Luke 24:13-35: when Jesus is hard to recognize

I must admit that I struggled for some time trying to pick the right text for this past Sunday.  It is true that Easter helps narrow it down a little bit- something about the resurrection would be good.  But as ministers we are faced with a unique challenge when it comes to Easter and Christmas.  How do we bring an expected story in unexpected ways?  It was this struggle that led me to choose Luke 24:13-35 as the basis of my sermon.  It's a text about resurrection to be sure, but probably not the usual suspect when it comes to what the people are expecting to hear.  No empty tombs or angels arrayed in white here; simply a journey on a road leaving Jerusalem, with nothing but disappointment and disheartening experiences over our shoulders.
As I discussed my passage selection with another friend of mine in the ministry, he said something that confirmed my suspicion that perhaps there is something in this text that we as Christians need to hear, especially at Easter.  He said "most of us who have grown up in the church have had road to Emmaus experiences instead of road to Damascus experiences.  When we look back we see the Lord."  I think he's right.  There is something about this text that speaks to us because it reminds us that after the resurrection there is life to be lived, and work to be done. 
As the story goes, a pair of disciples are leaving Jerusalem after the events of the crucifixion and "rumored" resurrection.  During their journey to Emmaus the disciples fall in with a stranger, who unbeknownest to them, is actually Jesus.  In a bit of irony, the disciples express amazement at this strangers apparent ignorance of the recent days events, and they begin to actually recount to the risen Jesus all the things that have taken place in Jerusalem over the past week.  Their story is riddled with dejection, as they describe the high hopes that they had for their crucified master, even suggesting that he was the prophet like Moses that Israel had been waiting for, that he was the one who was to "redeem" Israel.  It seems to me that the disciples failure to understand God's working in the events that they describe is twofold.  First, they embrace the promise but not the pain of God's plan.  A brief glance at the career of Israel's prophets would show that while they brought words of hope (and sometimes judgment), they also paid a steep price to do so.  While it's easy for us to see their mistake, and perhaps even ask how they could be so blind, it isn't as easy to ask ourselves honestly whether we are guilty of making the same mistake ourselves.  Do we, like the disciples, embrace all of the promise but none of the pain that comes with following Christ?  The popularity of the "prosperity gospel" with so many Americans tells me that we do.  When we do embrace the blessings, all the while completely ignoring the pain that comes with discipleship, we only set ourselves up for crisis' of faith that loom on the horizon.  Make no mistake, ignoring pain does not abolish its existence as a reality in our world.  For that reason, we are better off to always remember that Jesus' call to take up our cross and follow him is a call composed of both promise and pain.  The difference, and this is the thing that makes the gospel the gospel, is that the promise will always outlive the pain. 
When I was a runner in high school, there was a saying that was popular in cross country circles.  The saying was "pain is temporary, pride is forever."  In other words, while it may hurt to push that extra little bit in practice, that pain will never outlast the pride of running faster than you have before (and hopefully faster than whoever you're racing that day).  I mention this because it leads us into the second mistake that the disciples made.  They associated Christ' crucifixion with permanent defeat, even seeming to give His death on the cross as the reason why he in fact would not be the one to redeem Israel.  There's that irony again.  The very thing that has led to the disciples deep depression over Jesus seeming failure to redeem Israel is in fact the very method by which Jesus would do just that.  Perhaps if I could borrow and edit the old phrase that was so popular when I was a runner, we could say that "the cross is temporary, but resurrection is forever."  Jesus sacrifice on the cross was an event fixed in time, and yet its salvific effects that find their expression in the resurrection are eternal.  We should note that the cross did have a major role to play in God's plan, and our instruction to take up our crosses and follow Christ ensures us that at some point we to will be made to suffer for our faith.  And yet, our pain will always be swallowed up in the victory that is Christ's resurrection. 
I can't really blame the disciples for not recognizing Jesus.  Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine that they would be following a crucificed Lord.  The question for contempory Christians is do others recognize in us their crucified Lord?  Do they see through our actions a God whose love is demonstrated in sacrifice?  Like the disciples who came before them it might not be what they are expecting, but I guarantee you it's what they need.