hoped Jesus was the Messiah, but the Messiah was never supposed to die. They hoped Jesus would chase out the Roman army, but the soldiers presided over his crucifixion. They hoped what they heard the women say was true, that the tomb had been opened, and the body wasn’t there. Yet as they told a stranger about it, they scratched their heads and admitted they didn’t know what to think.

But this stranger seems to know his Bible. He says, “Wasn’t it necessary the Messiah should suffer?” That was something they never thought about. They assumed it was all glory, more glory, and victory. Yet in a world like this, God’s ways are resisted. God’s teachings are broken. God’s messengers are rejected. It happened to Moses. It happened to the prophet Samuel. It happened to Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, right down to the present day. “It’s all in the Bible,” he said. It doesn’t mean the Messiah wasn’t the Messiah; it simply means the Messiah never expected an easy time of it.

At this, Luke says the two followers of Jesus began to have heartburn. Not because they had eaten something spicy, but they knew this is the truth about we are and how we push God away. The Bible is a big thick book. It says a lot of things. One of the prevailing themes is how good God is, how righteous God is, and how hard it is for human beings to be around such goodness and righteousness. We want it, but we don’t want it, and no Easter billboard will quickly change anybody’s mind.

It was a long lesson. The three of them were walking seven miles, says Luke. That’s about a two hour walk if you’re talking and the terrain is flat. From the sounds of it, the Bible teacher filled up most of that time. The two arrived at their destination. The teacher was going on – but they said, “It’s getting late. Stay with us.” And we heard what happened: he took the bread, blessed, broke it, and gave it to them. They realized it was Jesus. Then he disappeared.

And with that, they hustled back seven miles to Jerusalem in the dark. They had to tell the disciples whom they had seen – even though they could not now see him. They told what he had said – and how it put everything in perspective. And they told them how they knew he was alive – it happened in the breaking of the bread.

Now, let’s take a couple of minutes to unpack this. There are a few reasons why this is a critical Easter story.

First, Easter is easy to miss. It’s just out of sight. None of us were there to see the empty tomb. Of course, we’ve heard about it. Today we sing about it. But there is no assurance the message that Jesus is alive will lodge in our souls. In fact, it might ricochet off us like an acorn bouncing off a turtle shell. We can never judge those who do not believe. After all, every single Easter story reports some were not sure.

So, it’s OK to admit our own uncertainty. To confess our unfinished faith. Some days faith is strong, other days it’s not. That’s the nature of faith. It doesn’t mean the things we’ve been told are not true. Only that we don’t see them. And we are all on the road. Faith is a journey. All of us have a way to go.

Second, faith can be awakened by discussing scripture. That’s how it is on the road to Emmaus. Reading scripture is important, but talking with others about it is what sinks into the soul. The Bible is a collection of field reports of where God has been heard and what God has done. You and I weren’t there when any of that happened. But when we read what others have said about the works of God, the character of God, of the love and justice of God, a picture begins to form.

When we talk to one another about it, we come to some clarity. We build a consensus. What Cleopas and his companion discover is there is a truth behind their trauma. Jesus was good, and they loved him. Jesus was crucified for doing good, and it tore them up. And the stranger says, “Wasn’t it necessary for him to suffer, just as the prophets did?” They begin to nod their heads in recognition. They remember what it is like to live for God in a world like this.

Third, the Bible prepares us to catch a glimpse of the Christ who lives again. It’s good to hear the Bible. It’s good to discuss the Bible. But Jesus is more than a character in the Bible. He is alive. He is no longer bound by history. He is always in the present tense. We see the evidence in the little game he plays with these two disciples seven miles out of Jerusalem. He takes the bread, blesses, breaks it, and gives it to them.

Wait, wait, wait. Just like the Last Supper! Just like the time he fed the multitude in the wilderness! And they see him. They know him. They cannot hold on to him, which is fine. He has places to go, people to see, illnesses to heal, multitudes to feed, sinners to restore, a world to run, and a universe to rule. You can’t pin him down because he is no longer bound to the tomb, no longer confined to the Holy Land, no longer stuck in the past. Jesus is alive. He is perpetually in the present tense. And for us, there are moments when this becomes crystal clear.

Can you think of those moments for you?

·       Maybe somebody you loved was sick, desperately sick, and somehow, they got better.

·       Or maybe somebody you loved was slipping away, and you recognized they were going to be in better hands than your own.

·       Maybe life was unraveling for you and then you got a second chance.

·       Maybe you were swirling in a moral tornado, turning every which way, when things became clear, you knew there is a right and wrong, and life needed to change.

·       Maybe you were struggling to find some purpose in your life – and then your purpose found you.

·       Or maybe you crawled through some trauma until an internal switch clicked, and you knew the old trauma no longer needed to define you. 

All are signs that Jesus is alive, that he is with us. We do not see him, but we can know him. And Luke reminds us in all his writing that the scriptures help us understand who Jesus is, what he has been through, and what he continues to do.

One of my professors was a guy named Jim Loder. He taught Christian Education theory, but his specialty was teaching us how to spot Jesus when he comes. He loved this story of the road to Emmaus. He used to say this is the moment where it all comes together. Two disappointed disciples discover Jesus is alive through the “breaking of the bread.”

Now, what does that mean? Communion? Feeding the five thousand? Some other meal? Dr. Loder said, “Let’s talk about the bread. When was the last time Jesus had some bread? It was when he said, ‘This is my body, broken on the cross.’ The bread is Jesus’ own symbol for his crucifixion, now held by his resurrected Presence” – and he gives it to them. His brokenness is united with theirs. He gives it to them as the One who lives, so that now they might live, and live abundantly. When they see this, it’s enough. Jesus doesn’t need to stick around, and they don’t need him to stay visible. The miracle of Easter has happened in them, and they have people to tell.[2]

As Dr. Loder said to us – and it’s true for all matters of faith - “Once you’ve wised up, you can’t wise down.”

Friends, Jesus Christ is risen. He is no longer confined to a place long ago. He can draw near us, and we don’t recognize him. He can open the scriptures in a way that our hearts will burn. In the power of his resurrection, he breaks the bread and puts it into our hands. And should we see him, we know that nothing will ever be the same ever again.

(c) William G. Carter. All rights reserved.

---

[1] Mark 16:8, Matthew 28:13-15, John 20:25.

[2] Adapted from James E. Loder, The Transforming Moment, (Colorado Springs: Helmers & Howard, 1989), 121.