A Good Coach

The Rev. Joseph Winston

April 6, 2008

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
Coaches are very fond of telling parents that in addition to all the health ben-
efits that a child receives while playing a sport, the longest lasting impression of
all will be the life long lessons that a sport leaves on the child.
We all know that the coaches are correct. Football teaches the value of grinding
out a victory. Every successful football coach knows that passing alone has never
won a game. It is way too risky. During an attempted pass, the quarterback might
be sacked, the pass could be intercepted, or it is even conceivable that the receiver
drops the ball. Winning teams must have an effective running game. Foot by foot
and yard by yard, the ball needs to be effectively moved toward the end zone. That
is the job of the offense. The defense tries to prevent this from happening.
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3

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 Playing soccer instills the necessity of teamwork. No single player, no matter
how talented they might be, can score goals all by themselves. Cooperation is
needed during the entire game. When advancing the ball towards the goal, the
team must move as one. Not only do the players need to pass the ball to their
teammates but they also need to execute their plan of advancing the ball while
their competition is trying to break up the play.
Competitive swimming shows the value of practice. You must learn to swim
correctly or you will be ineligible for any awards. If you happen to make a mistake
and swim the breaststroke during an event that requires the backstroke, it does not
matter if you come in first or last. Your time will not count. You will be disqualified
and a DQ will appear by your name on the official scorecard. Even the flips at the
end of the lane must be executed properly for that specific stroke. If you miss
some aspect of your turn, then the lane judge will give you a DQ.
These different illustrations taken from the world of sports show us the power
of the simile. When we compare one thing to another, we have the opportunity to
bring out details that might otherwise stay hidden. The game of football graph-
ically reminds us that life is hard. Soccer with its requirement of cooperation
teaches us that we need to play together. Swimmers who practice show the world
that success often comes to those who prepare.
One way to hear today’s Good News is to only retell the facts and it would go
something like this. Two individuals, one named Cleopas and the other unnamed,
left Jerusalem sometime after the Lord’s resurrection and they were taking the

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seven-mile journey to a village named Emmaus.2 Somewhere on the way, Jesus
appeared to them and they did not recognize Him. Striking up a conversation,
Jesus asked them what they are talking about. They responded that there used to
be a person named Jesus who was a prophet.3 They went on and said that Jesus
is dead and that the women’s vision of the angels was nothing more than sheer
fantasy.4 After telling them that they do not understand, Jesus summarized His
life for them.5 Approaching Emmaus, the stranger appeared that He wanted to go
on.6 The two invited Him to stay with them and He accepted. At dinner, Jesus
took the bread, gave thanks, and gave it to them. During the meal, they recognized
Jesus and then Jesus was gone.7
When the Gospel is told in this manner, something very important is left out.
We do not hear how this message directly applies to us. It would be like reducing
a football or a soccer game to a final score. A reputable coach tells everyone
involved that a single game tells one very little about the team’s prospects. A win
might mean a good season or it could indicate that the other team did not show
2
The location of Emmaus place is unknown. Luke Timothy Johnson; S.J. Daniel J. Harrington,
editor, The Gospel of Luke, Volume 3, Sacra Pagina, (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN: The
Liturgical Press, 1991), p. 392. This is the only occurrence of Cleopas in the New Testament.
3
In the Gospel according to St. Luke, a prophet is shorthand for a person who taught God’s
Word powerfully and showed God’s truth to everyone while changing what is wrong with the
world.
4
It is impossible to see if the two individuals are simply reporting what happened or they are
poking fun at the women’s behavoir. Ibid., p. 395.
5
The term ἀνόητος means without sense and it is used by philosophers for those individuals
who do not understand. Ibid..
6
The Greek reads αὐτὸς προσεποιήσατο πορρώτερον πορεύεσθαι (He pretended to keep
going further). Ibid., p. 296.
7
This pattern follows the feeding of the five thousand (Luke 9:16) and the Last Supper (Luke
22:19).

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up for the game. Not showing our place in the Gospel is like saying the most
important part of a swimming meet is the swimmer’s rank in each race. A coach
that cares will point out how the swimmer’s participation affects the outcome of
the race.
None of these techniques used by coaches will work if the players become
discouraged and do not come back to the next practice. That is why coaches who
understand life long applications of sports have something else to say. They tell
us what we really are learning when we go out and play the game.
In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus shows us how effective a good coach can
be. When He arrives on the scene, He must correct three problems that if left
unchecked will cause His team to fail miserably in its mission to spread the Good
News from Jerusalem to the ends of the world (Luke 24:47). The first issue is the
direction that the disciples are moving. They are leaving Jerusalem without the
benefit of the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16). This means that they will not know what
to say (Luke 12:12). We hear that in today’s lesson when they botch their witness.
The two on the road do not believe that Jesus saved the entire world (Luke 24:21a),
they do not trust the testimony of the women and because of this they feel that Je-
sus is still dead (Luke 24:21b-24), and the two also cannot believe that Jesus had
to suffer and die (Luke 24:19b-20). These mistakes are the second problem. The
two do not yet understand Christ’s mission. The final item that Jesus must address
is that the disciples do not see Him (Luke 24:16). They are blind to Jesus because
their eyes are focused on other things.
As a coach, Jesus knows that the best way to solve any problem that the team

