Open your eyes!

“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 recognised him, and he vanished from their sight.” (Luke 24:30-31)

I’ve cut to the climax here of the ‘Road to Emmaus’ story in the Gospel of Luke, which has to be the weirdest account of any of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances.

Jesus appears on the day of the resurrection to two otherwise unknown disciples. We don’t even know the name of one of them, and we’re not exactly sure where Emmaus was either – the town they were apparently journeying to. Even so, we know that it was Jesus who met them on that road, even though at first they didn’t know who it was.

According to Luke, the risen Jesus came alongside these two disciples while they were walking – unrecognised and uninvited, and it’s not obvious why they didn’t recognise Him. Did Jesus look different after His resurrection, or were the disciples so locked inside their grief that they weren’t able to see who was in front of them? What we do know is that Jesus invites them to speak, and what pours out is a summary of their shattered expectations:

“Jesus of Nazareth, … a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, … 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.”
(Luke 24:19-21)

As we know from elsewhere in the Gospels, this was the popular perception of Jesus at the time – He was a prophet, perhaps Elijah come back, and perhaps He was even their long-awaited Messiah – the one who would ‘redeem Israel’.

As a younger man, I would read this and wonder why the penny never dropped with these people. Couldn’t they see that Jesus had come to save them from their sins and not just from Rome? Hadn’t Jesus told them that a thousand times?

Well … as I’ve read and re-read the Gospel texts over the years, I’ve come to appreciate that Jesus’ words and actions were often ambiguous, and I’ve also come to appreciate the power of communal narratives, such as the shared story of hope that these people had – of a coming Messiah who would liberate their people from foreign occupation.

Let’s imagine for a moment that we were living in Gaza right now, and we’d been made homeless and had seen friends and members of our families killed by the occupying forces, and someone told us that God had sent us a saviour. Our first thought would probably not be, ‘Thank goodness! I’ve been feeling burdened by my sins lately.”

The Jewish people of first-century Palestine were a conquered people, living under the Roman occupation, and it was a brutal occupation, just as the occupation of Palestine today is a brutal occupation. The Romans took your land, then they took your money, and they’d take your life too if you didn’t fully submit to the empire.

Jesus’ peers had been yearning for independence for generations, and biblical scholar Tom Wright says that by the time Jesus came on the scene, even the term ‘forgiveness of sins’ had become shorthand for ‘ending the occupation’.

This was most likely why the disciples had followed Jesus in the first place, and while Jesus did make repeated efforts to broaden their horizons, the hope for political independence remained the primary spiritual narrative of Jesus’ people, as seen in the very last last question the disciples ever asked Jesus, as recorded in Luke’s story of the ascension.

“Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)

After all the teaching Jesus gave them, that was the last question they asked Him! Was Jesus exasperated by the question? Of course not, any more than He’s exasperated today when I (and millions of others like me) keep asking Him, “When are you going to end the violence in Gaza and Lebanon and in Iran?”

I do believe that Jesus is in the business of liberating the oppressed, and I think we get Jesus completely wrong if we think He was dismissive of the political aspirations of his peers in the first century. Even so, Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God was clearly bigger and broader and more inclusive than their hopes for a restored Israel.

Jesus’ disciples would come to understand that, but 21^st-century Christians need to understand too that liberating the oppressed has always been fundamental to God’s agenda, and it still is.

Yes, we often get Jesus wrong, just as these two first-century disciples got Jesus wrong. They hadn’t really heard what Jesus had told them, and so they’d abandoned hope all too quickly. They hadn’t even waited around in Jerusalem for the story of their women to be verified. Even so, none of this stopped Jesus from approaching them!

The church, historically, has insisted that membership of the community of the faithful requires doctrinal precision. The creeds—the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian—lay out a long list of truths that we need to affirm if we want to be properly connected with God. Jesus, though, it seems, doesn’t begin with a creed. In this story, as in all of life, Jesus connects with us in our travels with little regard as to where we are on the journey. He walks with us when we are confused. He listens to our grieving. And then He joins us for a meal!

“He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him” (Luke 24:30-31)

We still struggle to understand Jesus. We always have. But misunderstanding has never been a barrier to grace. Jesus continues to walk with the confused, the disappointed, the oppressed and the uncertain. He continues to break bread with those who do not yet see clearly, and he still opens eyes!

The Emmaus story is not about two disciples who finally worked things out. It’s about a God who refuses to abandon his people even when they get him wrong, and so He connects with us still. Thanks be to God!

Our Sunday Eucharist

I felt we had an especially great Sunday Eucharist last weekend. Neither of my expected wingmen – Jake Pyeatt and Rev. John Jegasothy – was there, but we had Doug covering for Jake and Rob Gilland come in to cover for John.

