In the name of the father, of the son, and of the holy spirit. Amen. This text of Saint Luke, unless Saint Luke was a first class liar, and remember it was it was not easy for for Saint Luke to lie. Because when he wrote this, it was early enough for plenty of people to be still living who were well acquainted with these facts or the alleged facts. Now, you see, even today, I'm not speaking of yesterday or last year or two centuries ago or the reformation or any I'm talking about right now.
This matter of our Lord's resurrection is a scandal. That is his physical resurrection. You have within the Catholic church, people who right today are saying, well, you know, it really isn't important whether Christ rose physically. It's the spirituality of the situation that counts. Then how do you explain all this about the the what we've been reading?
If if there was some kind of a plot, if there was some kind of a conspiracy, if there was some kind of a plan, where is the evidence for this? These two men walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, what were they expecting? They were expecting nothing. They were frustrated. They were in despair.
They were hopeless. All their bright dreams had broken as a bubble. All their expectations of of Jesus restoring the kingdom of Israel. And they had no it was the kingdom of Israel. Restoring, throwing the Romans out, and putting the the kingdom of Israel back in the saddle again.
And of course, they fully expected to have first great positions in the new kingdom of Jesus. So that's what they were expecting. They looked upon our lord as a great prophet, and he had done wonders and all of that. They were not expecting his resurrection. They were they were expecting a civil, a political ruler to restore the kingdom of Israel.
And remember, remember, many of these texts from the Old Testament certainly lean in this direction that the Messiah is going to restore the kingdom of Israel. That's what they were expecting. And that's what just did not happen. Their leader died on the cross, an outcast. And not merely an outcast, but spurned as as holy and as completely as human beings could spurn another human being in the sense of degrading him.
There was nothing honorable about our Lord's death. There was nothing heroic about our Lord's death. It was about as despicable a way of dying as human ingenuity could invent. And so, these are the facts. And if these aren't the facts, then where are the facts to support any of these other theories?
So, that's what you're left with, or that's what you have to begin with. You see today, there is no doubt about, first of all, that Christ existed. There is no doubt, I don't care who you are, there is no doubt that he suffered and he died. There is no doubt that something very unusual occurred about his tomb. They are beyond dispute.
Now the question is, how do you explain the indisputable facts? And if you weigh the evidence, I mean, just in any kind of a court of law. If you weigh evidence, I mean evidence, not subjective willing and wishing and desires and projection of one's own own ideas. If you weigh what the facts as that we know, there's only one conclusion, is that Christ rose from the dead. How it happened?
That's something else. There's no other conclusion possible. And for a Christian, why should we want any other conclusion? What why? Because these very same Remember, these ambiguous prophecies Notice how our blessed Lord, in talking to those disciples from going from Jerusalem to Emmaus, when he's talking about the Messiah, and vindicating vindicating the character of the Messiah, he appeals to prophecy, to the old law, to the prophets, that Christ fulfilled the law.
He fulfilled the prophecies made about the Messiah. Because, as I say, I'm saying it very boldly and frankly, many of these texts are ambiguous about the kingdom of God, the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, and the Messiah and his ruler. Of course, they can be interpreted as a physical ruler, political, or as a spiritual ruler. And our blessed Lord appeals to that to those prophecies. This is worth thinking about, extremely so.
This is what carried so much weight in convincing. So, you see, we cannot emphasize too much the importance of our Lord's resurrection. Saint Paul says, if Christ be not risen, in vain is your faith. In vain. And our Lord's resurrections rests upon the most indisputable facts.
And the only way you can eliminate them is to eliminate the evidence. As I say, what Christian wants to do that? What reasonable person wants to do that? The name of the Father, and of the Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.