Did you ever feel like you would be happier if you didn’t know certain things?

Maybe you would be happier if you didn’t know your ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend had a new good looking partner.

Maybe you would be happier if you didn’t know that some of your friends went out for dinner and drinks without you.

Maybe you would be happier if you didn’t know that your child wasn’t invited to a birthday party with their peers.

Studies have shown that social media leads us to greater depths of sadness and depression because we see what everyone else is doing, or, at least choosing to show us that they are doing, and we compare and contrast our lives to those of our virtual friends.

We see their vacations, their work promotions, their college acceptances, their prom-posals, their weight loss, their weddings, and their child births, just to name a few of the good things that happen to those around us.

In our online voyeurism, we even get to see those who have hurt us and turned their back on us moving on with what seems to be little to no consequences and tons of what we could consider blessings.

All of this leads us to believe the cliche that says, “Ignorance is bliss!”

However, as history has proven over and over again ignorance isn’t always bliss.

In fact, ignorance, or a lack of information or knowledge, of the truth, can often be physically, mentally, intellectually, and spiritually harmful to our well being.

Here are some examples:

• When tobacco was first introduced, it was marketed as a safe and healthy way to have a good time. 

• Slavery was based on the false belief that race and ethnicity defined human value.

• In the 1960s people believed that Paul McCartney from The Beatles was dead and was replaced with someone who looked like him.

• At one time pregnant women thought that if they broke their nose and it ended up crooked the their child would be born with a crooked nose.

• Old wives tales talk about ways to tell if the baby is a boy or girl, like if you crave sweets or carry your baby low, it is a girl and if you crave meat and cheese and carry high and in front, it’s a boy. 

• At one time, some people thought that if you ate Chinese food, you would begin to look like Chinese people. 

• Before the mid-1800s, society was ignorant of germs, so there were many unsanitary practices, like operating on multiple people without sterilizing the instruments.

In November of 2020, the New York Times reported the following story:

When a group of friends and families decided to hike to Shoshone Geyser Basin in Yellowstone, they tried to come prepared for the unexpected. But what they didn’t prepare for? Fines, probation, and a temporary ban from the park. Three of them pleaded guilty to the minor offense of “foot travel in a thermal area,” after being discovered by park rangers trying to cook their food in the park’s hot springs.

Park representative Linda Veress said, “A ranger responded and found two whole chickens in a burlap sack in a hot spring.” The ranger found the group and questioned them about their behavior before issuing citations. According to Veress, the laws in place that prohibit access beyond designated trails are there to protect not only the park itself, but the public as well. Hot spring waters can exceed 400 degrees Fahrenheit, with the potential to cause “severe or fatal burns.” Such was the case earlier [that] year, when a 3-year-old girl suffered second-degree burns after falling into a hydrothermal area. The same thing happened in 2016, but the 23-year-old died from his burns.

Eric Romriell says that he and his friends did their best to be careful, double-packing the chickens inside a roasting bag and a burlap sack to avoid contaminating the waters. He said, “The way I interpreted it was don’t be destructive, and I didn’t feel like I was.” Dallas Roberts, another member of the group, says he saw some signage indicating they were in a closed area, but didn’t think the signs applied to the hot springs themselves. He agreed that the group wasn’t doing any damage, but added, “I can see that we should not have done that.”

There are countless examples every day as to why we shouldn’t want ignorance to be our new best friend, regardless of how confusing and wild things seem to be around us.

As we have heard for the past couple of weeks,

Easter was confusing;

Easter was wild;

But, Easter was also glorious.

Because of the last fact, the fact that Jesus’s death and resurrection was a glorious event, we are going to see and hear in this morning’s Biblical text that ignorance is NOT bliss.

Just like two Sundays ago, we are once again going to enter into an event that happened on the first Easter Sunday.

This time, we are going to see and hear what happened in the early afternoon following Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

In his biography of Jesus, the doctor and theologian Luke, records a post-resurrection encounter with Jesus for us.

Luke 24.13-35 tells us this:

[13] That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, [14] and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. [15] While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. [16] But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. [17] And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. [18] Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” [19] And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, [20] and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. [21] But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. [22] Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, [23] and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. [24] Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” [25] And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! [26] Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” [27] And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

[28] So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, [29] but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. [30] When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. [31] And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. [32] They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” [33] And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, [34] saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” [35] Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. (ESV)

It has been said that tragedy is often like a giant eraser, cleaning our mental tapes of preceding data. 

Luke tells of two followers walking hurriedly away from Jerusalem, hoping to hit Emmaus by nightfall. Their journey was fueled by the adrenaline that one possesses when life crumbles and survival is the order of the day. They are together, yet alone. We feel the poignancy of their comment when they meet the stranger and tell of their troubles.

