Mary Magdelene, Joanna, Mary mother of
James and the other women with them had gone early on the Sunday morning to
Jesus tomb to tend to his body. When they got there they found that the tomb
was empty. Two men in shining white clothes asked them, “Why do you seek the living
among the dead? Jesus is not here, he has risen!”
They ran back and told the disciples.
Many of the disciples did not want to hear what they had to say but Peter ran
off to the tomb and when he got there he found only the grave clothes lying by
themselves.
This is where today’s gospel reading
picks up.
Later that same day two of Jesus
friends were making their way to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from
Jerusalem.
Luke doesn’t tell us why they were
going, perhaps they were returning to the village that they came from now that
it seemed that the Jesus movement was over.
Could Jesus really just have been
another of those wild-eyed preachers, to long out in the desert? They must have
been wondering.
As they
walked, they were talking with each other about
all these things that had happened.
How could this have happened? Surely
someone could have stopped it? Did no one see Judas leave? What happened to
Peter? And what about the women? Was their story true? What did it mean? Had
the Romans or the Priests taken Jesus body away?
While they talked together and picked
apart all that they had heard and seen over the last week and tried to make
sense of how it had all changed so suddenly, they realized that someone had
drawn up alongside them as they walked and talked and was listening to what
they were saying. We know now it was Jesus, but they were unable to see this
themselves. So, Jesus began to reveal to them who he was. He didn’t do it all
in one go, he helped them to put the pieces back together.
He said to them, “What are you talking
about? You both seem so sad, you can barely lift your heads from looking at the
ground. What on earth could have happened to break you so?”
Jesus gradually reveals himself to the
two disciples on the road, firstly by coming alongside them and trying to help
them in their sorrows.
The one named Cleopas, answered Him,
“Are You the only foreigner in Jerusalem who does not know what has happened
there in these days?”
Jesus plays
ignorant and lets Cleopas pour out his story, he simply listens. Do you know
what it feels like to be really listened to? Without comment or query? This is
what they train ministers and counselors to do so that those in their care can
properly work through their problems.
He said to them, “What things?”
They said to Him, “It’s all about the
man named Jesus of Nazareth. He was a mighty prophet who did amazing miracles
and preached powerful messages in the sight of God and everyone around. Our
chief priests and authorities handed Him over to be executed—crucified, in
fact. We had been hoping that He was the One—you know, the One who would
liberate all Israel and bring God’s promises. Anyway, on top of all
this, just this morning—the third day after the execution— some
women in our group really shocked us. They went to the tomb early this morning,
but they didn’t see His body anywhere. Then they came back and told us they did
see something—a vision of heavenly messengers—and these messengers said that
Jesus was alive. Some people in our group went to the tomb to check it out, and
just as the women had said, it was empty. But they didn’t see Jesus.”
He said to them, “My friends, I think
you may have missed the point. Do you not believe what the prophets have said?
Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and to enter His
glory?” Then, starting with Moses and then the Prophets, Jesus walked them
through the Scriptures, through the whole story of God’s involvement with the
Hebrew people. He took them on a journey through the words they knew so well,
words they would have know from Childhood and pointed them to every word
concerning him as they passed. And gradually Jesus revealed himself more. Now
using the Bible as a way to help his friends to truly see him. That man before
them, revealed in scripture thousands of years in the making.
Soon they
came near the village where they were traveling.
This stranger who had been walking and talking with them for the last half an
hour now started to walk on ahead as if he was going further than Emmaus, as if
his journey was not yet complete, which of course it wasn’t but that’s another
story.
When I read this verse, I see Jesus
testing his friends. Had they learnt from him? Did they understand the
importance of serving others, welcoming the stranger? What would have happened
in this story if they had failed to offer Jesus a bed, if Jesus had carried on
walking? Would these two have missed out on meeting the risen Christ and having
their whole world changed?
But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with
us. It’s almost dark and the day is pretty much over. Come, stay and eat with
us. The road will still be here tomorrow.” So, He went in to stay with them.
