Luke 24.13-35
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| Christ on the Road to Emmaus Anonymous 18th Century American |
There are certainly times when this safety is needed for our
mental health. It is not possible to be on the edge of life all the time. But
there is also a chance that we might get stuck in the comfortable. When this
happens, we look back and realize that years have passed, our outward appearance
has changed, but our lives, not so much. The goals we dreamed of accomplishing
are unfulfilled and we are stumbling to realize how we might make a
contribution for the good of the world. We realize that we were distracted from
our goals because we were worried about ridiculously insignificant things, we
were holding tightly to grudges against people who once treated us unfairly, or
harbored feelings of despair when we lacked the wisdom to know the things that
were beyond our ability to control.
Our Gospel lesson today begins with two disciples walking
along a country road on Easter Day. They had heard rumors of resurrection, but
they were not convinced. All they knew was that the tomb was empty and that two
women, who like them were disciples, claimed to have seen an angel. As they
traveled together on that Emmaus Road, they wondered what they might do next.
We don’t know, but we expect that they had given up on their calling, that is,
to follow Jesus. They saw him nailed to the cross, they witnessed the scourging
and possibly even witnessed him take his last breath. And for all they knew,
Jesus was gone, his body stolen, and everything hoped for, lost. We don’t know
much about these two disciples other than one was named Cleopas. They were the
second-string, not the disciples called by name at the beginning of Jesus’
ministry and who later joined with Jesus at the Last Supper. These two walking
on this road weren’t Peter, Andrew, James or John. Those disciples were
secluded in a Jerusalem room for fear of persecution.
On this first Easter Day, the third day after Jesus’
crucifixion, these two disciples were traveling to a place called Emmaus.
Emmaus is one of the geographical mysteries of the New Testament. Pilgrims have
argued about its location for centuries. Some sources say it is a place 60
stadia or about 7½ miles from Jerusalem (as it states in the translation we
heard, today) and others claim it to be nearly a 20-mile journey. It is
unlikely that we will ever know, for sure, where Emmaus was. Being that they
made it there and back on foot in one day, the 20-mile figure seems, unlikely.
But so does the 7½.
It is also not clear why these disciples had embarked on
this “Road to Emmaus” when there were so many exciting things happening in
Jerusalem. Were they going home,
or trying to find work, were they in search of safe refuge from religious
persecution, or was it an escape from the overwhelming despair of what we now
call the Passion. We enter the story as they discuss the tumultuous events and
report them to Jesus, who appeared to them as just another traveler on that
same country road, a stranger in their midst. They report to Jesus how he had
been betrayed, crucified, put in a tomb, and then, after the Sabbath, how two
women found the tomb empty and had reported to the disciples that they had seen
angels proclaiming a miraculous resurrection.
Instead of acknowledging their grief, Jesus began to teach.
It is quite unfortunate that we don’t have an unabridged record of his
conversation with the disciples. Luke summarized Jesus’ teaching by writing,
“Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the
things about himself in all the scriptures.” (Luke 24.27) What we do know is
that, later, the disciples claimed to have felt a “burning in their heart.”
The Christian writer Frederick Beauchner describes our road
to Emmaus as “the place we go in order to escape.” (The Magnificent Defeat,
85-86) It might be the commute,
the golf course, sitting in front of the television, a shopping excursion, or
other routine places that provide safe harbor in our lives. The Road to Emmaus,
for us, may even be the act of coming to worship. The problem with traveling
this road in our life is that we are often consumed by the craziness of our own
problems or the problems of the world, or the problems of the world that we
believe are stacked, personally, against us. We are so distracted by this
peripheral, and never-ending, noise that we fail to see God walking along
beside us, even calling us.
I’m not blaming, I am just acknowledging the reality of
human existence, from the disciples who took the Road to Emmaus on that first
Easter, to each and every one of us as we get caught up in our own sense of
self.
As we retreat to those places that make us feel comfortable,
that help us gain footing, we must not get stuck there, forever. We must be
aware of the strangers in our midst, the voices that burn in our hearts,
When Jesus taught Cleopus and that other disciple the heart
of the scripture, from Moses through all the prophets, his teaching changed
them, forever. When they came to their destination, they invited Jesus to join
them. They invited the stranger into their midst. Jesus had taught them that by
serving the forgotten, the strangers and the marginalized, that they would be
serving God. (Matthew 25.40) And by opening their lives in service, they also
witnessed the resurrection. As they sat down to eat, the stranger broke bread
and their eyes were opened and they came to realize that if they can overcome
the tendency to look inward, God is speaking to them and walking with them on
all the paths of their lives.
We follow in the footsteps of these two disciples. Like
them, we can often become complacent, we can become so caught up in the moment,
that we overlook the obvious. We can become so convinced we are right, that we
miss new opportunities to grow into our fuller selves. We can feel so sorry for
the terrible things that happen in our lives, that we forget to listen to our
hearts.
We cannot be satisfied with cruise control. We cannot hide
in the safety of our routines, our safe places, while injustice pervades the
world in which we live. We are called to listen, learn, and heed the call of
our heart. We can come to realize
this in the breaking of the bread, the reminder that God continues to feed us.
We can come to realize this through the testimony of our fellow disciples. We
can come to realize this by opening our eyes to see those strangers who
intersect our contentment. We can see God in all of these places: God warms our
hearts and fills us with Spirit.
Be Aware! Welcome the stranger, serve others, and in doing
so, find God. As we continue to celebrate the great gift of resurrection, the
grace of God that exists always and forever, remember the responsibility of
that calling, to love one another as God loves us or as we heard from 1st
Peter, “Love one another deeply from the heart.”
Let us pray…
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples
in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in
all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, Collect for
the Third Sunday of Easter)
May 8, 2011
Easter 3A
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