Freedom

They had not asked for resurrection, they had not expected resurrection, they could not see resurrection in Jesus until he did the actions of taking, blessing, breaking, and sharing the bread of the Meal with them.

Until then, they were locked in their prison of despair.

Until then, they were captive to their old expectations.

Until then, they could not see any new way to move ahead.

The scoffers across the centuries have always said that all of this resurrection-business is wishful thinking,

that the disciples simply wanted the resurrection so much that they squeezed their eyes tightly and convinced themselves that it was so.

But none of the scripture passages about the resurrection even remotely suggest that the disciples thought about or were expecting anything of the sort.

As far as any of them knew, the events of Good Friday were a dead end, stone-cold dead.

“Are you the only one who hasn't heard about what happened in Jerusalem?” they ask the stranger on the road.

Their walking companion then “opens the scriptures” to them, that is,

he goes through the Old Testament and points out the connections of the Lord's promises and Israel's old hopes with himself.

Their hearts are warmed, and finally things become clear

when the stranger does what Jesus regularly did at mealtime

and what he transformed at the Last Supper by connecting the beginning of this meal with his life.

“It was Jesus himself with whom we were conversing!” they exclaim.

That was back then; what about us here and now?

Have we noticed that the entire event as we spoke and sang about it moments ago is the same shape as our gathering for worship today?

Every week we list the headlines of the four sections of the worship service as Gathering, Word, Meal, and Sending.

And that is exactly what has happened in this story.

Jesus meets together with the disciples who are weary from the struggles of life.

Jesus opens the scriptures to them as they listen carefully.

Jesus takes, blesses, breaks, and shares the bread and cup with them, giving thanks to the Father.

Jesus then has wrought such a change in them that they are bubbling over in excitement to tell the others about what they have experienced.

There are the four sections of our worship service, right in order!

It is purposefully designed to follow the model of this story; it is the way in which God releases us from our old kinds of bondage, and frees us for new life that is lived in enduring hope.

Easter is not about Jesus escaping from death's prison and leaving us behind to rot.

Rather, Easter is about Jesus breaking down the doors of that old gaol and reaching out to grab hold of us and pull us out of it as well.

Remember the icon that we have in front of us at every funeral shows Jesus doing just that; stepping on the broken doors of death's portal and giving his hand to Adam and Eve, as representatives of us all.

In Western art, Albrecht Durer [who lived at the time of Luther], has a marvelous woodcut which illustrates the same point: Jesus bends over to grasp Adam's arm while in the background Satan in the form of a fiery dragon lurks menacingly, but now impotently.

Freedom! Here is true freedom....not that we have gotten away from all of the troubles, but that Jesus comes to us in the midst of the troubles and defeats them, keeping them from overwhelming us.

Christ Jesus has not rejected us, he does not condemn us even in our complicit participation in the crucifixion, he does not abandon us to our own broken cleverness.

Instead, he returns to us, yes, even to us who have been his betrayers.

William Willimon phrases it this way: “Unimagined, unsought, he rises from the dead and comes to us.

We do not come to him through our good works, our imaginings and creative fantasies of who God ought to be for us.

He comes to us, thus revealing who God is.

God is not simply raised from the dead, but is God raised... for us,” for our ultimate freedom.

Poking around in the background of the words that the Bible-writers use can yield important insights.

In our Second Lesson today, 1 Peter uses the phrase “you were ransomed [by Christ] from your futile ways...”

The Greek word used for ransomed is a form of the word one would use to talk about what happens when a slave's freedom is purchased from a slave-master.

Christ has paid the price to set us free!

Johannes Tauler was a Dominican and mystic in 14^th century Germany.

He wrote about his experience with freedom this way:

One day he said to a beggar he met, “God give you a good day, my friend.”

“I thank God that I never had a bad day,” replied the beggar.

Tauler was silent a moment and then said “God give you a happy life, my friend.”

And the beggar answered, “I thank God that I am never unhappy.”

Now Tauler was nonplussed.

“Never unhappy,” he said, “What do you mean?”

“Well' the beggar replied,

“when it is fine, I thank God;

when it rains, I thank God;

when I have plenty, I thank God;

when I am hungry, I thank God;

and since God's will is my will, and whatever pleases him, pleases me, why should I say that I am unhappy when I am not?”

Tauler was now in awe of his new friend. “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am a king,” said the beggar.

“A king!” said Tauler, half ready to believe it.

“Where is your kingdom?”

The man in rags spoke calmly, and strongly, “In my heart,” he whispered. “In my heart.”

That beggar, in spite of his poor circumstances, knew the true freedom of Christ being with him.

He was so at peace with God, or, rather, he knew that God had reached out with peace for him,

that the world in all of its harshness could not disturb that connection.

“Into your hands I commit my spirit,” said Christ in peace from the cross. [Luke 23:46]

“Rejoice in the Lord always,” says Paul, “Do not worry about anything...and the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” [Philippians 4:4-7]

“You have been born anew...through the living and enduring Word of God,” adds Peter. [1 Peter 1:23]

In the Passover Seder we share four toasts of wine, one to each of four different aspects of the story.

The third toast is the cup of salvation, when God says “I will redeem you.” [Exodus 6:6]

Together we say: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit fo the vine.” and the leader adds the cheer: “To the praise of God's salvation!”

And then the fourth and final toast is the cup of hope.

The leader says, “Blessed be God, the source of all hope and the God of all consolation,” and adds the cheer: To the hope that next year all might be free.”

Even better than what could have ever been imagined, this is what we know now in the resurrected Lord Jesus; here is the source of hope, the best consolation, and true freedom....

because Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.