As He sat at supper with them, This
stranger did something very odd. He takes on the role of host not guest. He
took the bread that was to form the central part of this simple supper of
hospitality, he took it, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them.
Then their eyes were opened, and they
recognized Him. And He vanished out of their sight.
I you can almost imagine their faces
can’t you? Jesus is ultimately revealed to them in the breaking of bread. Just
as he had said in his teaching at the last supper. Do this and remember me.
Jesus is revealed to us in the breaking of the bread in communion, in sharing
that meal he is brought back among us. But it goes deeper than that. While
communion serves an important central place to worship as a ritualized form of
the instructions of Jesus. The last supper itself and this supper in Emmaus
were meals with friends, a time of fellowship, support, and love. In a way,
Jesus says “Whenever you share a meal like this, then you shall remember me.”
When we share food and fellowship with friend or stranger, there we share with
Jesus as well.
They said to each other, “Did not our hearts
burn within us while He talked to us on the way and while He opened the
Scriptures to us?”
The only
thing that they could do now was head straight back to Jerusalem. They
rose up and returned to Jerusalem at once. And they found the eleven and those
who were with them assembled together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and
has appeared to Simon!” Then they reported what had happened on the way, and
how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.
So, what does this, what should this
mean for us? Well I think as well as being a wonderful story it gives us the
answer to a question which I have heard time and again as I sure you have.
How do we tell people about Jesus? How
do we make Jesus known?
How did Jesus make himself known in
this reading?
First, he came along side people. He
listened to their story, he gave them time, he gave them concern, he gave them
an outlet for their troubles to be heard.
In an age of automated tills why do
people go to the checkout with a human at it? In a world with all singing all
dancing bank machines, why do people go to the person at the counter? When we
have telephones, email, and text messages, why do people still meet for coffee?
When we have the GOD channel, dechrau canu dechrau canmol, Songs of Praise and
the Radio 4 Sunday service, why do we still go to Church? Why is it that one of
the things affecting us most in this time of lockdown is the reduced social
interaction? We miss human contact, conversation and touch. This is why ZOOM,
Skype, messenger and FaceTime have become so important.
People need people, they need time,
they need ears to listen to them. It is in seeing Christ in others and giving
them the time they need that they in turn see Christ in us.
Jesus also made himself known through
the Bible. It seems a bit old fashioned, a bit un PC these days to talk to
people about the Bible I know. Christians, like myself, seem more comfortable
with the St Francis idea of Preach the good news to all people and use words if
necessary, but thinking it means don’t use words at all.
The thing is, so few people know any Bible
stories beyond the Nativity and Easter stories. Now is a great time to share
these stories with people who may never have heard them.
It has been said that the trouble with
Christianity is that people have been inoculated with small doses of it since
childhood and are now immune, but this is no longer the case. In hearing the
stories of the Bible shared for the first time, we hear God’s story come
alongside our own.
Jesus became known in an offer of
hospitality. This goes back to seeing Christ in those we meet. It means
offering such outrageous hospitality to those who come our way that they feel
part of the family.
Hospitality is hugely important and
I've experienced some amazing hospitality in St Clears since moving here but
the one time I have really encountered outrageous hospitality was in the
Caribbean Church in Lozells in Birmingham. From the very moment I walked into
that Methodist Church I had fourteen Jamaican grandmothers who saw it as their
own personal mission to fill me up, to take care of me and to help me find my
place in that community. There was even one lady who, knowing I was a student
would regularly slip money into my hand as she shook it and walked off! In that
little Church in the rough area of Birmingham, with only 20 members all far
more tanned than me, I encountered Jesus every week without fail.
Finally, Jesus is revealed in the
breaking of bread. This is the simplest by far. Yes, people can meet Jesus for
the first time in receiving holy communion, after all this is why John Wesley
considered it to be a “converting ordinance.” But Jesus can also be encountered
through the sharing of some delicious cake baked by your Deacon if we were to
start having Bible studies. He can be encountered in the pint of beer and
packet of crisps you share with the chap you go bowling with or the lunch with
a friend you haven’t seen in a while.
Jesus walks beside us on the way, and
asks that we point him out to people.
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