Easter Monday - Devotions in Exile

Easter Monday - Devotions in Exile

The lection for Easter Monday:
Exodus 15:1-18
Acts 10:34-44
            And the specific text for our meditation below is the Gospel reading for this day:
Luke 24:13-35

Imagine the situation in Jerusalem and the surrounding region, especially as it has been – and is being – experienced by the followers, the disciples, of Jesus. Jesus had been arrested by temple soldiers, brought to a mock trial before the Chief Priests, dragged before Pilate, beaten, flogged, forced to carry a cross up Golgotha, was nailed to that cross, and there He died. He was placed into a tomb. After the sun had risen that Sunday morning, the first day of the week, women had gone and found the tomb empty. They came to the disciples and related to them what they discovered. Peter and John had run to the tomb and found it just as the women had told them.

Our text finds two of the rest, followers of Jesus, but not of the eleven (see 24:9), on the road to Emmaus. Cleopas is mentioned by name, this may indeed be the husband of Mary, as John 19:25 calls her “the wife of Clopas.” But this is Cleopas, not Clopas. It may be that the seeming discrepancy between Cleopas and Clopas is simply the difference between the Greek and Semitic versions of the same name. If this is the case, then this Cleopas is the brother of Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather.

They were discussing the events that had taken place. It is easy to imagine ourselves in their situation. The followers of Jesus were hoping the He was going to redeem Israel. It was their understanding of what it means to “redeem Israel” that is the problem. They were hoping that Jesus would redeem Israel in the same pattern as Moses and other Old Testament prophets, that Israel would be returned by Him to their glory as a nation set apart.

Jesus did redeem Israel – and all people – but not in that manner! Indeed, what He did was more glorious, and to those who believe upon His name, has an eternal redemptive nature.

We would also like God to “redeem us from this worldly situation.” We’d like God to end the global pandemic. We’d like God to heal my cancer. We’d like God to bring us out of debt. We’d like God to keep grandpa from dying.

So Jesus walks with these two men. He says to them (and as it is recorded for your reading, He is speaking to us), “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. (Lk. 24:25-27)

He explains that the entirety of Scripture, from Genesis to Malachi is all about Him. It is all about what God’s Christ must endure and suffer to enter into His glory. That these are the things that He must endure, so that they might enter into a new reality with God, an eternal kingdom, one where they sit at table with God, at the heavenly banquet, for all eternity.

That is what they finally discern, and how they finally recognize Him as Jesus. It is when He breaks the bread…

…like He had and fed the 4,000…

…like He had and fed the 5,000…

…like He had in the upper room, and fed them His flesh.

It is at the table, in the breaking of the bread, as we gather at the Table with our Lord Jesus Christ, and He feeds us that we truly recognize that we are with our Lord and Savior. It is at this same table, for it is the Lord’s table, that those who have gone before us into paradise gather. It is at this Table of the Lord that we are gathered with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven. In Christ, heaven and earth are brought together.

Yes, every Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection. It is a celebration of our Lord’s Resurrection and His gathering us at His table – in body and soul – now and forevermore.

All glory to You, dear Father in heaven, for You have fulfilled Your Word and brought Your holy servant Jesus, our Lord and God, through death to resurrection. His resurrection boldly declares that He defeated sin, death and the devil on the cross. Let this news of redemption spread far and wide, that the joy of the Easter Gospel would be received in faith throughout the world. Amen.