Sunday April 19, 2026

Risen Purpose

We are in the third week of a series called Risen. On Easter we talked about hope. Mary went to the tomb weeping and the risen Jesus met her there. Last week we talked about peace. The disciples were hiding behind locked doors, and Jesus appeared among them. This week we turn to purpose. Two disciples walking away from Jerusalem, dejected. And Jesus joins them on the road.

This past Friday, Pastor Joel and Candice put their dog Rosie down.

They got Rosie while they were still in college. She was their engagement dog, adopted after they got engaged but before they got married. A friend posted on Facebook that he had a dog available. At the time, Joel was renting a townhouse with a coworker who also had a dog. He was jealous because his coworker always had someone excited for him when he came home. Joel did not. Candice was 250 miles away. So when he saw that post, it felt right.

Rosie was with them ever since. Through their first apartment in Kansas City. Through Missouri. Through Wisconsin. Through the birth of their daughter. Through the start of ministry. Through all of it.

Joel told a couple of stories. Once they left a bucket of KFC on the counter. Rosie got it down somehow, ate some, and hid the rest around the house. Candice found a chicken leg between the couch cushions a day or two later. Another time, Rosie ate an entire fourteen-inch rhubarb pie. Licked the dish clean. Passed out on the floor. Joel said no to the vet because her dreams looked incredibly vivid. Likely due to the diabetic coma she was probably in.

But these past few years, they watched her struggle. Struggling to go up and down stairs. Struggling with the basics of life. So they made the decision a few weeks ago that it was time.

And here is what Joel noticed. Grief has a way of clarifying things. The stories that were frustrating at the time are now some of his favorite memories. The small moments that didn't seem like much back then suddenly feel significant. The ordinary things, her greeting him at the door, her curling up on the couch, her just being there, those things look different now.

Endings have a way of doing that. They make you see what was there all along.

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus knew something about that. They were grieving too. They had lost someone. And in their grief, they did not recognize who was walking beside them. A stranger joined them on the road. They poured out their disappointment to him. They had hoped Jesus was the one who would redeem Israel. But he was crucified. It was the third day. Some women reported the tomb was empty, but no one had seen him. So they were walking away from Jerusalem, away from the other disciples, away from hope.

The stranger began to open the Scriptures to them, explaining how the Messiah had to suffer before entering his glory. Their hearts burned within them, but they still did not see it.

As they approached Emmaus, Jesus acted as if he were going to continue on. But they urged him strongly: "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." They did not yet know who he was, but something in them did not want him to leave.

When he was at the table with them, something shifted. He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. The guest became the host. They had invited him in, and now he was feeding them.

And in that moment, their eyes were opened. The stranger who had walked with them for seven miles, who had opened the Scriptures and set their hearts on fire, was Jesus. Risen and alive. Sitting at their table.

Then he vanished. But his absence did not undo what they had received.

They turned to each other and asked, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road?" They looked back and finally understood what had been happening all along.

And then, that same hour, they got up and returned to Jerusalem. Seven miles. At night. Every reasonable impulse would have said to stay put and head back in the morning. But they could not wait. They had seen the risen Lord, and they had to go tell the others.

An encounter with Jesus clarifies what matters and gives you something you cannot keep to yourself.

Purpose is not a five-year plan. It is what happens when you encounter Jesus and cannot stay the same.

Jesus is still walking with his people. He still reveals himself in the ordinary: in the breaking of bread, in the gathered community, in the moments we might otherwise miss.

Pay attention. And when your eyes are opened, get up and go tell the others.