Recognizing Jesus in the Road to Emmaus Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008
Luke 24:13-33
33 year olds? – tell the story of my first funeral at Humber – people would not leave the grave
Jesus was 33 – not just a young mother, but “we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel”
Tell the story – the shock, the fear, the disillusionment of the two disciples…
Have you ever been living in a tragedy, and you meet a friend who has no idea what you are going through and they need to be brought into your pain – our friend showing up at the door when we almost lost Hayley “On second thought, my day is just fine.”
The two disciples on the road experience the same thing.
Read Luke 24:13-33
The difficulty of recognizing Jesus in pain
Not just the Emmaus disciples – Mary Magdalene thinks Jesus is the Gardener at first, until He says her name,
The 11 Disciples, think he is a ghost until he invites them to touch him
In John’s telling, Thomas says he won’t believe until he sees the wounds.
When Jesus meets Saul (Paul) on the road to Damascus, Saul has to ask who he is – not described as a vision, but as the risen Jesus
And us – do you see Jesus?
For many, the old hymn doesn’t ring true…
He Lives
Alfred H. Ackley
I serve a risen Saviour; He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living, whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him He’s always near.
He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.
Nicholas – “I don’t see him so well”
Recognizing Jesus
Jesus promises us that he will be with us to the very end of the age.
I believe the hymn – but I don’t always experience it
I also believe that “special appearances” happen more often that we might think – Doe’s conversion experience
Hindsight
After Jesus opens their eyes, it was in hindsight that they realized that it was Jesus who had been with them all along.
Particularly when we are in pain, it is hard to recognize Jesus’ presence – we are likely to quote the psalms as he did himself, crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But as we reflect on our experiences, this is often where we recognize that Jesus has been with us.
This was one of the good things about the D.R. trip – the evenings were slow enough that we could spend some time and reflect on the day – both as a group and individually. I had the added bonus of a retreat after the team left to be able to reflect. It is often hard to find the time to reflect in Toronto – we are usually too exhausted at the end of the day, or the TV is too enticing to sit in quiet and recollect where we saw the risen Christ today. But the reality is that you don’t ever “find” time – you only make time to do what is important.
You may have given something up for Lent, so in the Easter season I’m going to invite you to add something. Take a few minutes at the end of each day for hindsight – ask yourself, “where did I see the Risen Christ today?” Ask Jesus in prayer, “where were you today?”
Burning Hearts
After Jesus disappears from their sight, they ask each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Our experience of Jesus is not always something that we recognize with our brains.
On the wall of a little alcove at Crossroads, Janna had written “It is the heart that experiences God, not the reason.” I’m not sure that that is always true, but it is true that our heads can get in the way of what our hearts are telling us. It is true that we often feel Jesus’ presence before we recognize it with our reason.
We need to pray that song “open the eyes of my heart…I want to see you.
This doesn’t mean that we turn our brains off to experience the risen Christ, but we let our hearts take the lead. When your heart is burning within you, experience the burn before you analyze it. …
The Meal
In retrospect, they recognize that their hearts were burning, but where they actually recognize Jesus is when he breaks the bread. You can imagine them telling the other Disciples: “you know the way that he always does it – well he did it that way! and when he did it that way it was like we were cured from blindness and we saw what we should have seen all along – it was Jesus!”
Robert Webber – Run to the Table
When we share communion, Jesus says, “This is me, this is my body, this is my blood…”
Christians have believed that Jesus is especially present at the meal for 2,000 years, and we have tried to explain his presence in many different ways. I think that we should have spent less time trying to explain it and more time experiencing his presence.
Just as Cleopas and his friend recognized Jesus when he broke the bread, we too meet Jesus at the meal – it is more than just a memorial mention, we meet him there.
Not just at the monthly communion service. – Jesus says that whenever we eat and drink, we should remember him.
You can share communion with your friends and family – you don’t need a priest
I think that we should do something to remind ourselves that Jesus is present at every meal – the D.R. hand-washing, breaking bread…
His Voice
– Mary Magdalene recognizes Jesus when he speaks her name
– Learn the sound of Jesus’ voice in the gospel,
– re-member the times he has spoken to you before
Service
The only other place that Jesus promises his presence in the Gospel is when we serve those less fortunate than ourselves. He says that when we give the hungry something to eat, when we give the thirsty something to drink, when we invite the stranger in, when we clothed the needy, when we look after the sick, when we visit the prisoner we will be doing those things to him.
If you want to experience Jesus presence, serve the poor – it is his promise.
If you pray earnestly, “open the eyes of my heart, I want to see you,” then serve the poor – it is his promise
This is why we go to the DR – to meet Jesus
This is why we take others down there – so that they will meet Jesus
Wanting my Children to meet Jesus
This is what Dorothy Day, the founder of Catholic Workers writes about Jesus presence, the poor, and Easter:
The Mystery of the Poor
Dorothy Day
ON HOLY THURSDAY, truly a joyful day, I was sitting at the supper table at St. Joseph’s House on Chrystie Street and looking around at all the fellow workers and thinking how hopeless it was for us to try to keep up appearances.
I looked around and the general appearance of the place was, as usual, home-like, informal, noisy, and comfortably warm on a cold evening. And yet, looked at with the eyes of a visitor, our place must look dingy indeed, filled as it always is with men and women, some children too, all of whom bear the unmistakable mark of misery and destitution. Aren’t we deceiving ourselves, I am sure many of them think, in the work we are doing? What are we accomplishing for them - anyway, or for the world or for the common good? “Are these people being rehabilitated?” is the question we get almost daily from visitors.
They also ask the question: “How can you see Christ in people?” And we only say: It is an act of faith, constantly repeated. It is an act of love, resulting from an act of faith. It is an act of hope, that we can awaken these same acts in their hearts, too, with the help of God.
On Easter Day, on awakening late after the long midnight services in our parish church, I read over the last chapter of the four Gospels and felt that I received great light and understanding with the reading of them. “They have taken the Lord out of His tomb and we do not know where they have laid Him,” Mary Magdalene said, and we can say this with her in times of doubt and questioning. How do we know we believe? How do we know we indeed have faith? Because we have seen His hands and His feet in the poor around us. He has shown Himself to us in them. We start by loving them for Him, and we soon love them for themselves, each one a unique person, most special!
In that last glorious chapter of St. Luke, Jesus told His followers, “Why are you so perturbed? Why do questions arise in your minds? Look at My hands and
My feet. It is I Myself. Touch Me and see. No ghost has flesh and bones as you can see I have.” They were still unconvinced, for it seemed too good to be true. “So He asked them, ‘Have you anything to eat?’ They offered Him a piece of fish they had cooked which He took and ate before their eyes.
How can I help but think of these things every time I sit down and look around at the tables filled with the unutterably poor who are going through their long-continuing crucifixion. It is most surely an exercise of faith for us to see Christ in each other. But it is through such exercise that we grow and the joy of our vocation assures us we are on the right path.
The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for Him. It is the only way we have of knowing and believing in our love. The mystery of poverty is that by sharing in it, making ourselves poor in giving to others, we increase our knowledge of and belief in love.
Christ is Risen
Christ is Risen Indeed – Hallelujah!
Go out and find him – reflect on where you saw him in your day, listen to your burning heart, find him in the breaking of bread, listen for his voice in the scripture and your inner ear, and find him in service to the poor.
Christ is Risen – go find him
