I don’t think there have been any new lawyer jokes for decades, so you’ve probably heard this one. But I just came across it and like it:
A personal injury lawyer was on vacation in a small rural town. While walking through the streets, he spotted a car that had just been involved in an accident. As expected, a large crowd gathered. Going by instinct, the attorney was eager to get to the injured, but he couldn’t get near the car. Being very clever, he started shouting loudly, “Let me through! Let me through! I am the son of the victim.” The crowd made way for him. Lying in front of the car was a donkey.
So what relevance to our gospel reading could a lawyer comment possibly have? The truth is, nothing. And it is the nothing that is really something! While Christianity can be an immensely complex faith, it is at its heart, deeply simple. Jesus died for you. End of story. That’s all there is to it. You don’t need a lawyer. And you don’t even need a religious expert; which makes me irrelevant too. Look at Jesus’ twelve disciples. They were mostly tradesmen. They weren’t scholars or lawyers. They certainly weren’t religious experts.
It is perhaps dangerous to make comparisons between Christianity and other religions, but I think it helps to make a point. Both Judaism and Islam have legal codes and requirements written right into their scriptures. Any time you have a code, a requirement, a set of laws, or anything similar you need to have experts to interpret those guidelines. Why? Because life is complicated. If you are Muslim you are to live by the Five Pillars of faith. They are: profession of faith, prayer, almsgiving, fasting during certain periods, and a pilgrimage to Mecca. It seems simple enough. And yet what about a person who cannot afford to make a pilgrimage to Mecca? What about a person who is destitute? What about a person who has blood sugar issues that mean extensive fasting is dangerous?
There are always complications. There are always exceptions. And how to you follow the intention of the law without being confined to the letter of the law? At its best, those are the times you need scholars, lawyers and religious experts.
You are certainly familiar with the many laws of ancient Judaism from our own reading of the Jewish scriptures, which Christians call the “Old Testament.” Simple as they can be, they can also be immensely complex.
I’m not enough of an expert on eastern religions, nor pagan nature religions to say much about them. Some, like the nature religions, are so thin on substance that there seems to be nothing there at all. And others, like Hinduism, certainly do have plenty of rules and regulations.
In contrast to all of this, and without trying to sound superior, Christianity is deep in substance and has an incredibly simple core. We see that in our gospel reading for today. It is the evening of the resurrection. Two men are walking away from Jerusalem toward the town of Emmaus. The fact that they are walking away puzzled tells us that the Jesus movement was dying out and dispersing. The followers were all going back to their normal lives, their hopes ended.
On the surface the text does seem complex and it can leave us scratching our heads. Do we need an expert to make sense of it for us?
How can these two followers of Jesus not recognize him?
And how come Jesus just disappears as soon as they do recognize him?
This sounds more like a fairy tale than anything that’s trying to present itself as historically reliable.
We’ll actually tie some of that up later in the chapter, which is next week’s gospel. For today though let’s say Luke has a reason for it.
The arrest and crucifixion of Jesus as God’s Son, as the anticipated Savior, is absurd. Those who are life-long Christians don’t get how absurd the idea is. It is helpful to again make a contrast with Islam. Jesus plays a significant role in Islam. He is a major prophetic figure, a messenger of God. Islam cannot in any way shape or form accept that one of God’s messengers would be killed in service to God. Rather, their beliefs are that God will divinely protect the messengers. Of course, Christianity says the exact opposite.
Luke tells us that when Jesus is talking with these two guys he begins with Moses and the prophets and interprets to them the things about himself in scripture. The central question, and the whole point of this story, is Verse 26, “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” From the perspective of Jesus’ followers the answer is clearly “No!” Indeed, if you know the Old Testament at all you know there is nothing that suggests the Messiah is to suffer and die. But according to Jesus the perspective of the scriptures is very different.
We are not told what passages Jesus actually referred to with these disciples. But we don’t need that. A look through Luke’s gospel shows us the new scriptural trajectory Jesus has been trying to establish.
Jesus puts himself in the same line as most of the prophets. There is a very strong precedent for prophets to be persecuted. Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and pretty much all the prophets faced plenty of grumbling and persecutions. Some of them were killed. Earlier in the gospel (but in a part we haven’t read yet) Jesus laments the way Jerusalem has treated the prophets who have come to it over the millennium. (Luke 13:35)
Those whom God sends are generally not well received and not triumphant. Despite the fact that they bear the word of God, they are rejected. People don’t want to hear what God has to say. They don’t like what God has to say. God’s words have a way of upending human plans for success.
So, when Jesus comes proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom, good news though it may be, it upends the money and power systems of many people. They want to get rid of the troublemaker.
Though anointed by God, though righteous according to the laws, though innocent, he is put to death. Rejected by people he is raised by God – with both the rejection by humanity and the resurrection all under the same divine purpose.
The challenge for God is how to make people truly righteous? Should God give us rules and regulations to follow?
Tried that.
Didn’t work.
That would be the path of Judaism or Islam.
Should God change the fundamental nature of humans to make them naturally “better” or more loving? How could God do that and have us be anything more than puppets?
No, the only way God can truly preserve our integrity, and get across to us in a way that we could understand how we are supposed to love, is to show love by dying. Jesus says in John’s gospel that no one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Many soldiers scratch that citation on their dog tags.
Then right relationship is truly based on love. Love is doing whatever is in your power for the betterment of the other person. There are no rules and regulations for that. You do not need a lawyer or a religious expert to tell you how to love other people. You love other people by sensing their needs and then seeking to equip them to meet those needs. Notice I did not say you fix their problems for them. That’s very different. No, I said you equip them to meet those needs.
Last week I heard an interview with radio host Brandt Hanson. (Typology podcast “Redefining Masculinity with Enneagram 5”) He was talking about what true masculinity is. What he said goes for both men and women, even though his focus was on men. He said that true masculinity is when a man uses his power to equip the people around him to be their truest, fullest, most capable selves.
I would say that is love, even though it has nothing to do with romance. I would say that is what the ministry of Jesus was all about – all the way to his death and resurrection. It was about showing people what love is so that they could be their truest, fullest, most capable selves.
No laws or rules will ever make you capable. Following laws and rules may keep you safe and out of trouble, but they will never make you into your best self.
When are the two men in the gospel able to see Jesus? In the breaking of the bread. Remember back to the feeding of the 5000, and remember the Last Supper. In both cases you have an expression of God’s abundant love.
You don’t need an expert to tell you how to love. Just do the best you can for others. Even if you don’t know whether it’s actually helpful or not, just critically generously do what you can. And good will truly have been done.
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