April 19, 2026 - Third Sunday of Easter - Luke 24:13-35

The few weeks that passed after Jesus’ resurrection must have been pretty chaotic. These days we have tvs and the internet. We have international news organizations that are out in the field looking for anything important to report on. You can watch and read the news all day, every day, if you really want to. Even with all of that, we still have plenty of trouble with news reports that cite bad sources. Journalists that give superficial and misleading stories. People who jump the gun, reporting the news before important details are even known, and different people reporting the same story, but coming to wildly different conclusions. All of that can make it hard to know what’s really going on.

Journalism as a career wasn’t really something anyone did back in the Roman era. Still, news has always gotten around. People have always been eager to share some tidbit with people they know. These days, dedicated individuals can scour through news reports and internet records to independently verify most stories that come up, if they really want to. That sort of thing just isn’t possible back in those days. It was word-of-mouth or nothing at all. You just had to trust that the guy who shared the news knew what he was talking about, and he had to trust the guy who told him. If, at any point, something gets misunderstood, then, like in the kids’ game “telephone,” everything after that is going to be all out of whack.

Just before our Gospel reading for today, there’s the scene with the women at the tomb. The women see the angels keeping watch over the empty tomb and hear the glorious message that Jesus did die, but now has risen. They rush off to tell the other disciples the wonderful news, but already there’s some doubt. Maybe it’s because men and women just operate on different wavelengths, maybe it’s because the disciples couldn’t fathom the possibility that Jesus was somehow alive again, whatever the case, the disciples more or less blow off the news report. But, something gets Peter, and John too, as his gospel explains, curious enough to check it out. They do what they can to independently verify the report. They don’t find any angels. All they find is an empty tomb, along with the linen that once had wrapped Jesus’ body, now sitting in a neat pile. Luke’s gospel doesn’t walk us through it, but there are the other peculiar details as well. The stone is very evidently not where it was, nor are there any mean looking Roman guards standing outside. It’s possible that there is some very logical explanation for all of this, but any reason you might come up with for someone to buy off Roman officials or guards, move the stone, steal a very dead body, and still take the time to fold up all of the grave clothes ends up sounding like its own brand of nonsense.

It’s clear from the reading today that the news report still circulates. No one seems to know what to make of it. We don’t know precisely who these two disciples are who are walking down the road. The Twelve who accompany Jesus are the ones we typically refer to as disciples, but that’s because they are the ones Jesus has formally and directly called to be disciples. There are many more who count themselves as Jesus’ followers. They may not make it a full time job, but they aren’t called to in the same way the Twelve were.

It doesn’t matter so much who they were. It’s not as if any of the disciples, the Twelve, now Eleven, didn’t really believe the story themselves. Why would we expect anyone else to do better? There they are, walking down the road. They aren’t in a big hurry to make sense of things. Why should they be? It’s all crazy talk anyway. Still, it gives them something to talk about as they walk. Maybe someone will figure it all out. I’m sure they’d like the story to be true, but, for now, it’s too strange to be believable.

Suddenly, as they’re walking, Jesus somehow just shows up. He’s walking along with them, talking about recent events, as people do. Along the way, he helpfully unpacks things for them and helps them to make sense of the strange tale. Yeah, it does sound crazy, until you start working your way through Scripture and seeing the crazy things God has done in the past to care for his people. Even though Jesus’ resurrection is unique in a number of ways, it isn’t as though it’s the first time someone has been brought back to life. You have a couple of them even just during Jesus’ ministry but those aren’t the first. Plagues, a flood, stopping the sun in the sky, all kinds of things God has done that would be entirely beyond belief if not for eyewitnesses to these events.

Still, people make up crazy stories all the time, and it’s not as if the Romans were known for being slackers when it came to this sort of thing. They were very skilled at putting people to death. What are they to make of the reports?

