"It Rings a Bell"

 

Luke 24:13-35

Third Sunday of Easter

April 19, 2026

(Note: This was written for a service during which we would be celebrating the ministry of our handbell choir.)

 

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, ¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’ ¹⁹He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, ²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. ²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. ²²Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, ²³and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. ²⁴Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’ ²⁵Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! ²⁶Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ ²⁷Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

²⁸As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. ²⁹But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. ³⁰When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. ³¹Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. ³²They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ ³³That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. ³⁴They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ ³⁵Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

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            Once upon a time, there was a village high up in the Swiss alps, whose small but beautiful church stood on the town square.  To the left of the church door stood a tower, and inside the tower a winding staircase led up to a chamber where the ropes were found that rang the bell on the steeple above that.  For years and years one man had rung the bell for every service and for special occasions.  Then one morning he didn’t show up, and was found to have died peacefully in his sleep.

            That was when everyone realized how central and important this one small task was to the life of people up and down the valley, who had listened for the bells morning and evening, marking the day into morning, noon, and night.  There were people who could fill in temporarily, but the town council wanted a permanent successor to ring the bell announcing the funeral a day or two later.  They sent word out to neighboring villages as well as their own, looking for the next kappelbellmeister.  

            The next morning a man they didn’t know arrived in town, asking about the position.  They were glad to see him, but he had no arms.  Before they even got his name or his story, they asked him how he thought he could ring the bell.  He assured them that he had done the job many times in his own village, and offered to demonstrate.  They weren’t so sure, but thought it was only fair to give him a chance, and they all trooped up the stairs to the room with the ropes.  Once there, the applicant kept on going, up to the steeple where the actual bell was.  They were confused, but he shouted down the steps to them, “I’ll show you how it’s done!”

            He went over and pressed his forehead to the bell and pushed until it started to swing, then stepped back.  “Bong!” went the bell.  On the backswing he ran up to it again, and pushed.  This time it rang twice.  “Bong!  Bong!”  He was developing a rhythm.  The councilmen below were impressed and began to applaud.  Unfortunately, that distracted the man and he lost his footing this time and fell out of the tower to his own death in the square beneath.

            As people gathered there, someone in the crowd asked and obvious question: “Who is this man?”  The mayor felt awful about the whole event, and responsible for the accident.  He was also embarrassed how little he knew.  All he could say was, “I didn’t get his name, but his face rings a bell.”

            There is a follow-up section to this tale, which I will spare you now.  The point is that someone here has heard this story before and has been sitting there politely thinking, “Oh no! Not this old one!” and someone else is hearing it for the first time and is thinking, “I’ve got to remember this for the next time I see so-and-so.  He loves dumb jokes.”

            Our brains are built to make connections.  More often than we realize it, there is something that “rings a bell”, that sets things off so that we realize what may be going on behind the scenes or just out of sight, and we have an “Aha!” moment.  “Oh!” we say, “That was her sister!” or, “I always thought he was up to something,” or, “Now it all makes sense!”

            On the road to Emmaus, two disappointed disciples of Jesus – not part of the inner circle, but familiar with them, and with Jesus himself – were plodding home, sharing their grief and loss at his death.  As they told a stranger who struck up a conversation with them, they were thinking

“about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.  But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” [Luke 24:19-21]

That was when the stranger began to help them make the connections that would stitch their hope back together.  He reminded them of things they had already heard in the scriptures, but helped them hear them in a new way, a way that spoke of a Messiah who would overcome through suffering, not violence.  He helped them see that what Jesus had undergone pointed not to defeat, but to the fullest testimony of God’s love.

“Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!  Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’” [Luke 24:25-26]

The bells began to ring.  Later they would say,

“‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’” [Luke 24:32]

            What finally clinched things for them, the last, loud clap of the bell, was what happened when they reached their destination and invited him to stay as their guest.

“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.   Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.” [Luke 24:30-31]

They recognized Jesus.  He reminded them – they remembered him – in the way that he had told his disciples to do when they were all gathered together for one last supper.  Only now they knew that it was not truly the last supper.  Now they knew that when he said that when two or three of his followers gather together in his name he would be among them, he really would be among them.  That would be true on the road and true around the dinner table.  It has been true in prisons and in hospital rooms and at summer camps and Sunday School picnics and on street corners and playgrounds and in thousands of places we would never expect.

            Keep your eyes and ears open, folks.  It may be that you find yourself somewhere in some position, good or bad, where something totally unexpected and wonderful happens and you don’t know who brought life and joy into the room, but you have your suspicions that Jesus has been there.  Something just rings a bell.