In the fifty days
of Easter, we hear all about Jesus’ resurrection appearances. And, you know
what? Jesus never takes a short-cut. People’s eyes are opened, sure; and, yeah,
people see the Risen Jesus. He speaks to them. He eats with them. But he never jumps
in front of them arms wide saying “ta-da!” He doesn’t resort to cosmic card
tricks or spiritual gimmicks. While some of us (like me!) would love that, and,
sure, Jesus wants us to see and know that he is risen but look at how he goes
about it. In the Gospels, the risen Christ accompanies folks and that changes
the way they see. And I don’t know about
you, but looking back, I find that Jesus has been walking me my whole journey
long, it’s just that I didn’t see it at the time. I’ll bet that that is true
for you, too.
In today’s Gospel
from Luke, look at what happens on the road to Emmaus. Two people, Cleopas and a
friend, are headed home after a very hard day, actually a very hard week. It’s late
afternoon on the very first Easter Day, the actual day of Jesus’ resurrection. But
they don’t know that yet. All they know is that they have experienced some very
disturbing things. Just a week before, they saw Jesus ride into Jerusalem in
triumph. They saw him in the Temple. But they also saw Jesus get arrested,
publicly tried, humiliated and then executed. What started out as a week filled
with hope became a very sad and sour Passover celebration because they really
hoped that Jesus would be the one to liberate the people from the very people
who killed him.
But that’s
not all: there’s news that two women saw that Jesus’ tomb is empty, and that
they saw angels who told them that he is risen; two of Jesus closest followers checked
it out and found the tomb empty; and now the grapevine is alive with rumors
that Jesus had predicted that he would rise from the dead!
I suspect that
for Cleopas and his companion it was all just too much…a real emotional roller
coaster…and so many questions…it was, I suspect, too painful and too strange. Who
can blame them for wanting to go home to someplace familiar, someplace quiet. But
home is about seven miles outside of Jerusalem, so they have a long afternoon
walk ahead of them.
As they head
home, Jesus joins them and walks with them. And even though they don’t
recognize him, he doesn’t jump up and say “Hey, guys! It’s me!” Instead, he listens to their story. He listens
to the news…and he listens to their hearts.
Even when he
begins to open the scriptures to them, he does not tell them who he is. He
explains what God has been doing through the whole history of the people of
Israel. Most of all he shows them how scripture ultimately points to and is
understood best through Jesus.
When they get
to their house, Jesus does this little maneuver like he is still going on to
the next town or tavern…when they invite him in to stay with them. Even now,
Jesus doesn’t impose…he waits for them to invite him in.
Then, and
only then, does he take the initiative, picking up the bread set before him and
says the ancient Jewish blessing, then he breaks the bread and as he shares the
bread, now—now! —they understand!
Notice how Luke’s
Gospel bookends the passion with a meal at both ends of the passion. First,
there is Jesus’ last supper in the upper room, where he says “This is my body” and
now, after the resurrection, in Emmaus it is sealed with a meal. It is only
after encountering the Risen Jesus that the Last Supper – and the Holy
Eucharist that grew out of it – makes any sense at all. Instead of a testimonial
to the dear departed founder, it is a living sign of the living, risen Christ.
Jesus does so
much on the road with these two people but look also at what he does not do. He
could have reassured them…instead he walked with them through their pain. When he teaches them from the scriptures, he
could have imposed himself on them…instead, he lets the word marinate—they remember
it as “[burning] in their hearts.” When he picks up the bread, he doesn’t say
“Hey, guys! Watch this!” No, instead he simply blesses it and gives it. Jesus
never short-circuits the process but allows the encounter to unfold at its own
pace until at last…they see!
There are no
short cuts on the road to Emmaus. And thank God for it because in letting their
encounter with the Risen Christ bubble up, these two followers of Jesus see for
themselves that he is alive not by intimidation or magic or manipulation but by
participation. They are participating in their own encounter with the Risen
Jesus.
This is a
lesson that we need to learn over and over again. We live in an age where so
much communication is “directed,” tested, and designed to illicit a particular
response. It’s hard to even go buy a loaf of bread and a carton of milk without
feeling like we are some kind of Pavlovian dog, enticed and steered towards a
particular thing or outcome. We are so media-addicted that we even have a
president who came up in sales, hosted a game show, and communicates by social
media. It hard in this world of relentless information to imagine what it is
like to simply be accompanied by Jesus, who respects our dignity enough to allow
each of us respond to the Spirit in our own way.
I suspect
that when the eyes of Cleopas and friend were opened, it was like a flash of
light. A moment of insight when everything suddenly made sense! It felt new and
exciting. A great and marvelous “A-ha!” And that is wonderful! Ask any teacher
who sees student light up with recognition when they get it. They will also
tell you that these eye-opening moments come after long, sometimes painful,
cultivation.
That “A-ha!”
comes at the dinner table, when Jesus takes up bread and offers a
blessing. I wonder if Cleopas and his
friend had any idea when their journey began that their unexpected dinner guest
would become their host.
In
remembering this encounter, the Gospel of Luke invites us to connect the
Eucharist we do in our communities, whether a simple meal around a table or a
High Mass, with what Jesus did not only on the road, but also in the upper
room, the cross, and resurrection as we walk with Christ on our journey of
faith.
Early
Christians were sometimes called people “of the way.” I like that because we
are all on the road, and that road takes us to the cross and from there to an on-going,
always new encounter with the Risen Jesus. All of us are walking home. We may
wish for a shorter route and we might be disappointed that it’s not always a
mountaintop experience, because in fact most of our journey is rather, but
wonderfully, ordinary. A saying attributed to St. Benedict of Nursia goes “Always we begin again.” But however we journey, we never walk alone. Jesus walks with
us…even if we don’t know it…and we travel in Christian community. Luke’s Gospel
shows us that the way Jesus walked with the two on the road is exactly the way he
walks with us on our journeys.
Look at us!
Here we are, gathered from all kinds of places--our homes, our families, our
work and our school--and we all have a story. We have stories of poignancy and
possibility, stories of victory and setbacks. We bring all of that when we
gather as the people of God around a table… yeah, a little fancier, and we are
arranged a little differently than our meals at home… but gathered around a
table just the same.
A few years
ago, my wife and I joined a group of Episcopalians and other people of faith, in
walking the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James, from east to west across
northern Spain. In following this ancient pilgrim path, every one of us were
invited in our way to both seek and walk with Christ. Our hosts for this
pilgrimage were folks from The United Thank Offering (you know, the blue boxes!)
and the Iglesia Española Reformada
Episcopal, the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church. Their goal was to
establish a chapel in Santiago, Spain, so that pilgrims who’ve walked the Way
of St. James might be able to receive Communion… the traditional end of a
pilgrimage… but who might have felt excluded in the Catholic Basilica at the
end of the pilgrim way. The Anglican Pilgrim Center exists today just a few
steps away from the traditional end of the route.
In our sacramental
living, we are tuned to see God at work all around us. Our eyes are opened. We see the risen Christ. More important we
know the Risen Christ and show the Risen Christ.
So now we go back into the world, renewed, reconciled, recreated…exactly as we were and yet totally new, and we will tell our friends “We have seen the Lord!” … that he is known to us in the breaking of the bread. It’s true: there are no short-cuts on the road to Emmaus but that’s okay because all along the way, the Risen Jesus is walking right beside us.
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Learn more about the Anglican Pilgrim Center here.
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