Meeting the Risen Christ
Luke 24:13-35

April 6, 2008


You know this is only about the fourth time I have preached in the past eight years. I led one service at Heritage in January and I was a bit nervous then. I am nervous today too, but then as Gail (my wife) reminded me I was nervous before leading worship and preaching every Sunday for over twenty years. Acknowledging that reality I was pleased when I discovered what the gospel text was for today. The Emmaus road story has always been one of my favorite Easter season stories. There is something about it that I have always found intriguing.

As with most biblical stories we can approach them and try to understand them from a number of perspectives. We can look at the Easter stories of the capture, trial, torture, crucifixion and resurrection as if they are literally true. We can read them as if the details were remembered and then some thirty to seventy years later they were written down exactly as they happened and then passed on to us. In fact, that is for the most part how people read and understand the Bible. Variances in the gospel stories are simply rationalized or ignored. The stories are charged with meaning and millions of people for thousands of years have been guided and inspired by these stories. But we must be aware that there are other legitimate ways of reading and understanding the Bible that can deepen our relationship with the Holy, with the risen Christ and with one another. Bishop Spong of the Episcopal/Anglican Church in the U.S. has challenged many to look at the Bible and its stories in new ways, ways that are less simplistic and more intellectually honest. If we understand the context in which the stories were written it can make a significant difference in our reading and understanding of our Christian faith and what it means for us today. It doesn’t in any way devalue the stories or dismiss them. The stories are the ways in which the early church could express the truth of the experience of Jesus and of God’s presence in him. They do not have to be read and understood as literally true stories.... They are truth stories. Just as a jug carries water, wine, milk or juice, the biblical stories in all their rich variety carry and reveal truth.

So, what actually happened with Jesus, what was said and done in and around Jerusalem that led the church to remember and celebrate God’s presence revealed in Jesus at Easter may only vaguely be seen through the stories that were drawn together by the writers of the gospels. What we can and do know for sure, what is revealed in these stories is that God was present in Jesus the Christ in ways that were so profound and holy that the writers had to go to their Holy Texts, to the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures, what we commonly call the Old Testament, to find archetypal stories sufficient to hold and carry the truth experienced by Jesus followers and by the early church.

So with that introduction, let us not quibble over the literal truthfulness of the stories, but let us drink deeply of the truth that is revealed in and through the scriptures.

The church and the gospel writers saw in the prophets second Isaiah and second Zechariah two key models of the Messiah that would help illustrate the reality of their experience with Jesus. In Isaiah they saw meaning in the stories of the Suffering Servant. He was one who would suffer for and on behalf of the people that they might be saved. In Zechariah, it was in the model of the Shepherd King who cared for the people as a shepherd for the flock and who would even die to help them. It is likely, that when the stranger spoke to Cleopas and the other disciple, and explained the scriptures to them he was referring to some of the passages from these writings.

Let’s take a sip of the story and try and catch a taste of what Luke wanted to convey. It starts with Cleopas and another disciple, quite possibly his wife since women disciples are rarely named in the scriptures, leaving Jerusalem.

Where were they going? We are told they were on their way to Emmaus. But apparently there is no archeological evidence of a place called Emmaus around Jerusalem. One translation of the word Emmaus is “warm springs”. So they are dejected, frustrated, angry, lost, grieving and they are on their way, just a short journey to “warm springs”. Perhaps it was their home, a small farm outside the city. Wherever it was, it sounds like a place of comfort. As they journey they are talking about what has happened and they are joined by a stranger who is traveling in the same direction. He was according to the story, a stranger, not someone they knew, not someone they loved and had followed and listened to for some time. We don’t have to make excuses for why they didn’t recognize him. It isn’t as William Barclay suggested that they were looking into the sun whenever they looked at him over their seven mile journey and at their house, it isn’t that their eyes were downcast for all that time as some have suggested in trying to rationalize a literalized interpretation of the texts. The rich reality of the story is that he was a stranger! They continued to talk about their loss and grief with the stranger. They had believed that Jesus was the promised one, the Messiah, the one who would finally restore Israel to glory and power and now he was dead. Their hopes were dead and they just couldn’t understand what had happened. The stranger listens to them and then begins to challenge their thinking and understanding about the Messiah. He uses the Hebrew Scriptures that they would be familiar with to show them that the Messiah – the Christ must suffer and die…

As he spoke, the rich truth of his perceptions and words began to penetrate the dark cloud and pain of grief. They felt moved and as they reflected later, their hearts began to burn within them. When they arrived at their destiny, they wanted to have more time with the stranger and they invited him to stay and eat with them. In an interesting reversal, the stranger became the host and he broke the bread and blessed it. There in a faithful meal, in the breaking and sharing of bread, there in the stranger who had given so much to them on their journey and in this holy meal, they saw Christ revealed. Can you picture it? They got it. They heard and they understood. It shook them to the core of their beings. It lifted them from despair and hopelessness to a new height of joy and excitement. They were so moved that they had to turn and immediately rush back to their friends, to the other followers of Jesus to tell them what they had heard, seen and experienced. They had met the risen Christ.

The Emmaus story has five aspects according to Henri Nouwen – loss, presence, invitation, communion and mission. “…these five movements in the story are the movements of Eucharistic life, the movements from resentment to gratitude… from a hardened heart to a grateful heart” This is about faith in real life, a decisive movement from the pain of loss to the passion of mission. (Bruce Felger in Word & Witness –Vol.96:3.)

This amazing story is full of truth. The Emmaus story presents a compelling invitation to mission. They are grieving, they are confused, then truth engages them as the stranger opens the holy scriptures to them. – There is invitation, “Come stay with us.” And there is communion where they glimpse the risen Christ and they are filled with a passion for mission.

Fredrick Buechner writes about this story, “Emmaus was not so much a place as a state of mind.” Emmaus is about a way of being in the world – not removed from the confusion and despair of death, but a way of being with the courage to embrace all of that and yet to move toward life.

So as we engage life, as we journey, where do we meet the risen Christ? Mother Theresa said she met Christ in the people she served in the slums of India. Many people saw the risen Christ in her and in her work. The same could be said of Jean Vanier. Where do we meet the risen Christ today? What we have learned is that Christ is present with us always. Christians at our best, seek to be the conduit for the risen Christ – “Let me be Christ to you.” When Bob Kitchen your minister comes to visit you, sure, its just Bob, but may it not also the risen Christ? And when he comes to visit you is it possible that he too may meet the risen Christ?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote in Aurora Leigh, “Earth is crammed with heaven/and every common bush is afire with God.” We can’t make ourselves see. Yes, we can be open to God’s presence in us and around us but seeing is a gift. “I once was lost and now I’m found, was blind but now I see” – Amazing Grace.

Preached by Mark Wartman
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan