We Had Hoped

This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Third Sunday of Easter on Sunday, April 19, 2026.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

We Had Hoped

21 "But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel."

It's amazing how one word can change everything about a sentence. It's not that we hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel, but Cleopas and his companion confess to this stranger whom they do not know is the Lord Jesus, "We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel."

"Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about the things that happened in the last couple of days?"

Here it is, Sunday night of Easter Sunday, the first Easter, the day of Resurrection. And as they are walking dejectedly away from Jerusalem and back into their ordinary lives, away from the pomp and circumstance of the Passover, the glorification of Christ in Maundy Thursday as he lowers himself to serve his people, the great commandment of Christ to love one another as he has loved us. His ultimate demonstration of love as he voluntarily, willingly, allows himself to be taken to the cross, to be crucified and die, and then on Sunday morning to rise from the dead, victorious over sin and death and hell.

But at this point in the story, Sunday afternoon and evening, they don't know the rest of the story yet. They just see that the Lord Jesus has died and some strange and confusing things have been told to them about Jesus after his death.

And so they walk dejectedly from Jerusalem the seven long miles to Emmaus, and back into their ordinary day-to-day lives.

"We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel," but apparently they don't hope that anymore.

Dashed Hope

Have you ever been in that boat? Have you ever been somebody who has to use the word had?

• I had hoped that things were going to go well, but then everything shifted.
• I had thought that everything was a-okay, but then I found out that I was wrong.
• I had hoped that she was the one, that he was the one, that my hopes were dashed.
• I had hoped that the tumor was benign, but then I found out the terrible bad news that it's cancer.
• I had hoped that I was going to get that promotion, but then someone else got it.

I had hoped, but I don't hope anymore.

It's so easy for our faith to crumple under worldly cares. Our vision gets so limited. We are very good at recognizing Good Friday and the crucifixion of Christ. We see the problems in this world. We see the suffering. We see the death. We see the brutality of it all.

It's easy for us to see that. If you want proof of that, just look at the evening news. You don't see a lot of Easter on the evening news, but you do see a lot of Good Friday.

It's so easy for our vision to be limited so that we can't see the end of what's really happening — what God is really up to in the world. And so whatever our hopes had been for the good things, they are hopes that have the word had attached to them.

We had hoped, but we don't anymore.

Jesus Walks with Them

But then Jesus comes among them in a form they're not familiar with. They are kept from understanding who Jesus really is. Their eyes are not opened to his presence.

He uses the opportunity as he walks with them from Jerusalem (the place of all the excitement) towards ordinary life in Emmaus. He walks with them and as he does, he opens the scriptures to them.

I think sometimes we forget that at this point, none of what we call the New Testament today has yet been written down. This is all very new stuff. When he's talking about opening the scriptures, he's not speaking of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, etc.

He's talking about the Old Testament. He's talking about the prophets of the Old Testament. He's talking about Ezekiel and Isaiah and Micah and Jeremiah and all those other guys. He's talking about Moses and the five great books of the Bible in the beginning we call the Pentateuch or the Torah.

And from that beginning, some of those documents having been written over 1,000 years before the conversation they have that day on the Emmaus Road, the Lord Jesus starts with the things God has proclaimed to his people, the promises he has made to walk with them, to redeem them, to save them, to give them life and a future and hope. Each step of the way he opens the Scriptures to them and explains where God has been in all of the suffering and death and confusion that they have experienced over the last few days.

God Shows Up For Us

I think sometimes we imagine that the primary way that God shows up for us is in some supernatural way. Supernatural in the sense of it's something sort of spooky and magnificent and the bolt from the blue, the sky is open, you get driven to your knees.

I think Christian media does a really poor job of portraying what discipleship and following Jesus looks like for most people most of the time because we dramatize this as being these big, elaborate, convincing conversion scenarios.

That's not what Christianity looks like for most people. Most of the time, God does not come to us like a bolt from the blue, like a lightning bolt that strikes us and drives us to our knees, giving us that conviction that can never be taken away from us.

More often, instead of a miracle, instead of a bolt from the blue, the way that God comes to us is simpler and quieter. And in fact, it's so simple that it almost seems laughable: he just simply comes to you in your Bible!

