Q4, S08 Emmaus

Question 12:

Do You Love Me?

Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection are undoubtedly the climax of the storyline of the Gospels. But they are not quite the end of the story. The Gospels end with a few extra stories that help us see what it looks like to be a disciple in the wake of the crucifixion and resurrection. This is great news for us, because following Jesus does not look for us exactly as it looked for the original disciples. They followed Jesus around physically; we have never seen Jesus in person. They followed Jesus as he marched toward the cross; we follow Jesus on the basis of what he accomplished on the cross. They couldn’t fathom the concept of the resurrection; we live in a fundamentally different place because the resurrection changes everything about our world.

We will conclude our year-long study by asking ourselves the question that Jesus asked Peter after his betrayal: Do you love me? This might seem to be a better starting place than an ending place. Shouldn’t we have been asking this question at the very beginning of this study? This would have made a great beginning, but it’s also vital to conclude here. Why? Because loving Jesus is the whole point. It’s been the goal of the entire journey. For everything the disciples learned and all the ways they grew, they could never get beyond this simple point: loving Jesus is the beginning, middle, and end of it all.

So we have to ask ourselves in all seriousness: Do I love Jesus? No question could matter more.

Tool: The Sheep

Our final tool for our Twelve study is the sheep. This may seem like a strange visual for the question of whether or not we love Jesus, but it comes from Jesus’ interaction with Peter. Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved him. Each time, Peter affirmed that he did in fact love Jesus. And each time, Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep.

The picture of the sheep, then, reminds us of what it means to love Jesus. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. So loving Jesus means joining him in his mission. He came to seek and to save the lost sheep. His heart was to find and care for the sheep. Peter was one of those sheep. So when he ran away from Jesus during the crucifixion, Jesus found and restored him. And a major part of restoring Peter was calling him to feed the sheep as well.

Remember that Jesus started his ministry to the disciples by calling them to be fishers of men. He left them with the Great Commission: go into all the world and make disciples. And here, he calls Peter to feed the sheep. Our love for Jesus should lead us into continued discipleship of the people he has placed around us. In pursuing the people God has placed around us, we will find a unique connection with Jesus. Our love for him always flows to the people around us.

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Quarter 4, Session 8: Emmaus

WILL YOU RECOGNIZE ME?

Passage

Luke 24:13–49

Concept

This session falls under Jesus’ twelfth question: Do you love me? After Jesus’ resurrection, his disciples are left to wrestle with what it all means. Luke ends his Gospel with this story about Jesus appearing to some of his disillusioned disciples. These encounters give us an example of what it means to rebuild our faith and connection to Jesus after our faith has been shattered in some sense.

Key Question

What needs to be rebuilt in your faith and/or in your life right now? Where do you believe God is working in this building or rebuilding process even now?

The Sheep Tool

Do you see our Sheep tool being played out in Luke 24:13–49? With whom? How so?

Emmaus

Have you ever been 100% certain of something and then later realized you were wrong? Maybe this happens when you’re deciding on the best way to get somewhere, or when you’re recounting a story that happened a while ago, or when you’re predicting the way a certain person will respond to a specific situation. Regardless of the situation, it’s disconcerting to feel certain of something and then to discover that you were wrong. The impact of this kind of realization varies depending on how significant the point in question is.

For Jesus’ followers just after his crucifixion, they were experiencing a major crisis of faith. They had given their lives to following Jesus, believing that he was the one who would bring life and transformation to Israel. And after investing in Jesus’ ministry for years, he had just been killed. If anything could have proven that they had been wrong about Jesus, surely it was the moment when he was executed as a criminal. Where could their faith go from there?

As we know, this was not the end of the story. Yes, Jesus died. But he actually conquered even death by coming out on the other side. Yet as Jesus’ followers began to learn about the resurrection, we find that—understandably—this was difficult for them to accept. They were excited, but their joy was tempered. They investigated, but cautiously. And in the end of Luke’s Gospel story, we find that his disciples even had a difficult time recognizing him when he appeared to them.

1.     Read Luke 24:13–49. Right off the bat, what strikes you about this passage? What do you find interesting or challenging or confusing?

Rebuilding When Your Faith Has Let You Down

Luke recounts the story of two disciples leaving Jerusalem after Jesus’ crucifixion. As we can imagine, the disciples had been devastated when Jesus was executed. In the beginning of Luke 24, however, they began to realize that Jesus had not remained dead. A few of the female disciples had seen Jesus and run to tell the others. They weren’t exactly quick to believe that Jesus was really alive.

As these two disciples left Jerusalem on their way to Emmaus, they were discussing all of the things that had just happened. What did it all mean? How could they have been so wrong about Jesus? Could any of the rumors about the resurrection actually be true? What was going to happen next? The wording used to describe their discussion hints that their conversation may have been heated. In any case, we can imagine that trying to sort all of this out was not easy, and disagreement would have been likely. Who could have imagined that Jesus would have died and then returned from the grave?

This conversation encourages us to pause in the midst of our own processing of Jesus. After all we’ve seen in this study of the life and ministry of Jesus, leading up to his death and now resurrection, how are we wrestling with this? Are we confident that we understand all of what has happened with Jesus, or might we need to wrestle with the implications? Have we really seen what we thought we saw? Did we miss anything?

These two disciples were having this discussion immediately after their faith had been shattered. In essence, this conversation was the first step toward rebuilding their faith. What would it look like to relate to Jesus once again after everything had seemed lost?

2.     Have you ever experienced a time when your faith was shattered or overshadowed? What caused it? What was this like?

3.     Were you able to rebuild your faith after this? What was that like?

Recognizing Jesus

One remarkable feature of this story is that as the disciples talked, Jesus walked up and joined their conversation, yet they failed to recognize him. It’s difficult to understand how they could have misidentified Jesus, so it’s possible that something supernatural was happening. But in any case, these disciples were talking about Jesus with Jesus, and they didn’t see him for who he truly was.

Does that seem crazy? It would appear that recognizing Jesus is sometimes more difficult than we think. Sure, we’d all assume we would recognize Jesus if he were standing right before us, but don’t be so sure. These disciples knew Jesus, yet they didn’t know it was him. There is something elusive about Jesus.  

But while the disciples didn’t recognize Jesus, they found him compelling. When they reached their home and Jesus prepared to travel on, they invited him to stay. When they realized who Jesus really was, they both affirmed that their hearts had been burning as they spoke to him. It seems they were drawn to him, though they couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

Putting these two concepts together, there is something about Jesus that always draws people in, but he always looks a little different than we expect him to. As we should anticipate by now, however, though Jesus differs from what we expect, he is always so much better than we knew to hope for. Think of what the Jews of Jesus’ day were looking for in their king. They wanted a king to conquer Rome, but they got a king who conquered death. They wanted a physical power that would overcome their enemies, but Jesus instead showed them the power of self-sacrificing love, which overcomes hatred and evil. These disciples wanted Jesus to stand physically beside them, but Jesus instead gave them the Holy Spirit to live within them. Their expectations were not exactly met, but they were far exceeded.

The same is true of us as we encounter Jesus. We want him to fix our problems, but he instead gives us patience and strength to make us grow in the midst of our trials. We want Jesus to provide for us but instead he sends us to provide for others. We want proof that he is real, but instead he gives us faith. Jesus rarely hits our expectations exactly, but we can see that he goes far beyond what we could think to ask.

4.     Have you ever encountered Jesus after initially having a hard time recognizing him in a specific situation? How did you finally recognize him?

Dawning Recognition

The disciples finally did recognize Jesus, but the timing of their recognition is interesting. We might expect them to recognize Jesus as he delivered a strong sermon, or as he taught about the nature of the Old Testament, or as he performed some sort of miracle. But it wasn’t these things that allowed the disciples to recognize Jesus. What was the moment of recognition? It was seeing Jesus break bread. This was somehow characteristic of Jesus in a way that other things weren’t. When they sat down to share a meal and Jesus blessed and broke the bread, they recognized who he really was. What would you say is the most defining characteristic of Jesus? It would seem that for these disciples, it was sharing a meal. It wasn’t about the teaching or doctrine. It was about the relationship they shared with him. When they sat down to eat with him, they recognized him.

We also get a glimpse of this earlier in the story where Jesus explained how all of the Scriptures point to himself, and later in the story when Jesus opened their eyes to understand the Scriptures. What was the dramatic reveal when they finally saw what the Bible had been all about? He showed how all of Scripture points to him. Not to the law. Not to morality. He is and always was the point of it all. We can’t understand the Law or the Bible or Theology without Jesus at the center. He is the point. So we should expect to recognize him in relationship more readily than in theology lessons.

As we process what we have experienced with Jesus, it’s encouraging to recognize that when Jesus opened the disciples’ minds to understand the Old Testament, this would have been the first moment that Israel understood its own history. For thousands of years, they had been living, struggling, following, hurting, and stumbling forward. But they didn’t know how all of the pieces fit together until Jesus explained to his disciples how all of the pieces fit. Everything had an answer and an explanation, but no one knew until Jesus revealed it. The same is true with each of us on our own journeys. We stumble on without a clue as to how it all comes together. But the day is coming when we will stand before Jesus and he will show how it all comes together in him.

5.     What needs to be rebuilt in your faith and/or in your life right now?

6.     Where do you believe God is working in this building or rebuilding process even now?

7.     Take stock of your journey with Jesus. Where would you say you’re at in this journey? What progress have you made, and where do you think you need to go next?

8.     Spend some time in prayer. Thank God for the resurrection and the new life you receive from it. Pray that you would be enabled to recognize Jesus in all the places he’s working right now.

Key Question

What needs to be rebuilt in your faith and/or in your life right now? Where do you believe God is working in this building or rebuilding process even now?