Luke Ch 24 v 13 - 35

Today we are all on the Emmaus Road

No matter how many Easters we have seen, how many times we have heard the Gospel readings nothing is changed. We can’t alter it – as Christians we are part of the Easter story we are all walking the Emmaus Road it’s an experience which is as much a part of our lives as it was for the first disciples.

Many years ago I was in an earthquake. Our tent-like accommodation was far too primitive to suffer damage but I can still remember it clearly. We were eating lunch when there was a rumbling sound – then we started moving, rather like being on a fairground ride except we could see the trees moving against the sky-line. We looked at each other and started arguing about what it was – could it be an earthquake, was this what an earthquake was like. What should we do – being ignorant we decided to carry on eating our lunch. It seemed to go on for ages – it was if time stood still, but it did stop. Then the Greeks came back in and told us off for being so stupid – that even a straw roof could have hurt us – surely we must have understood, known it was an earthquake. How could we not have seen.

And to me this seems something like the Emmaus journey.

The disciples should have known Christ would come back, he had told them so, the scriptures told them so. But like us they were caught up in their own world, they didn’t understand. When we look back at the reading it is easy for us to be like the Greeks in the earthquake – we can easily think how couldn’t the disciples know it was Christ, how could they have missed the signs. But now that we are the disciples do we miss the signs in our own lives? Do we see Christ when he comes up to us, do we miss his message?

Doubt and disillusionment, discouragement and despair:

we all suffer from them at times in our lives and we can become full of fear and anxiety. We feel God is far away and we think he has forgotten us.

We are like Cleopas, as followers of Jesus we believe in the new life he has promised us, and then there is a problem and as fragile people we can begin to lose heart.

And for some people, when problems pile up, their faith can seem as dead as Jesus seemed to the disciples. There seems to be no hope. Like the disciples they move away from the place where Jesus is and feel the need to do something different.

That’s just what the disciples were doing they were walking away from Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus, they were turning their backs on what seemed so positive, so hopeful, they were denying what Jesus had taught them, what the scriptures had taught them.

Don’t we all do that? And yet they couldn’t let the subject die – they have to keep reliving it, arguing over it – they don’t really want to let go of what they had. Then they meet a stranger, but they are so wrapped up in what had happened that they do not see it is Jesus.

Surely one of the most wonderful things to come out of the resurrection is what we learn about Jesus. That no matter how bad things become for us, no matter where we go to hide ourselves when the world seems too much for us, even if we lose our faith for a time, Jesus will stay with us. He won’t ask us for explanations, we won’t have to justify our position, and there will be no recriminations. He will simply meet us as we walk, each of us along our own road to Emmaus, that meeting may be anywhere and when we least expect it. We may be asleep when we suddenly wake up feeling some powerful message, out for a walk, shopping, doing anything,

Jesus will meet us there. In the Healing Service we ask him to meet us at our point of need and he will do this.

He comes to the disappointed, the doubtful, the disconsolate. He comes to those who do not recognize Him even when they are walking beside Him. He comes to those who have given up and feel they do not know where life is taking them.

But should this surprise us? Jesus’ entire ministry was centred on those who needed him the most: the poor, the sick, the blind. Wherever he could find them, he shared not only his love, but whatever else he had, and then finally he shared his broken body as well. The wonderful truth of this story is that God uses everybody to proclaim God’s kingdom, and not only when we are being good and faithful and true, but even in our moments of weakness and faithlessness as well. Just as he made himself known to the two men walking along the road, and then used them to make his story and the news of his resurrection known to the world, so he comes and stands beside us in our moments of despair, calling our name, waiting for us to recognize him, to realize again the truth of his words, to be renewed in faith so that he can use us again.

Jesus comes among us, in countless ways, never demanding, but patiently waiting for us to open our eyes and see him.  It may happen as we stretch forth our hands in prayer, it may happen when we are listening to a friend; it may come as we walk along a road or, like Cleopas and his friend, it may be in the breaking of the bread. He is here, he is always here. We have only to be willing to have our eyes opened in faith so that we can see the Risen Christ for ourselves, so we can feel his presence and his peace as they surround us.

The gift of Emmaus awaits us. Wherever we are on that  road, however many times we have celebrated Easter, let us pray that we never forget that the Risen Lord is with us. We can’t argue the fact that he is Risen, it just like when I was in an earthquake, we may have wanted to not want to admit it, but it was an earthquake, it is now chronicled in the events of the area. We may not have wanted to admit it, but we were overpowered by its power, its truth, and that surely is the same with the resurrection. He is risen, at times it may seem hard to believe, but the fact is something we can’t deny, he rose from the dead for our sakes, he bought salvation for us.

Let us hope that our eyes are always open so we can always behold him in all his glory; and then, renewed in faith, have the strength run to tell others the Good News.

As we prepare to share in that broken body, and remember his presence with us let us pray ‘Risen Lord, open our eyes to see you when we kneel at your holy table, and when we walk on our daily journey in your world. Give us the vision to see your holiness in other people, your beauty in all that you have made. Guide us, teach us, enlighten us, until the night is at hand, and as this life darkens let us see you in a greater light.

Amen.