Do you want God's word to you? Do you want to know what God thinks of your circumstances, your situation? Open your Bible!

That's what Jesus does as they're leaving the confusion and the terror of the last few days as they're walking along the road away from Jerusalem to Emmaus. He simply (without having one in his hands) he begins to explain from the Old Testament that these things which have happened to the Messiah are all things that were expected, planned, and purposed by God to have to do with Jesus.

He comes to them in the Scriptures and he explains how Isaiah and the suffering servant is a text that tells you about this suffering servant Messiah, Jesus, who will die and rise, who will bear the sins of humanity on himself and be free of them and forgiven.

He speaks of Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones and how these bones yet can live even though they are very dry because the word of God will come to them. And then literally, in Jesus, God's Son, the Holy Word, has come and is made flesh so that you might have life in you.

He speaks to the messianic hope given through Moses and Abraham and the patriarchs and the prophets that say that God will wipe every tear from every eye and set all things right. And then he points to Jesus himself. And he says, I am the one who fulfills these things.

Invitation and Revelation

In fact, Cleopas and his companion are so overwhelmed by the experience of hearing these things preached to them by the greatest preacher who has ever lived, Jesus of Nazareth himself, that they say, "Stay with us now. For it is evening and the day is almost over."

It always reminds me of Holden evening prayer when we do evening vespers. In the Service of Light, you know, "Jesus Christ is the light of the world. The light of darkness can overcome." And then he says, "Stay with us now for it is evening and the day is almost over."

They know that the light of God has come to them in the presence of this unknown traveling companion. And they say, we don't want to be separated from you. Come! Stay with us now! It's evening! The day is almost over! Gather with us. Spend the night here, and maybe we can have some more conversation about these scriptures being opened to us.

Then Jesus at the table that night takes bread and he blesses it and he breaks it. And suddenly in the breaking of the bread, their eyes are opened and they realize that the one who has been with them all this time from the suffering of the cross down the dusty road to Emmaus, the one who stays the night with them and opens the scriptures to them is none other than the Jesus whom they had heard was dead, that maybe they even saw with their own eyes, had been crucified and died and laid in a tomb.

The one whom they have so many questions and doubts about, he truly is risen! And as he breaks the bread and gives it to them, their eyes are opened, and they recognize that Christ truly is alive, that he truly is risen, that he has really come in the flesh to be with them.

He is revealed to them in the breaking of the bread.

Tangible Witnesses of Faith

But this sign is not given just to be a story to convince you that 2,000 years ago, these people had this experience, this miraculous bolt from the blue that caused them to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. How is that any different than any other stories of the scriptures?

No, instead, this is intended to point you to a deeper reality. You see, because your Lord does not give you nothing with which to hold your faith tightly to. He does not give you nothing except your own power of mind to reach and ascend to God and hold on to him by faith.

He has given you tangible witnesses of his word. He has made you his own in Holy Baptism. At the font, he has called you to himself, and in the uniting of the water and the word, he has given you the washing of new life.

To sustain you in this life, he has not simply given you words written down thousands of years ago to which hopefully your heart can cling, but he has given you at his table his own body and blood in Holy Communion.

This tangible reality that your faith can cling to because we are people who can't cling to ideas for long. But we can cling to a person!

Just as the disciples who were traveling that road that day clung to Jesus and said, "Stay with us for it is evening and the day is almost over." We can say, Lord Jesus, come to us now and fill us with your presence. Give us your body and your blood. Give us that true nourishment which we can hold on to, which is tangible for us.

The Lord Jesus is revealed to them in the breaking of the bread. And then they begin to think and remember on Maundy Thursday how he said, "Take and eat. This is my body given for you. This is my blood of the new covenant shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of your sins."

And he says: here, here is your Lord. Here is where you can meet him. Not just in some high and lofty temple far away, but in the dusty space between Jerusalem and Emmaus where walking with you, he gives you his own very self.

May you be sure of the salvation which has come to you in your Lord Jesus Christ. May you hold tightly to it as tightly as the disciples that day clung to their unknown companion. May you remember that God's love is with you even in the darkest times. And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds strong in a living hope to life everlasting. Amen.