Easter is Not Over at Sundown
Prayer of Preparation
Mysterious and Divine Presence,
Too often our hearts burn within us because our bodies know before our minds that you are here working in us and through us in this world. Open our eyes, and help us to recognize you in all places and in all people, for the sake of the one whose presence is never far, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sunday Scriptures from the Narrative Lectionary
He is risen! But the disciples haven't realized that yet!
Luke doesn’t say why Cleopas and the other disciple were going to Emmaus. Maybe they were going home. Maybe they had a meeting there. Maybe they were just going there to get away from the terrible, terrible events of the last few days.
They were coming from Jerusalem where Jesus had just three days ago been arrested, tried, convicted, brutally beaten and executed by crucifixion. He was buried. Women had gone to the tomb and came back saying that the tomb was empty! And that they had seen angels who told them Jesus had risen. But that all seemed like such nonsense they were sure Jesus was gone. They were sad, distraught, hopeless.
Frederick Buechner interprets Emmaus as “the place we go in order to escape – a bar, a movie, wherever it is we throw up our hands and say, ‘Let the whole damned thing go to hang. It makes no difference anyway" 85-86). Emmaus might be going stress shopping. It might be having one more cigarette or one more drink than you really want to. It might even be going to church on Sunday! It, for Buechner, is “whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred: that even the wisest and bravest and loveliest decay and die; that even the noblest ideas that men have had – ideas about love and freedom and justice – have always in time been twisted out of shape by selfish men for selfish ends.” It is the place we retreat when life is too much.
Hear it? Feel it?
And so we take refuge in Emmaus.
No wonder Cleopas and his traveling companion hung their heads in sadness and despair when Jesus asked them what was going on. They really thought Jesus was the one, the Messiah, their answer to prayer, the fulfillment of the Scriptures!
Jesus takes time to reveal himself as he travels with these two along the road to Emmaus. He listens to what they know and what they think they know. (Only he really knows.) He dwells in their grief with them. He listens to them recount the scriptures and all of the reasons why they were convinced he was the one. And then he goes on ahead of them – so that they would not be obligated to offer him hospitality. Jesus never imposes himself on anyone.
Fortunately, he had trained them well. They did offer hospitality. He sat down to eat when them and as they supped together the Emmaus of escape and denial became a place of clarity and hope and assurance.
Jesus took bread. (The guest broke the bread – something usually that the host would do.) And with the bread, he reveals his Modus operandi – Jesus takes bread, blesses bread, breaks bread (to share), and gives bread. And those gathered to eat together recognize him.
Every day after Easter we are confronted with the same question. Do we really have any reason to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead or that God is present in the muck and struggle and sadness and hopelessness of our lives? Luke says we absolutely do. Luke says Jesus was raised from the dead and fulfills the Scripture. Luke says Jesus is with us in the struggles and hopelessness of daily life.
And Luke says that the “selfish men” who shape and twist “for selfish ends” will have their day. It’s not always the most satisfactory response to the cruelty of those who twist love, freedom, and justice. Yet, the Emmaus story is the counterpart of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. (You may remember that in this parable, the rich man had eaten well all his life and never shared his bread with the poor, sick man named Lazarus at the end of his driveway. They both die. Lazarus is taken to be with Abraham. The rich man to the heat of punishment. Cleopas and his traveling companion sat with Jesus and broke bread and recognized him. The rich man took no notice of Lazarus until he was in the torment of Hades.) Imagine for a moment, “What might the rich man have discovered if he had shared his bread with Lazarus?" (482) What might those who twist and shape for their own ends find if they understood Jesus? They have Moses and the prophets, we are reminded. That is enough. They should know.
Those gathered at the table at Emmaus knew. They felt fire in their hearts – their hearts burning -with the glory of the Lord, with the victory of the resurrection, with new hope.
Our own sorrows and struggles, and the injustices perpetuated by others, thanks be to God, do not have the final word. “Easter is not over at sundown. It stretches into the rest of our lives.” Death does not have the last word. Jesus has risen. The world belongs to God and Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is with us! In Christ, our lives are to be formed and defined by his M.O. – table fellowship with all, sharing bread, nurturing life for the earth and everyone.
May the risen Christ tend to our doubts and sorrows, draw us out of Emmaus, and raise us in resurrection hope!
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Works Cited:
Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat. (New York: Seabury, 1966), 85-86.
R. Alan Culpepper, “Luke” in
The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume IX. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995.