The Emmaus Syndrome

By John A. Wilson

This sermon is based on one of the events that took place between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. Its context is Luke 24:13–35, the event of Jesus’ meeting with two men on the road to Emmaus.

The Emmaus story, recorded only in Luke, has great universal appeal. Luke, the physician, seems to be concerned with Jesus’ healing and restoration ministry. In this story Jesus gave hope to two sad men.

The steps I follow in developing a sermon include these:

1. After reading the selected passage a number of times and working to understand the context and any textual problems, I try to develop the proposition which is a short sentence expressing the main point I believe God wants communicated to the people. The proposition should be a complete sentence, including a subject and object. The sermon should be a logical proof of the proposition. I like to think of myself as a trial lawyer working to convince a jury of the truth of the proposition.

The proposition I developed for the Emmaus Syndrome is: “Jesus Christ is the Healer of broken hearts.”