Last week I was thinking of preaching on a favorite verse, Romans 10:13, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."  I looked through my files to make sure I hadn't preached on it recently, and didn't find a sermon on that text, but I had the feeling I'd been there before.  Well, I checked again and sure enough, just last year I preached on that text, but it wasn't from Romans 10:13;  it was from Acts 2:21.  Both passages were the exactly same, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."  Peter and Paul preached from the same Bible text, Joel 2:28!  Two of the greatest preachers of all times using the same text - how about that!

          I know some of you think all us pastors have a sermon service that we subscribe to, but that's not true.  Weekly sermon services are out there, but I've never had one and no one I know has either.  But some do, I guess.  A week before Easter a pastor was being interviewed on the radio about the growing problem of plagiarism in the pulpit.  They cited a pastor who was actually being sued by some of his members because he was getting some of his sermon material off the internet.  I was amazed - first that there are sermons on the internet that anyone would bother using, but especially that members would be so worried about originality as to sue their own pastor.

          Now the pastor being interviewed said he'd never taken a sermon off the internet, but he had once used a sermon service, though he no longer did due to a recent embarrassment.  It seems just last year he invited a pastor to preach in his pulpit on a Sunday he was gone, and then the following Sunday he came back to preach his own message.  After the service until he discovered the two of them had preached the exact same sermon - word for word - two Sundays in a row, because they both subscribed to the same sermon service.  No wonder there were some strange looks during his preaching!  Fortunately his members were a forgiving bunch, and decided they must have needed it a second time!

          In the days following Christ's death on the cross, His disciples were filled with fear and loss.  They had some big questions and perhaps even anger.  How could this happen?  How could this wonderful man, the One on whom they'd pinned their hopes, be dead?  How could the others have demanded His death?  And how could they, His loyal followers, have been so faithless and weak?  A horrible emptiness must have filled their souls on Saturday and early Sunday.

          In the Civil War, during the Second Battle of Bull Run, Capt. F. W. Clark and his men were surrounded by Confederate troops.  In a fierce battle, his small detachment was nearly wiped out and Capt. Clark was missing and presumed dead.  Clark's family was devastated.  He was the last male left.  All their able-bodied men had gone off to that horrible war and every last one of them had died.  So the family sent word asking for the return of his body if it was found.

          Capt. Clark, however, was not dead.  After hiding for weeks behind enemy lines, he struggled in to Union camp just in time to be handed a letter from his family asking for the return of his body.  Capt. Clark himself write the reply, "Still have use for the body.  Will return it in person.  Kindest regards, F. W. Clark."  Two weeks later, Capt. Clark, very much alive, had a joyful and tearful reunion with his loved ones.  At least one of their men who went to war came back alive.

          On the first Easter Day, Christ came back, very much alive.  He could simply have arisen from the dead and gone straight to heaven, but He came back and showed Himself alive to hundreds.  And just as He came to His disciples, Christ comes to us, His latter-day disciples, you and me.  When you feel like God's been gone from your life, it's great to have Him come back.

          But why did Christ come back?  To show He was alive, that He had defeated death?  Surely that, but there was also another reason.  Jesus came back to prepare people for His leaving again.  He wanted them to know He was a living man, and not some ghostly rumor.  More than that, He needed to ready them for the time He'd be gone again.  It was a loving thing to come back, to prove to Thomas and the others He was alive, to forgive Peter for denying Him, and to calm the troubled hearts of all, including these two men from Emmaus.

          The village of Emmaus no longer exists and no one is sure where it was.  The town nearest the ancient site today is Latrun, 10 miles west of Jerusalem.  The road there is flat and it would have taken a brisk 3 hour walk.  The two disciples talked as they went.  In their state of mind time must have dragged slowly, until a man appeared and joined them.  We know it was Jesus, but those two didn't.  The risen Savior joined them, very much alive but unrecognized.

          I wonder if He ever does that today?  Think of it -- Jesus in the man next to us.  Or Jesus in the troubled young woman, or Jesus in the pan-handler.  Or even Jesus in that relative visiting us, the one we don't like.  Interesting thought!!  After all, He once said, "If you help one of the least of these around you, you are helping me." (Matthew 25:40)   Jesus can come to us in all kinds of people.