Before you ask, Jake is fine and (thanks be to God) has not been deployed anywhere as yet by the US military, and John is fine too, though he was seeing a doctor at the time of our broadcast. John celebrated his 80^th birthday the night before (see the pic at the end of this post) and he hadn’t been well, so it was a lot to expect him to back up the next day. The spirit was willing, but the flesh said ‘no’!

Doug and Rob and I, nonetheless, made a good job of the Bible Banter with some exceptional input from the rest of the online team. I don’t remember the last time we had such a broad and vibrant discussion. We went way overtime, and AI Saint Paul didn’t even get a look in!

I’ve clipped our discussion on the first letter of Peter, chapter one, and posted it at the end of today’s newsletter. It’s only ten minutes long and well worth watching again, even if you’ve seen it already.

As usual, the two most popular shorts from th week are also pasted directly below, and you can see all our shorts on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page , and all our videos – long and short – on mt YouTube channel.

I’m very much looking forward to this coming Sunday’s broadcast and hope to have both Scotty Minchin and Pastor Eric Fistler with me on the panel. Eric, if you remember, is the co-host of the Pulpit Fiction podcast, which is now streaming live on their YouTube channel each Wednesday at 2:00 pm, Central Standard Time. Unfortunately, in Sydney that works out to 7:00 am on a Thursday morning, at which hour my brain hasn’t started working, even if I am awake. So, unless you’re a morning person, this is your best chance to connect with Eric.

Join us this Sunday as we go live at midday (Sydney time) on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia, Streamyard and TheSundayEucharist.com. Invite your friends by directing them to the Facebook event, give them the YouTube link, or direct them to the Streamyard registration page.

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What’s On?

Saturday, April 18th – Boxing at the Legends Gym in Kensington from 3 pm
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Friday to Sunday, April 24th to 26th– @Binacrombi Please join me.

t’s been an incredible week, with the US president caught in a self-destructive spiral towards oblivion. I’m just praying he doesn’t take too many of us down with him.

It’s hard to judge which of Mr Trump’s antics has been the craziest this week.

Blockading the Strait of Hormuz when the Iranians are already blockading it is like trying to get out of a jail cell by adding an extra lock to the cell door. It makes no sense. Even so, that seems relatively sane alongside the insults he has been throwing at both Christians and Muslims this last week in an apparent attempt to alienate more than half the world’s population!

It started with him using the ‘F’ word in a Truth Social post on Easter Sunday morning where he threatened to commit heinous war crimes by destroying Iran’s civilian infrastructure if they didn’t open the strait, and he concluded the post with a sarcastic “Praise be to Allah”.

One might suppose that the sequel to such an action would either be a public apology or (more likely) a redirection of blame to someone else. Instead, Mr Trump followed up by posting a graphic of himself as Jesus, healing the sick, after which he started publicly attacking the Pope!

All this did make me wonder whether the US president was deliberately trying to identify himself as the Antichrist, spoken of in the Book of Revelation, so I spent a bit of time going over the texts and summarised my thoughts in an article entitled, “Is Donald Trump the Beast of Revelation 13?“. You can read it here.

It all feels like the plot of a poorly written comic book, or perhaps Mr Trump is just doing what he does best and putting on an entertaining reality TV show? Even so, it’s only entertaining if you’re watching from a safe distance. Trump has killed so many men, women and children already, has cost billions of dollars, and could yet destroy us all. ‘Come on, Lord Jesus! Will you not at this time restore the kingdom?’

Let me finish with some good news:

Firstly, I mentioned Rev. John Jegasothy’s 80th birthday party that Joy and I had the privilege of attending last Saturday night. It was a beautiful event with a seemingly endless stream of people wanting to testify to how John had touched their lives. Thankfully, the organisers kept a tight limit on the time or we would have kept going till early morning! Congratulations, John. ❤️

Secondly, I’m heading to Binacrombi next weekend, and I would love to have some company. We’ve lost a staff member there recently. I’m praying he may find his way back to us, but, in the meantime, we’ll be needing extra help. If you’ve been thinking about getting more involved in a bush ministry, join me next weekend please.

Finally, I received today an official challenge from Wild Bill Kinbacher to another boxing match. Bill and I have fought twice, with one win each. I’ve officially had six professional boxing matches with only that one loss. I’m keen to set the record straight. I’ll post his challenge video below and keep you updated.

Finally, it was my privilege this week to be asked to sign “A Declaration to the Conscience of Humanity“, which is an appeal to thinkers, scholars, institutions of conscience, and advocates for justice across the world to bring an end to the violence being meted out on Iran and Lebanon. Read it here.

I’m signature no. 79 of the 175 wonderful people who were asked to sign, and I found it deeply encouraging to look through the names and see so many friends there – Tim Anderson, Stephen Sizer, Norman Finkelstein and so many more.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed by the forces opposing us, I think of some of the wonderful people who are fighting alongside us. God has not abandoned us! Even when I can’t make sense of what is happening, I know He too is with us in the battle!

Stay strong!

Your brother in the Good Fight,