I wonder if you're like me in that one of the things you look forward to when you go away for a holiday is meeting new people. I always hope I might meet someone with a different background to me so I can discover interesting things about the places I visit. And it's particularly exciting, isn't it, when we meet someone important. I remember being in the Qantas lounge in Singapore a number of years ago, and John Elliott walked in and sat down a couple of seats away. We got talking about football, and the pros and cons of Rugby vs Aussie Rules. If I'd known what I know now, I mightn't have been quite as excited mind you, but it was exciting meeting someone who was an "important person". My daughter, Katherine, has been going to All Soul's Langham Place in London, and the mother of one of her friends heard that Cliff Richard was a member of the congregation so she got really excited that Katherine might actually get to talk to him.
	It's funny how we get excited about what are really fairly trivial events isn't it?
	Well, today we're going to hear about a couple who were going on a short journey but met someone who was very important. Their encounter wasn't of the trivial kind. It was life changing.
	It's the very first Easter Day. Jesus' circle of followers have been in Jerusalem for the Passover and now two of them are returning home, dispirited and depressed by what's happened two days earlier. Later in the passage we're given one of their names. We're told that one of them is Cleopas. Possibly the second was his wife, possibly one of the Marys mentioned in John's gospel as being at the foot of the Cross as Jesus is dying.
	Anyway, as they're walking along a man catches up with them, and joins in their conversation. Not unnaturally, their conversation is about the things that have happened in Jerusalem these past few days, but this man doesn't seem to know what they're talking about. He says "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" Well, they're a bit surprised by this question. How could you have been in Jerusalem and not have known what had happened to Jesus of Nazareth.
	So they tell him all about it. Now notice what they tell him about Jesus. "He was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people." That's a good start, but it isn't nearly enough is it? Well, they had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel. That's getting closer, though what they meant by redeem, or rescue, wasn't at all what Jesus had in mind. But in any case, the chief priests and leaders had handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. All their hopes had been dashed at that moment. This was as close as they'd come to seeing God's promised Messiah, and now it was all over. What made it all the more perplexing was that now they were being told that the tomb was empty. A couple of women had seen a vision of angels who said he wasn't dead, but alive. Still, no-one had actually seen him, so don't put too much credence on these stories.
	Jesus, listens patiently as they tell him all this, then he says, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?" 27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures." There's a note of disappointment in the way he says it isn't there? Why don't they know what God has written down for them? The whole Old Testament points to Jesus' coming. It tells us what will happen to him: how he'll suffer at the hands of his enemies, how he'll die but then God will vindicate him and raise him to glory. All they need is to open their eyes to see. It's ironic when you think that Jesus is there telling them these things and they don't recognise him. Even their physical eyes are unseeing when it comes to the truth of God's revelation.
	Well, let's for a moment think about the sorts of things Jesus might have reminded them of. What Scripture passages do you think he might have quoted?
	Well, let's go right back to the start. to Gen 3:15 (NRSV) God is speaking to Satan, in the form of a serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel."
	Here's what God said through Moses (Deu 18:17-18 NRSV) "Then the LORD replied to me: "They are right in what they have said. 18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command."
	Well, listen to what Jesus said about himself in John 12: (John 12:49-50 NRSV) "for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.""
	Micah 5:2-4 (NRSV) "But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. 3Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. 4And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; 5and he shall be the one of peace."
	(Jer 33:15-16 NRSV) "In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."" (Jesus is our Righteousness)
	Ezek 34:1-4; 15-16 "The word of the LORD came to me: 2Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them -- to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. 4You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. 15I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. 16I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice."
	(Isa 52:13-53:6 NRSV) "See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. 14Just as there were many who were astonished at him --so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals-- 15so he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them they shall see, and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate. 53:1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. 4Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
	Finally the very last chapter in the Old Testament: ( NRSV) "See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts. 4Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. 5Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. 6He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse."
	When you read them like that they start to add up to a substantial picture don't they? It's no wonder that Jesus was a disappointed with their inability to see and believe. But he's gracious isn't he? He goes with them and when they invite him in he accepts their hospitality. He stays and eats with them and as he blesses the bread and breaks it, their eyes are opened. It's as though scales fall off their eyes, just like one of the blind men Jesus had healed some time earlier. You see, recognising Jesus, sometimes, requires God to open our eyes. Sometimes things get in the way. Unbelief is often much easier than belief. So we need to ask God for the ability to see Jesus clearly.
	It is exciting isn't it, to go on a trip to unknown places? It's exciting to meet new and possibly important people. But I'm not going to meet anyone as important on my trip as these two met on theirs. Yet wouldn't it be good if we could. Wouldn't it be good if we could meet Jesus today. Well, in fact we can. We can discover Jesus the same way Jesus revealed himself to these two. If you look at the rest of Luke 24 you discover three reports of experiences of the resurrection, and in each of them we see an almost identical saying. To the women, the angels say "Remember what he told you." And we're told that then they remembered his words. To these two travellers he begins with the books of Moses and works his way through to the end of the Old Testament just as we just did, showing how it all points to Jesus. And then with the disciples he says, "This is what I told you. Everything written about me in all of the Scriptures must be fulfilled." If we want an encounter with Jesus, the place to go is to the Bible. Naturally to the gospels, because they tell of his life and death and resurrection, but don't confine your reading to them, because then you'll miss out on all the things that Jesus referred to when he spoke to these disciples on that first Easter day. We need to know the Old Testament as well as the New, so we properly understand what the New Testament is about. If you'd like an encounter with Jesus today, ask him to come to you and reveal himself to you as you read his word.
	God has spoken to us and his words are preserved for us in the words of the Bible. Jesus is risen, and in his risen power he comes to us in the person of his Holy Spirit, to teach us all things. His words, too, have been preserved for us in the words of the Bible, so why not read them.
	Let's pray that this Easter season Jesus would be as present to us as he was to these two disciples on the road to Emmaus as we read his word and meditate on what his death and resurrection mean for each of us.

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