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might face is to first tell them what you want them to do and then show them
what needs to be done. Jesus starts out His instructions with the basics. The law,
represented by Moses, is to love God with your entire existence and to love others
in the same way that you love yourself (Luke 10:27). The prophets tell of the Son
of God who does exactly this. They also inform us of other important facts about
the Son of God. Jesus must be rejected and suffer before He is raised from the
dead (Luke 24:26). Christ’s example that drives these points home occurs in meal
that the three share. He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them (Luke
24:29). The two remember the last supper that they shared with Jesus and all that
happened to Him. They now see who is with them (Luke 24:31a). Christ’s work
in this place is finished. He leaves and goes to the next place where He is needed
(Luke 24:31b).
The results that the coach achieves are amazing. At night, the two return back
to Jerusalem (Luke 24:33) with the correct understanding of Jesus and His life and
they now believe that He is alive (Luke 24:35).
Although you may not know it, we are literally in the middle of today’s Gospel
lesson. Just like Cleopas and the other unnamed individual, we all have set out on
our own journeys to Emmaus. Each of us has taken this path for our own deeply
personal reasons. It might be that work calls us away from the Lord’s House. It
could be fear or doubt that drives us away from the Cross. It does not really matter
because we all have left with an incorrect and incomplete version of what actually
happened to Jesus.
While the mistaken account of Christ’s purpose among us is dangerous be-

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cause we tell the wrong story to the others who are taking the trip with us, the
fatal problem that we all share is that our eyes are firmly fixed on our destination.
This means that we cannot see who is walking right beside us.
Our lack of recognition of Jesus does not deter Him. He come to us and pa-
tiently explains to us everything that we need to know. This is happening to you
right now. Jesus is right next to you, telling you the Word that you need to hear.
When we finally reach our Emmaus, we all come to the realization that the
trip has been pleasant. The conversation with our guest has made the journey pass
quickly and we would like the dialog to continue, so we ask Him to spend a bit
more time with us.
Hungry for the meal, we gather together the bread that we will share. Out
of politeness, we ask the Stranger to do us the favor and bless the bread. His
mannerisms in picking up the bread and the words that He uses to thank God for
this gift remind us of something but we cannot quite put our finger on it. Then
He passes us a piece of bread. Now we remember where we saw Him last. At this
table, (point to altar) He fed us.
The actions that we perform together in the liturgy every Sunday should re-
mind you of today’s Gospel lesson. We come together with some sort of an idea
of what is happening all around us. Even though we do not recognize it at first,
Jesus is here with us and He listens as we tell our version of the story. With His
Word, He acts like a good coach and corrects our bad form. But even this is not
enough for us to see that Jesus is in our presence. It takes Him blessing our meal
and giving it to us for us to see that He is really with us.

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 Coaches are right. One does learn many important lessons from playing sports.
Football might teach you that making a clean tackle or throwing a beautiful pass
is not as valuable as the hard effort needed to keep a church running. Soccer
could be the instructor that tells you the worth of working together to bring the
Lord’s message to the world. It is even possible that competitive swimming with
its emphases on constant practice will remind you that we must study the Word
every day.
Today we have learned how a proper comparison between two objects can
bring out details that one might miss. We saw that clearly in the way that coaches
talk about sports and the realities of life. The Gospel lesson provided us with
another example. The walk to Emmaus is similar to what happens in worship.
There is one other truth that you need to know. What we do here during the
liturgy is in fact a practice. Please, do not misunderstand me. I am not saying
what we are doing here is not real. The liturgy is a rehearsal because it constantly
reminds us that Jesus is here with us but we do not recognize Him because we are
so preoccupied with other things.
This brings us to our final simile. Liturgy is like life.
The meeting with Jesus occurred on the way. That is where He finds us. As
you go about your everyday actions, do not let the journey distract you from the
risen Lord who is right beside you.
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”8
8
Philippians 4:7.

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References

Johnson, Luke Timothy; Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., editor, The Gospel of Luke,
Volume 3, Sacra Pagina, (The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN: The
Liturgical Press, 1991).