Luke 24:13-35
I have always loved this story. Maybe it's because Jesus is on the road with them in their grief. Maybe it's because they don't recognize him even as he tells his story through scripture. Maybe it's because of the surprise of recognition in the simple act of blessing and breaking bread. Or maybe it's because there was a poem about it in either my nana's or mom's house. I just remember the first line, "Life is like an Emmaus Road" which leaves it all to the imagination.
If life is like this road does that mean we can only find Jesus when we are scared and running away. This is what the disciples were doing isn't it? It's the only place we can find the disciple by the name Cleopas, strange. Then right after Jesus is dead and in the grave, they leave Jerusalem. Walking on this road, to actually and unknown place. No one knows where Emmaus is, we don't even know if it existed. So they walk this road, a whole days journey from Jerusalem.
They are sad, disappointed things didn't work out the way they wanted. Afraid for their own lives. Even being known as one of Jesus' disciples would have gotten you killed by Rome, at that time. So nothing worked out and they are lost. Lost on the road to nowhere. Yet Jesus comes, reveals how this should have been in scripture. He walks along side them. Never leaving them in fear, never leaving them lost, never leaving them nowhere.
We are on a road we have never been on before. One where we have lost the image of being safe in our homes, safe in our towns, safe in our families. We are faced with being lost and afraid. Anxiety can eat us up and divert our days, or we can see the silent stranger traveling the road with us. We can see how this has happened time and again in scripture. End of the world, just look at Noah and the ark, the ultimate shelter-in-place story. Forty days and nights of rain and then who knows how long until the waters receded.
Elijah takes off for the hills when he fears his life is going to be taken by Jezebel, the queen. He shelters in a cave on a mountain, and somehow God finds him. God comes to him in the quiet, not in the storm. Elijah is fed and cared for enough to continue on the journey.
Today is just the New Testament version of these things. Almost every story we have in the Bible is a trauma story. A story of fear, a story of wanting to protect and stories of how this can go right and how it all goes wrong and a lot of the time, how divided the society is in which these things happen.
The disciples scattering is just an example of how the community had lost hope in the face of fear. Yet we see it now. We can be inspired by it. We can recognize Jesus traveling among us in the breaking of the bread around our own tables. We are never left alone. We are always in this grip. Life may be an Emmaus Road, where do we choose it to lead us?
I have always loved this story. Maybe it's because Jesus is on the road with them in their grief. Maybe it's because they don't recognize him even as he tells his story through scripture. Maybe it's because of the surprise of recognition in the simple act of blessing and breaking bread. Or maybe it's because there was a poem about it in either my nana's or mom's house. I just remember the first line, "Life is like an Emmaus Road" which leaves it all to the imagination.
If life is like this road does that mean we can only find Jesus when we are scared and running away. This is what the disciples were doing isn't it? It's the only place we can find the disciple by the name Cleopas, strange. Then right after Jesus is dead and in the grave, they leave Jerusalem. Walking on this road, to actually and unknown place. No one knows where Emmaus is, we don't even know if it existed. So they walk this road, a whole days journey from Jerusalem.
They are sad, disappointed things didn't work out the way they wanted. Afraid for their own lives. Even being known as one of Jesus' disciples would have gotten you killed by Rome, at that time. So nothing worked out and they are lost. Lost on the road to nowhere. Yet Jesus comes, reveals how this should have been in scripture. He walks along side them. Never leaving them in fear, never leaving them lost, never leaving them nowhere.
We are on a road we have never been on before. One where we have lost the image of being safe in our homes, safe in our towns, safe in our families. We are faced with being lost and afraid. Anxiety can eat us up and divert our days, or we can see the silent stranger traveling the road with us. We can see how this has happened time and again in scripture. End of the world, just look at Noah and the ark, the ultimate shelter-in-place story. Forty days and nights of rain and then who knows how long until the waters receded.
Elijah takes off for the hills when he fears his life is going to be taken by Jezebel, the queen. He shelters in a cave on a mountain, and somehow God finds him. God comes to him in the quiet, not in the storm. Elijah is fed and cared for enough to continue on the journey.
Today is just the New Testament version of these things. Almost every story we have in the Bible is a trauma story. A story of fear, a story of wanting to protect and stories of how this can go right and how it all goes wrong and a lot of the time, how divided the society is in which these things happen.
The disciples scattering is just an example of how the community had lost hope in the face of fear. Yet we see it now. We can be inspired by it. We can recognize Jesus traveling among us in the breaking of the bread around our own tables. We are never left alone. We are always in this grip. Life may be an Emmaus Road, where do we choose it to lead us?
This is a great reminder that we can choose to keep God in our sights, which changes perspective and offers peace.
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