          The two disciples were troubled and had every right to be.  When you lose someone you admire or love, you're left with a gaping, empty hole that hurts and you think nothing can fill it.  And death is no respecter of time or place.  It comes when it comes, and we must stop everything to attend to the details.

          This past Easter Sunday my aunt Clara died.  She was 88 and nearly the last of my parent's generation.  She lived in a duplex next door to her daughter, and had planned to go to Easter Sunrise at their church in Windom.  But she called my cousin and said not this year.  She'd go to the later service, but not the sunrise one.  And while Carolyn worshipped, Aunt Clara died in her sleep.  She began her day in Windom and ended it in heaven.  Christ often comes back to call us home at a time we least expect it.  Question is, are we ready for Him?

          These two Emmaus disciples felt crushed and hopeless.  "We had hoped He was the one who was going to redeem Israel," (Luke 24:21) they said, believing Jesus was gone forever.  Well, thanks be to God they were wrong, and that He really was the one!  The unrecognized Jesus said something to tell them that all of us would do well to hear, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." (Luke 24:25)

          It's been said only two things are certain in life -- death and taxes.  But hearing of death in the midst of Easter and knowing that April 15 is a day away, it's clear there's only one thing that's certain in life, and that's taxes!  Death is not to be feared.  Christ has overcome it.  He came back to show His disciples that they need not fear death.  And He still comes back to calm our troubled and worried hearts, to remind us He's still in control, no matter what kind of loss or trouble we may encounter in life or when we'll face it.

          When the Pharaohs of Egypt died, they were buried in magnificent pyramids.  When the favored wife of a Mogul emperor died, she was buried in the Taj Mahal.  The grave of Mohammed is diligently guarded in Medina 24 hours a day.  The tombs of princesses and presidents are visited by millions of people each year.

          Yet when Jesus died, He was laid to rest in a borrowed grave, and its location remains a mystery.  No one knows for sure where it is.  Is it located in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre right next to Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, or is it at the Garden Tomb on Gordon's Calvary, a half mile east?  But do you know what?  It really doesn't matter, because He's not there!  "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" the angels said (Luke 24:5).  Every other person who has died still lies buried in a grave and his or her bones are turning to dust.  But there is no body in that borrowed grave where Jesus was laid.  He's not there.  And so Christians today all over the world say, "Christ is risen!"  (He is Risen indeed!)

          Several years ago this week I presided at a beautiful morning wedding.  What joy everyone there had!  And then a few hours later, in the same church, I presided at a funeral.  At one event the joy was hard to contain, and at the other it was almost impossible to find.  But Christ was there in both events.  He was there with joy in one and calming troubled hearts in the other.

          All the events in the life of a Christian are united by God's love for us in Jesus.  God loves us with an everlasting love.  You and I are sinful and by ourselves are without hope.  But God in His mercy sent His only Son to die the death we deserve.  His Son rose again to give us hope that we too shall rise.  And every one of us who trusts in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, everyone who turns our backs on our self and accepts His forgiveness and mercy, will live with God forever in heaven.  It's His promise, and He lives up to all His promises, especially the ones that calm our troubled hearts.

          In the 1950's, Rev. W. E. Samuelson of Great Britain noticed a horseness in his voice.  Soon his leg went numb.  After examination, his doctor told him the bad news that he had amytropic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease.  His muscles would atrophy and waste away, he would lose his voice and one day he would be unable to swallow.  Rev. Samuelson threw himself into his work in British home missions.  His prayer was, "Let me stay in the struggle, Lord."  He wrote articles and books and helped organize prayer groups.  Gradually his legs became useless, and he lost his voice.  Still he wrote, though his hands shook.  On Easter morning, a few days before he died, he wrote in a letter to his daughter, "It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice to shout, 'Christ is risen!'  But it would more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout those blessed words."

          Well, you and I have a voice, and we have the hope and ability to shout yet once more, "Christ is risen!"  (He is Risen indeed!)  Amen!

Copyright © 2002 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.