Luke 24:13-34
It does not take long for us to discover the “Why” questions. Even young children have a long list of why questions. Why do I need to take a bath? Why do I need to brush my teeth? Why do I need to go to bed? Why do I need to get up? Why do I need to study? Why do I need to go to school? Etc. We adults have a list of why questions. Why did I take this job? Why didn’t I take that job? Why did I marry him in the first place? Why did I choose to marry her? Why did I buy this car? Why did I invest in that stock? Why did I buy this house? Why did I not stay in school? Why did I break away from my family? Why did I reject God’s plan for my life? Etc.
The truth is that the “why” questions gives life its puzzles. We have just finished putting together a thousand-piece puzzle. The title of the puzzle was “Coastal Sunrise” from a picture by the photographer Peter Doran. At times we would ask the why question, as we tried to put this puzzle together. The answer to this why question would unfold as we put the puzzle together. We started to gather the border pieces together, because until you have a border it is difficult to fit the other pieces in their right place. I started to try to put together the sky and clouds while Melissa worked on the ocean and sunrise in the middle of the puzzle. Then from time to time we would work on the bottom half of the puzzle that contained the beach scene with its sand and the small sand dunes with its sea grass and two wooden chairs and two wooden footstools. Now the shades and cuts of the pieces would make you ask the why questions. Why did we choose such a hard, big puzzle? The answer came at the completion of that puzzle. It is a beautiful picture of the world created for us to live in. Looking at the picture, the scene is restful from the busy world we have made for ourselves. It is the beauty of a sunrise over the ocean that is saying that God has blessed us with another day of life. These things are part of the blessings that God has given us. If we will stop our questions and give God His way, it shows the larger picture of life that resolves our why questions.
That first Easter two of Jesus followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. “As they walked along, they were talking about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. But God kept them from recognizing him.
He asked them, ‘What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?’
They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleophas, replied, ‘You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about the things that have happened there in the last few days.”
I want to pause from the scripture event for a moment and ask us to deal with some why questions. Why did Jesus appear to these followers? These two followers had seen Jesus and heard him preach and yet when Jesus joined them on the way home, they did not know it was Jesus. Why had they not heard what Jesus was saying to them, that he would die and rise on the third day? Why did they not know him when he joined them? Why do we have a hard time seeing the things that are right before us or up close to us?
From these two travelers Jesus would seek to know what they had believed about him. He asked about what had happened in Jerusalem that first Easter weekend. The two followers would tell him about Jesus, the man from Nazareth. They told him “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. But our leaders and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This happened three days ago. Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning and they came back with the amazing report. They said his body was missing and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! Some of our men ran out to see and sure enough his body was gone, just as the women had said.”
We come back to the why questions. Why was it hard to believe what Jesus had told them about the Father’s plan for their salvation from sin? Why is it hard for us to believe and have faith in the Father’s plan for our lives? It is the why questions that keep us from accepting God’s plan to restore us to His family. It is in our nature to think we have a lot of time to figure out who God is for us. William Shakespeare wrote this about time: ”There is a tide in affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in the shallows and in miseries.” The when question tells us it is now time for us to come into the faith that offers us real life. God’s grace, love, and forgiveness frees us from our miseries created by our rejection of God and the choices we make to live life with our own plan.
When we use our cowboys’ logic, we find why we have such a troubled life. “This is why about half our troubles come from wanting our way and the other half come from gitting it.” When we do not seek in faith to find the power of God that changes us from living life our way to living life God’s way we live with our miseries, fear and death.
Why do we think we don’t need a Savior? It is all about who has the real power. Linus builds a large number of snowmen. He stands in front of them and shouts, “I am your leader. If you will follow me you will be invincible and there is nothing that can stop us! No, nothing can stop us. Nothing. For we are the people with power.” Then the scene changes and we see bright sunshine and Linus is standing in front of melting mounds of snow.
We see how little power we have in the wake of what has happened to our lives from just a virus attack. We do not have the answer to life’s puzzling question unless we have faith in Jesus Christ.
The two walking to Emmaus came to faith when they invited Jesus into their home and he took bread and prayed with them. It was that holy wonderful moment when, in faith, they met Jesus and He was alive!
You can be alive also when you accept the power of Jesus to give you life. Then we join with Jesus in being alive. Then the pieces and broken picture of life become the beautiful whole life that Jesus gives to us in our faith in the cross and resurrection.
