The Walk to Emmaus

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

April 6, 2008

Text: Luke 24: 13-35

Two disciples were walking back home, we presume. It was a journey back to normalcy, to the world they had known before they had met Jesus, before the whole project had come crashing down around them: arrest, trial, torture, execution, burial.

Yes, they had heard that some women had gone off the edge; having gone back to the tomb, they found it empty. They said they saw angels who told them Jesus was alive. But they had not seen him themselves.

The walk to Emmaus, we can imagine was a slow walk. They could talk with each other, trying to make some kind of sense of the whole last week in Jesus’ life. Ambling, sauntering, prancing, marching, slouching, skeedadling, strutting: all forms of travel. But here: trudging fits the mood.

“We had hoped….” They no longer hoped. They had hoped that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the one who could rescue their people from their living death, bring them back to their once-enjoyed glory as God’s blessed ones and destroy all of their enemies.

In little and big ways, we ourselves today say often, “We had hoped…..” We had hoped that this politician or that one would be the one who could lead the world toward prosperity, peace and justice. We had hoped that this man or this woman would be the one who could make us happy. We had hoped that this new discipline would save us from our own frailties----whether it was a discipline of diet or prayer or exercise. We had hoped that getting just the right job or education would make us happy.

When our dreams fail, we move along toward our Emmauses, back to normalcy, as a refuge from the pain of hoping. We are between hopes much of our lives.

So Cleopas and friend are trudging along, and they are joined by a mysterious stranger. It is Jesus, but they do not recognize him. This stranger acts as if he knows nothing about all that has transpired in Jerusalem. So they fill him in.

Then this stranger does the most surprising thing! In so many words he tells them that the women have heard the truth, that the women are not the fools---- they are the fools; that the Scriptures have told all along that this is how things were to go, that Messiah would have to suffer and then be glorified.

Say you are walking with a friend in the neighborhood and this stranger comes up and starts telling you what the Bible really means. You will probably decide that you need to get back home so you can fertilize the rose bushes or trim your toenails.

But Cleopas and friend are good Jews. They are hospitable to strangers, to those traveling through, even resident aliens.

“Stay with us.” They invite him to spend the night. He would be their guest.

(O for the grace to say to Jesus, “Stay with me, with us,” to welcome Jesus into our homes and hearts, to learn from him!)

But at supper in their house, the guest becomes the host. Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then they recognized him.

You can relate.  Maybe you have been trying to explain something to a friend and their eyes glaze over with that look which says, “When will this be over so I can get along to other things?” Then, in desperation to get through to your friends, you pick up the salt and pepper shakers, the sugar bowl and forks and knives and make a diagram on the table. “Here, this is what I was trying to tell you. Now do you see?”

The stranger gave them more than words. He gave them himself, symbolized by the breaking of the bread.

“As it was so often the case with Jesus, God not only spoke the word but he also did the word.” (Willimon)

Then Jesus vanished from their sight, he disappeared. The wind does blow where it wills----and so does the Spirit of God! God cannot be held captive. This risen crucified One is on the move. He has things to do and people to see. And yet, he will be remembered and experienced as genuinely, authentically here every time we break bread in remembrance.

The bread breaking has opened their eyes to Jesus and then his words to them go deeper than the surface. Their “hearts burned within them.” They were deeply moved, not just educated but deepened in their understanding. It was not just information, knowledge that they had learned from Jesus---- it was wisdom. There is great suffering, even death; but God is the Lord of life and death. And they knew the difference resurrection could make.

Their sad words, “We had hoped,” are transformed to “We now hope.”

“We are forever pushing Jesus into some dim, dusty past.” (Willimon)

We start treating Jesus as a really nice man who once lived, taught, died, among other people in another place. But the good news is that we need not wait until some distant future, or attempt to live in the past. For he is back. Death could not hold him. Our faith is not in some idea, some concept, some philosophy. Our faith is a matter of being with Christ, encountering him, walking with him, and loving and serving the neighbor in him.

“The promised banquet table of the Lord is now….The main requirement is the same now as then: “Just as I am, without one plea, but that they look was shed for me.” We come weak, hungry, despondent. We leave shouting, with the first disciples, “He is risen!”

“There are so many things the church doesn’t do well.” Don’t get me started! Like those earliest followers, we are bewildered, confused, distrusting and afraid. “Most days, the world does not seem to have been conquered by God at all; most days, Jesus’ valiant claim [to have ‘overcome the world’] seems simply incomprehensible.” (Forward Day by Day, Saturday, April 5)

But then we come to this table, sharing the bread and juice which we have provided, bringing our lives in our hands. And we stand or kneel and open our hands. And in receiving, our eyes are opened to meet Jesus again. Re-making our lives and our world is not left up to us. “We “leave refreshed, strengthened for the week ahead, renewed by the table fellowship.” (Willimon, page 143)

And we can walk by faith with energy and purpose, instead of trudging back home in the same old ruts.                                                 

"Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts and awaken hope,  that we may know you as you are revealed in scripture and the breaking of bread. Grant this for the sake of your love." (The Book of Common Prayer).

See William Willimon’s With Glad and Generous Hearts.