“Recognition” Orange Congregational Church UCC Candidating Sermon, April 19, 2026, Third Sunday of Easter (Luke 24:13-35)

On this Third Sunday of Easter we see another resurrection appearance.  Luke doesn’t talk about Mary Magdalene alone with Jesus in the garden.  Or Jesus finally appearing with his wounds before Thomas and meeting Thomas’ doubts with compassion.  Instead, Jesus’ famous resurrection appearance in the Gospel according to Luke occurs after a fateful walk with some of his disciples on the road to Emmaus.  This is a story of a journey in faith.

Luke begins by sharing that two disciples were traveling to a village called Emmaus on that same day.  This story happens on Easter Sunday.  We remember that the women had gone to the tomb that morning with fragrant spices prepared to anoint the battered body of Jesus and discovered that the stone had been rolled away.  The women encounter angels who tell them that Jesus has been raised just as he told them he would be.  So the women (including Mary Magdelene) return from the tomb and report everything they saw.  Yet (and this is Luke 24 verse 11)— “their words struck the apostles as nonsense, and they didn’t believe the women.”[1]  Anyway, Peter runs to the tomb and bends over and looks inside, seeing only the linen cloth.  Peter just returns home wondering what happened. 

Then it’s as if the scene pans over to two disciples who were traveling to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.  That’s where our story gets really interesting because the Risen Christ appears to these two disciples and joins them on the journey.  Except they have no idea that this is Jesus.  We don’t exactly know why.  Luke just tells us that they were somehow prevented from recognizing Jesus.  So Jesus asks what they were talking about as they were walking along and Cleopas asks if he’s the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn’t know what happened over the last few days.  Jesus innocently inquires, “What things?”[2]  Then they launch into the events that just transpired.  Jesus explains why all of this had to come to pass, even interpreting everything written about him starting from Moses and going all the way through the prophets.  Yet, Cleopas and the other disciple still don’t recognize that this person walking alongside them is Jesus.

They finally arrive in Emmaus and invite Jesus to stay with them because it was nearly evening.  Jesus agrees and takes a seat at the table.  “He took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.  Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight.”[3] 

Only then do they realize that this person who they traveled with all day long was Jesus.  Only then do they acknowledge that their hearts were on fire when he spoke to them along the road and explained the scriptures.  Only then do they figure out the truth of the resurrection.  And even though by then it’s nearly dark, they travel all the way back to Jerusalem that same night.  They find the eleven disciples and their companions and tell them, “The Lord has risen indeed.”[4] 

And how did they know that it was Jesus?  Through the blessing and breaking and sharing of the bread at the table together.

New Testament Professor Mark Allan Powell reflects that one of the characteristics of Luke’s Gospel is that it displays “an unusual interest in food.”[5]  So there are 24 chapters in the Gospel according to Luke and 19 meals are mentioned!  And we wonder why our churches enjoy coffee hour so much every Sunday?  Jesus appears to be eating all the time.  Jesus talks about food, tells parables about banquets, and even gets criticized for eating too much and eating with the wrong people.  When do the disciples recognize Jesus?  “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.”[6] 

That is how Luke’s Gospel shares the moment of recognizing the Risen Christ.  Of course it happens when Jesus was at the table with them!  Because food may just be a metaphor for life.  When food is shared with one another, we are, in effect, sharing our lives.  Now it has been wonderful getting to know more about the congregation in conversation with the faithful, diligent members of the Search Committee.  We spoke about what makes Orange Congregational Church, United Church of Christ a remarkable faith community including a certain famous Strawberry Festival coming up in June.  Thank goodness I love strawberries. 

These church traditions that often carry on across generations help us be the church in our particular communities.  As followers of Jesus Christ we are still invited to gather people together.  Break bread.  Feed the hungry.  Welcome the stranger.  Tell the stories of our faith.  Love God, love our neighbors, and love ourselves.  This is what Jesus embodied for us in his life, death, and resurrection.

There is something so poignant about this resurrection story of recognition as the disciples and Jesus sat down at the table together.  This is a theme that comes up throughout the season of Eastertide—recognition and nonrecognition.  All of us coming to deeper understandings of who Jesus was and is in our lives during these great 50 days.  Because how can we possibly understand the beautiful mystery of the resurrection in just one day or through just one story?

This is ultimately a story about seeing someone for who they really are and being seen for who we are.  It was the great Irish poet John O’Donohue who wrote, “One of the deepest longings of the human soul is to be seen.” 

Think about when we experience someone in our lives who really gets us—they get your sense of humor or your background or your beliefs or your sports loyalties or your perspectives or where you have been on your faith journey.  Maybe we utter, “Oh, I feel seen.”  That is a remarkable feeling, to be truly understood, to feel truly seen.

What is so moving about this Gospel story of the road to Emmaus is that there is mutual recognition between the disciples and Jesus.  The challenge as Christians is to see one another with the compassionate eyes of Jesus.  Because we will never look into the eyes of someone that God does not love.  And in this story those disciples truly see Jesus.  Being seen is a deep longing of the human soul.  And seeing one another with Jesus’ loving eyes is something we are called to do as his disciples here and now.

As I was thinking about this idea of mutual recognition on the road to Emmaus, of the power of seeing one another and being seen by one another, it took me back to a famous article in The New York Times about a famous psychological study.[7]  Psychologist Arthur Aron (and others) wondered if intimacy and closeness can develop between two strangers by having them ask and answer 36 personal questions with each other.  The questions become increasingly more personal.  The overall idea is that when we are mutually vulnerable that is what makes us feel close to each other.  Some folks have even labeled this exercise as the 36 Questions that Lead to Love. 

Now I once cajoled/encouraged/invited/gently demanded that Neill and I go through these 36 questions maybe six or eight months into our relationship.  And now we are happily married, so clearly it works!  The questions begin rather simply with “Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?”  And “What would constitute a ‘perfect’ day for you?” 

Yet some of the final questions are quite thought-provoking and hard to contemplate.  “When did you last cry in front of another person?”  And “If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone?  Why haven’t you told them yet?” 

At the end of the exercise you are encouraged to sit across from your conversation partner (without touching) and stare into one another’s eyes for four minutes.  The time spent together ends in silence.  It ends with looking deeply into another person’s eyes and allowing another person to look deeply into yours.  This happens after hearing and answering all those 36 questions.  Some people have understandably described gazing at one another at the end as the most terrifying part of the whole exercise.  Because this can feel especially vulnerable—seeing someone and allowing ourselves to be seen by another.

In the end, every week we gather in our churches here in-person or online to worship God together in community.  Every week we gather together as the Body of Christ in this particular place.  Communal worship is an embodied reminder that our Christian faith is not meant to be lived in isolation.  Our lives are not meant to be lived in isolation.  We need each other.  Jesus taught us as much as he journeyed alongside his disciples on the road to Emmaus and beyond.  We are invited to see other people with Jesus’ loving eyes.  And we need one another to help meet that deep longing of the human soul—to be recognized, to be seen.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Luke 24:11, CEB.
[2] Luke 24:19, NRSVUE.
[3] Luke 24:30-31, CEB.
[4] Luke 24:34, NRSVUE.
[5] Mark Allan Powell, Fortress Introduction to the Gospels, 92.
[6] Luke 24:30, NRSVUE.
[7] Daniel Jones, “The 36 Questions that Lead to Love,” January 9, 2015, The New York Times.

Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash