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Children’s Sermon

Luke 24:13-35

Walk To Emmaus

April 23, 2023

3rd Sunday of Easter

Lectionary Year A

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning!
I have a picture of an unfinished puzzle, here…in fact, the puzzle is barely started. What picture do you think this puzzle is going to show? [Hold up first picture - let the kids make guesses]
Those were good guesses! But it's tough to tell what the picture is going to be when so many pieces of the puzzle are missing, don't you think?
Do you think you would be able to tell what the picture is if there were more pieces of the puzzle showing? (YES!)
Let’s see if that’s true…here's a picture of the puzzle with more pieces of the puzzle having been added [Hold up 2nd picture]
Now, what picture do you think the puzzle is going to show? [Let the kids make guesses - most will probably say "elephant"]
You say "elephant" with such confidence. Are you sure? (yes!)
But what about the pieces of the puzzle that are missing - what do you think are in those pieces? (the elephant's legs? a baby elephant?)
Well, let's find out, shall we? [show 3rd picture]
Now that all the pieces of the puzzle are in place, what do you see? [a mouse, a cat, a dog, a horse, a gorilla AND an elephant]
So every time more pieces of the puzzle were added, the better you were at seeing the whole picture, right?

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

In today's scripture story, the same thing is true for the two disciples walking to Emmaus – where the more pieces of a puzzle that they receive, the better they can see the whole picture.
But instead of seeing more and more animals, the two disciples were better able to see that Resurrected Jesus was with them.
The story starts with the two disciples walking to their house and then Resurrected Jesus joins them in their walk.
BUT, they don't know that the person who joins them is Resurrected Jesus – and, that’s because they don't have all the pieces of the puzzle in place, yet.
So Jesus helps them put the pieces of the puzzle in place. And those pieces of the puzzle were:

Stories about Jesus (that's what they talked about when Jesus first joined them) )
Other stories from the Bible (that's what Jesus talked with them about and how those stories fit with the Jesus stories)
Praying together

Once all three of these pieces of the puzzle were put in place, then the two disciples were FINALLY able to see that the person who was with them was Resurrected Jesus.
And once they saw Resurrected Jesus, did you hear what they did? They went back to Jerusalem to help put those same three puzzle pieces together for the other disciples (to talk about the Jesus stories together, to talk about the Bible stories together and then to pray together)

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

And guess what!? The same thing that was true for the two disciples in today's story is true for us, too!
When we learn about and talk about the Jesus stories with each other, when we learn about and talk about the other Bible stories with each other, and when we pray together - then we are adding more pieces to the puzzle that helps us better see the whole picture of resurrection and Resurrected Jesus – including how resurrection and Resurrected Jesus are present in our own lives.
And that's the Good News for today! Let’s pray.

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,
Dear God,

Thank you for Jesus…

Thank you for Jesus…

…who teaches us…

…how to see and then live…
…how to see and then live…

…your resurrected life.
…your resurrected life.

Thank you and Amen.

Originally posted April 25, 2014
Updated on March 24, 2023
Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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