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It is perhaps one of the most compelling narratives in all of the scriptures. So fascinating is this scene, in fact, that the gospel writer Luke includes it in detail near the end of his gospel writing. It is a story known well and beloved in the church -- the story of two disciples walking down a dusty road to the village of Emmaus, the evening of that first Easter day.

Their talk centers around the crucified, dead Jesus. Their words come out slowly, almost painfully, as they trudge their way along, their feet heavy and their hearts broken. "I can hardly believe it," one of them says. "In fact, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. He is dead. He is really gone." "What should we to do now?" the other asks. "Life seems hopeless." And just then a stranger joins them -- perhaps he has come up from behind, unknown to them. Perhaps he has walked along with them for a while without their noticing. But suddenly he is there. "I'm sorry," he says, "but I couldn't help but overhear you. What are you talking about?"

They stop and turn to him. Other travelers step around them, anxious to reach their destination before night falls. The three of them stand there in the middle of the dusty road and talk. "Where have you been the last few days," one of the disciples asks the stranger. "How is it you haven't heard anything about Jesus of Nazareth?" And so the two of them tell the stranger what they know. Listen to what they say from chapter 24 of the gospel of Luke.

He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he would be the one who would redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.
-- Luke 24:19c-24

I don't know about you, but this story has always fascinated me -- this scene between two beloved disciples of our Lord, filled with sadness and despair, grieving at the death of a friend, telling that stranger how the last nail has been driven into their hope for the future. And our Savior himself, unknown to them, patiently listening to them, his nail-scarred hands undoubtedly buried deep within his robe to keep them from recognizing him. As he heard those words of grief and sadness, no doubt his heart must have been touched by their pain.

Do you hear what they are saying? Can you understand what is happening here, for there is a message for us today? Listen to what they say: "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; and we had hoped that he would be the one who would redeem Israel."

"We had hoped," they said. They might as well have said, "We used to hope but not anymore." Because that's the way they felt. He was dead and gone. He had died a cruel death on the cross and it was now over.

For those without a resurrection faith, those who have not yet heard and believed the good news of Jesus' resurrection, for those who do not believe the good news of Easter, death is a terrible thing. For it puts to an end our hopes for the future and seems to erect an eternal barrier between our loved ones and themselves. Without a living hope, without a living faith in the resurrected Christ, like those disciples on the Road to Emmaus we are left to trudge our way along the dusty, dark roads of life, dragging our feet, wondering what we could have done to avoid this. But it need not be that way.

Because as children of God, as those who know the rest of the story, as those who have been to the empty tomb and have met the risen Christ, we know that death is not the end. We know that there is an eternal hope that is ours through faith in the living Christ.

There is a certain city in Romania, which has a "burying ground" that is called "The Merry Cemetery." The crosses that serve as tombstones are decorated with carvings, paintings in bright colors, and even amusing epitaphs. They express, of course, the Christian belief in the resurrection. However, the former Communist government which wrote the travel folders describing this cemetery and its unique tombstones, until recently, described that Christian hope expressed on the tombstones as merely "the expression of a certain philosophy regarding a way of facing death."

"A certain philosophy regarding a way of facing death." As Christians we know there is more to our faith than that. Our faith in Christ is more than just a "philosophy about facing death." It is a living hope, a living trust in God and a certain faith in a risen Savior regarding the very nature of life and death itself. As people of God, our faith rests on our relationship with the crucified and living Lord Jesus Christ who says to us, "I am the resurrection and the life; if anyone believes in me, even though he dies yet shall he live."

That's why the apostle Peter can say, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Our hope as Christian people comes from God and resides in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and won the victory over sin and death when God the Father raised him from the dead. This risen Savior alone can say, "I died and behold I am forevermore; I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whoever lives and believes in me, shall never die."

The story of those two disciples on the Road to Emmaus is the story of faith reborn. It is the record of hope restored. That's what makes it so lovely. That's what makes it one of the greatest stories ever told. For it reminds us that we have a pledge and promise from our God, a word of hope, a living trust in our risen Savior that we can hang on to.

Young Helen Keller was a prisoner of her own circumstances. She could not see or hear. She could feel with her hands, but without sight or hearing, how could she know what she was feeling? One day her teacher, Anne Sullivan, took Helen down the familiar path in front of her house to an old hand-pump well. Someone was there drawing water. Anne took Helen's hand and held it under the water and in sign language spelled on her other hand the letters -- W - A - T - E - R. And suddenly, something happened. Suddenly her life changed. In danger of making a bad pun, we could say, suddenly her eyes were opened! It was just a little five letter word. It was just the splashing of common water. But now Helen knew what it was. Now she had a name for it -- water. And if that experience had a name, others must also. It was suddenly as if the world had opened up for her. Now she could begin to reach out to the world and experience it in spite of her handicaps.

My friends, a breakthrough of equally breathtaking importance happened to those two disciples of Jesus that first Easter night. Just as Helen Keller's life was changed, just as her eyes were opened to a whole new world outside of herself, in the same manner Jesus came to those two disciples and revealed himself to them and their lives were never the same. Such is the nature of faith. Such is our resurrection hope. Because he lives, we shall live also -- and he will walk and guide and comfort us through life.

In 1847, a young doctor in Edinburgh, Scotland, made an amazing discovery -- one that changed the course of modern medicine. He discovered chloroform, and in doing so he found a way to take the pain out of surgery. Now, everyone who has ever had surgery ought to thank God for Dr. Simpson. For even though we don't get chloroform for surgery any more, the concept of taking the pain out of surgery was born then. Give a person an anesthetic and they will avoid the dreadful pain of surgery.

One day while lecturing at medical school at the university, a young student raised his hand and asked, "Dr. Simpson, what in your opinion, is the greatest discovery ever made?" It was one of those questions that students sometimes ask to cater favor with their professors, for the student was aware of Dr. Simpson's discovery of chloroform and expected a certain answer. But do you know what Dr. Simpson said? He replied, "In my opinion, the greatest discovery a person can ever make is to find the grace of God."

And he meant it -- not just out of a sense of humility -- but he meant it from personal experience. We know that because Dr. Alexander Simpson and his wife had a little girl -- a child they dearly loved and one day she was taken ill and all the medicines in her father's black bag could not help her. And she died. They buried her in a cemetery in Edinburgh. A few months later, they placed a stone at her gravesite and on the stone they had inscribed her name "Faith Simpson" and below the name the dates of her short life. But there was more they put on that stone. There, above the place for her name, they had inscribed the words, "Thank God for faith -- Faith Simpson and faith in God."

The poet writes:

The stars shine down upon the earth;
And the stars shine upon the sea.
The stars look up to a mighty God;
The stars look down on me.

The stars will shine for a million years,
A million years and a day.
But because of Christ, I live and love
Even when the stars pass away.

Such is the hope that is ours in the resurrection of Christ; such was the trust we have in God; and such is the faith that we live with -- a faith, hope, and trust that those two disciples discovered on the Road to Emmaus that day. In Jesus' name. Amen.