Unlike some of the stories in the gospels that shows the disciples as being bumbling and rather dense, I feel like this story is one that most people can empathize with a bit more. Would you really be any different? I’d like to think I was a bit more open to the idea that Jesus might rise from the dead. I’d like to think I was a better scholar of the Bible and saw how this was part of the plan all along. But, I also see how no one really understood. God had intended to keep the whole thing a bit of a mystery. Like a stage magician who sets out a top hat and a magic wand on a table, you expect him to do something, but you won’t know what it is until it’s all done. Now Jesus is making his big reveal. The slight of hand happened and no one saw how the trick was done. Satan thought he had Jesus in the bag, but found himself caught instead.

Jesus has already risen from the dead. He has already died for the sins of the world. These big, world changing, history changing events have already taken place. Salvation is already possible because of what Jesus has done. Eternal life is already a possibility because of what Jesus has done. Yet, here we are, with a story about two sad men walking down the road.

I think there’s another reason why it’s so easy to put ourselves in their position. Compared to the scale of what Jesus had just accomplished, their problems must seem pretty tiny. They’re just two guys, two guys wrestling with doubt and uncertainty, but still just two guys. With all that Jesus had already done, why would he feel the need to take time out of his busy day to hang out with these two? They aren’t anything extraordinary. Their problems aren’t remarkable. They’re just a couple of ordinary guys with ordinary life problems. They aren’t special.

Or at least, so it would seem. Jesus thinks these two ordinary men and their ordinary problems are absolutely worth his time. He is happy to take time out of his busy schedule being God and the savior of all mankind to share an evening walk with two sad men. Jesus didn’t come just to save everyone. He also came to save you. Jesus doesn’t just come to deal with the biggest, most terrifying threats. He also deals with the everyday, ordinary ones.

We don’t like bothering God with mundane problems. Sometimes it’s because we think we can handle things just fine on our own, thank you very much, and we don’t really need God’s help. But there are other times when we run into trouble and we can’t handle it. Still, we don’t bother bringing it to God’s attention. It isn’t war. It isn’t even someone wasting away from a horribly painful and incurable cancer. I’m just sad. I’m having a rough day. I’m feeling frazzled. I’m not too sure about the future. The aches and pains of growing old are starting to make things a bit more difficult. Whatever it is, we just don’t bother God with the little trivialities, and often he doesn’t even come to mind when we try and deal with them.

As I said, Jesus didn’t come just to forgive the sins of the whole world. He also came to forgive your sins. Each individual sin is forgiven. Each individual debt is paid. Every moment of sad, every feeling of guilt, every heartbreak, every ache and pain, every consequence of sin that afflicts us, all of it was on his mind as Jesus went to the cross. No problem was too great, nor were any of them too minor for him to deal with.

By thinking our lives and our problems are beneath his notice, we end up putting limits on his love. “God cannot possibly love me so much that he’d be willing to deal with this little problem.” But he does. He loves you enough to give his own life for you.

Every sin, no matter how big or how seemingly minor, he’ll forgive. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a high powered CEO or a homebound widow. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve negotiated peace deals with foreign nations or you’re just a kid trying to deal with grade school. God loves you. There is no problem you have that he doesn’t want to hear about. There is no situation you face that he doesn’t think about. He wants to hear from you. He wants to care for you in big ways, in little ways, and everything in between.

Jesus invites the whole world to his house to share in the celebration of his resurrection, but he also invites you. It brings him joy when you show up here and he gets to tell you again how much he loves you and how much he’s looking forward to spending eternity watching as you enjoy the wonders of his perfect creation, created specifically with you in mind.

Two men were walking down the road, saddened by recent events and uncertain of the future. Jesus could have left them to sort it out. Maybe they would have figured it out. Maybe they’d have forgotten all about it. He could have left them, but he didn’t. Jesus isn’t just the savior for big problems, but for all problems, even your problems, big or small.

Don’t hesitate to come to him with any sin you have on your conscience, any grief that clouds your heart, any anger, any worry, any frustration that weighs you down. Hear again how much he loves you and what he does for you, not just in eternity, but every day.