“We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel,” they say. … The stranger–the yet unrecognized Jesus–does not respond by peppering them with homey advice (“It’s always darkest before the dawn.”); nor does he indulge their self-pity (“Here, here, tell me all about it.”). Instead he draws them back to what they know, the Scriptures, and teaches them again the things that drew them to follow him in the first place.

The grace of God here is this—Jesus didn’t go to the man and woman on that road with judgment, condemnation, wrath, and punishment. No, he went to them with the answers to their questions and a desire to sit down with them and share a meal—signs of friendship and intimacy.

Jesus desired to correct their confusion and give them confidence in God’s love, grace, and mercy toward them.

A piece of the Good News that we receive in this morning’s text is the truth that the Word of God, the Bible, is living and active, and therefore able to speak into our hearts and minds, at every and any point in our lives, restoring us back to the objective truth of God’s love, God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s forgiveness, and God’s abundant and eternal life, delivered to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son.

The author to the Biblical book of Hebrews, reminds us of this in 4.12-13 when he says:

[12] For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. [13] And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (ESV)

John Wesley, the 18th Century English theologian and evangelist, credited with establishing the Methodist Church, found his ‘Emmaus road’ in London, on May 24, 1738. ‘In the evening,’ he tells us in his personal journal, ‘I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate street, where one was reading Martin Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.  About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.  I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’ 

That evening it was William Holland’s reading of Luther’s commentary on Paul’s epistle, but even as the Word of God was being shared from man to man, Wesley heard the voice of the living Christ and found in it salvation.

When Jesus enters into the life of these two disciples, who were not part of the original 12, their ignorance is extinguished and they end up enlightened.

On this afternoon of the first Easter, the day that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, these two individuals were out for a walk discussing the recent events and news reports surrounding this man named Jesus. 

They had many of the facts, but they didn’t know the meaning of all that happened.

During their discussion, it was clear that they saw the crucifixion but they did not understand the cross.

They knew that Jesus was punished by the Roman government and hung out to die for all to see.  But they did not yet know that this was God’s gift to them for the forgiveness of sin, the imputation of righteousness, reconciliation with God the Father in Heaven, and eternal life in His Kingdom.

However, Jesus comes to them for the very purpose of opening their eyes fully to what has happened and what it means for them.

Jesus showed them that everything written in God’s Word from the beginning to the end is all about Him.  It is about Him working  throughout the history of the world for their good in their salvation. 

Verse 27 of today’s text tells us this good news when it says:

[27] And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

The entire Bible reveals to us God’s great love for us in God’s great grace towards us as God actively chases after us and saves us through the person and work of Jesus Christ.  

Other Scriptures point us to the same good news that Jesus shares with those in today’s text that were walking away from Jerusalem.

Earlier in Jesus’ ministry, when talking to the Jewish population that was questioning his authority as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior, he said to them:

[39] You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, (John 5:39, ESV)

In his biography of Jesus, the disciple John tells us why he shares Jesus’ story with us when he says:

[30] Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; [31] but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30–31, ESV)

And, later on in one of his letters to the Christian Church, he also reminded them of the purpose of his writing when he said:

[13] I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13, ESV)

The apostle Paul even gets in on this train of thought when he writes to the Christians gathered in the city of Rome during the 1st Century A.D. when he tells them:

[4] For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. [5] May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, [6] that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:4–6, ESV)

After coming into contact with Jesus, the disciples were made wise for salvation and were therefore reconciled to God their Father in Heaven through their faith driven relationship with Jesus Christ, God’s son.

What Jesus made clear to the worried, burden, and confused was that all roads DO NOT lead to God in Heaven.

Therefore, ignorance of who he is, is NOT blissful.

Once again from John’s biography of Jesus, Jesus makes the truth unquestionably clear when he says:

[6] … “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [7] If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:6–7, ESV)

When Jesus enters your life, as He is doing right now, several things happen for you, just as they did on the first Easter when Jesus appeared to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. 

When Jesus enters your life, your ignorance is extinguished, and you end up enlightened.

And, when Jesus enters your life, God crushes your confusion and gives you confidence in the fact that you are forgiven of sin, credited with a full God-pleasing righteousness, reconciles you to himself today, tomorrow, and forever, and welcomes you with arms wide open into his eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

Easter was confusing;

Easter was wild;

But, Easter was also glorious.

Jesus comes to you in your initial ignorance of who He is and what He has done for you, or your moments of ignorance later on in your faith journey, not with judgment, condemnation, wrath, and punishment. 

No, Jesus comes to you with the answers to your questions and a desire to sit down with you and share a meal with you—a sign of friendship and intimacy. 

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Pastor Fred Scragg

April 30, 2023