"We Had Hoped He Was The One"

(1 Pet 1:17-23; Lk 24:13-35) JG White ~ 10:30 am, Sunday, April 19, 2026, FBC Amherst

A friend told me this story, years ago, about a mutual friend. 

It is 1980 in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. Kirk-McColl United Church is in transition, and has called Rev. Grant Walls to come and be their next minister. (I got to know Grant years later, when he was the treasurer for an annual seminar I attend in Truro.) You know how this is in Church, everyone is excited and interested and hoping this is the next, wonderful minister for the church, and for a long time.

So, everything is set for Grant Walls and his family to arrive, and his new ministry to begin. But suddenly, at this moment, the building, the church, catches fire and burns down. Rev. Walls arrives at a congregation with no building!

But Grant Walls’ skills included accounting and stewardship and all things financial. He wasn’t just a preacher and pastor. So, as my friend said, who was a member of that congregation then, Grant was just the man for the job! He rallied people and helped plan and raise funds and all, and in 1982, they had their new church building. Grant was the man of the hour, my friend said, he was the one.

We say, in a spiritual way, a cosmic way, Jesus is The One. We read another Easter story today from the Bible, but it begins with the dashed hopes of the disciples. What happens with such big disappointment? In the midst of Luke 24, this touching story from that evening of the resurrection, we have this most poignant statement. Verse 21. Two disciples are telling the story of Jesus who died, and say, But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. 

We had hoped. But he got executed three days ago. The hopes were dashed of those first disciples of Jesus of Nazareth. We see two folks walking from Jerusalem to a nearby village, Emmaus. Just eleven kilometres. It is a couple days after the crucifixions in the city, and Jesus’s remains were placed in a tomb. But a few female disciples claim to have seen Jesus, and that the tomb is empty. Impossible to believe! 

So impossible, that those two walkers are easily prevented from recognizing Jesus, alive, when he starts walking and talking with them along the road.  

In our personal lives, we have our hopes dashed, from time to time. And on the larger scene - in our communities, our society, our nation - the big hopes and plans can fail. 

Years ago, writer Frederic Buechner spoke of the ‘gods’ of our modern world, which are dying off. (Listening to Your Life, May 19) Forty years ago, Buechner claimed: we all shudder at the sound because to witness the death of gods is a fearsome thing. 

Which gods? The gods that we worship. The gods that our enemies worship. Their sacred names? There is Science, for one: he who was to redeem the world from poverty and disease, on whose mighty shoulders humankind was to be borne onward and upward toward the high stars. There is Communism, that holy one so terrible in his predilection for blood sacrifice but so magnificent in his promise of the messianic age… Or Democracy, that gentler god with his gospel of freedom for all peoples… And we must not leave out from the role of the dying what often passes for the god of the church… the god who, bless him, asks so little and promises so much. Go to church to feel better. 

I think his words are still true, though we might add others to the list we people have worshipped: technology, security, military, commerce, the academy and education. Wonderful human creations, yes, but not one of these is God. So they have their limits. We have our limits. 

It is indeed dreadful when something we trusted fails. What can save us? Who is gifted to turn things around? In the story of Christ crucified, the total failure turns out to be the complete success.

What happened? The One intervened. Jesus becomes present, though hidden, once they get to the village of Emmaus. He speaks, clarifies. Is seen for a moment, and proves what is true and right and good. Proves He lives, a risen Saviour.

It is an ancient story, the story of a hero, a superhero, a special and sacred person to come along, at the right time, with the right powers, to save the people, save the world, save the universe. Scholar Joseph Campbell called it the Hero’s journey. In ancient literature there is Odysseus, Aeneas, Beowulf. There are so many examples, Campbell wrote a book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 

In modern times, the film series The Matrix has its saviour, a man named Neo. He is ‘The One.’ The One with the powers and the destiny to save and make things right. On my second attempt at the theatre recently, I saw the film Project Hail Mary. Once again, one person is the exact right person for the job, the job to save the whole earth, by saving the sun from erosion. Dr. Grace is ‘the one.’ 

We here look back two thousand years to Jesus of Nazareth, The One for us, and for the universe. 

Martin Luther’s hymn, translated by Frederick Hedge, sings:

Did we in our own strength confide,

our striving would be losing,

were not the right Man on our side,

the Man of God's own choosing.

Dost ask who that may be?

Christ Jesus, it is He…

There are many rivals to the hidden Saviour, the One ‘of God’s own choosing.’ But, thanks be to God, there are also many servants of God who follow in the Way of Jesus, and are great healers, leaders, lovers of humanity and creation. The Bible lists them; our lives list them, that great cloud of witnesses.

So, when the Saviour appears, the human response is enthusiastic and energetic. Cleopas and the other disciple, after settling in for the night - at least, sitting down to break bread - they took off and went the 11 kms back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples there. As they set out, they said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us while he walked with us, and opened up the scriptures?” And it was when they shared a meal that they saw it was Jesus. 

In many ways our hearts can be ‘strangely warmed,’ and we find a new trust and hope for our lives and this world. I think, in a couple months, when we celebrate Christian Education Sunday, we will celebrate our paths of faith, our paths to growing in Faith. We will hear some stories of new visions of Christ, and new steps taken.

When hopes are dashed and discouragement floods our lives, we become ready for the surprises of Faith. 

I would end by taking that sentence from Luke 24:21 word by word. But - something wrong happened. Jesus was a prophet mighty in deed and word, but… He got cruelly executed.

But we - we; it was a shared hope that got dashed. We were His followers. Ready to keep following. 

But we had - our hopes are now in the past, the recent past, but the past. Our hopes are over. Or are they?

But we had hoped that - we had expected, trusted, hoped, longed for what we Jews had been longing for for hundreds of years.

But we had hoped that he - He was Jesus of Nazareth. We saw Him do so much. He said so much. He touched so many.

But we had hoped that he was the one - The One, this special role, the Messiah, the Saviour, the Redeemer, the King.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem - to set free, to bring back, to re-establish the blessings of God in the people.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel - the people of God, chosen for a mission, to bless the world. It all started with Abraham and Sarah, long ago. And it started again in Jesus, crucified, and raised up from death! So we are also the people of blessing. Raised up to bless the world. Walking through suffering and pain with a purpose. To follow the words of Isaiah as Jesus claimed to do. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me  

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to set free those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

When it is not a favourable year, when 2026 is another year that people are dreading to get through, what can it look like to speak the Lord’s favour? To bring some Good News? To keep our hope in The One we call Jesus? 

It looks like this. And more. God’s possibilities are endless. Because Jesus the Christ is endless, cosmic, the A to Zed. Jesus is God’s Word, spoken into the world. 

So now, as 1 Peter says, love one another deeply from the heart. You have been born anew… through the living and enduring word of God.