Br. Luc Thuku, OHC
The Third Sunday of Easter - April 26, 2020
Acts 2:14a,36-41
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
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In one of her quotable quotes, Pema Chodron says, "When there is a big disappointment, we do not know if that is the end of the story... It may just be the beginning of a great adventure."
This is true of two of the disciples we encounter in today’s gospel, popularly called the disciples of Emmaus. They are going away from Jerusalem, Mount Zion, the Holy City, the Lord’s ‘holy mountain’, God’s dwelling place, built strongly compact! (Psalm 2:6, 122:3) The disciples are on a descent, both topographical and spiritual, from this very city, the city of God. They are going the wrong way: they have left their hopes in Jerusalem! The two have given up hope of, or at least are disappointed with, the Messiah that they thought Jesus was and are headed back home to Emmaus.
As disappointed people usually do, they are talking to each other about it. As he always does by making the first move, approaching without intrusion, Jesus invites himself to their discussion and journey. One of the disciples has a name, Cleopas, and the other one is nameless. We will come back to these two in a moment. First let us consider some broad thoughts or messages that today’s gospel passage is presenting to us.
One: The story is happening later in the afternoon of the Resurrection Sunday, and death has been defeated, but the news goes unknown and unheeded. The world is mute and filled with fear. Life has made a full circle from Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday, the city was welcoming a messiah with jubilation and pomp. The Messiah has been crucified and the question is…what now? Unfortunately for them, they were looking and hoping for a different type of a Messiah, one who would reign from the throne of David. They conceive the wrong throne and in their eyes death remains the apparent king. The good news however is that God gives us the Savior we need, not the Savior we want. Israel has just been redeemed, rescued, and saved in a way way bigger than was expected. It can be compared to a teenager expecting his wealthy parents to buy him a used Subaru when he gets his driver's license, but dad buys a Ferrari instead and the kid doesn't know how to deal with the situation...mainly because the responsibility on his part will be bigger!
Two: There is a profound difference between knowing something and believing something. These two gentlemen know their scriptures well. In fact if they are the average Jew, they have the majority of the Old Testament memorized. The issue here is that they know in their mind. The problem is that the movement from knowing to believing is a supernatural act that they were not engaging with. The point of the Bible is not to know the Bible but to know God. You can know something without believing...you can know the resurrection happened but deny it every day with how you live. I can know that sin will kill me but not believe with my being. My behavior will tell you what I believe. There is always a chasm between what I know in my head and the way I walk with my feet. It is therefore understandable when Jesus scolds the two and by extension you and I: "Oh how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!" Jerome teaches that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. The Lord affirms the converse: Knowledge of scripture is knowledge of Christ.
In our Gospel today, Luke is wrestling with answering a question that we have found ourselves posing to ourselves… more than once I guess… if we are genuine Christians: How do I know that the resurrection really happened? How is it not a fairy tale like that of the Easter bunny that lays eggs, or the magical man that comes through the chimney bearing gifts at Christmas, or even those of the one eyed giants that were supposed to come and eat us as children if we lived short of expectations?
Luke gives us three discernible marks.
The first one is Scripture. In verse 25 of our gospel passage Jesus, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, speaks to them, all in scriptures written about himself. The point where Jesus starts should tell us something! Another author of quotable quotes, the Presbyterian theologian Tim Keller asks, “If Jesus didn’t think he could live life well without knowing scriptures inside out, why would we?” Well, if you look carefully at everything from Genesis all through the Old Testament, the ties of activities and stories point to one thing: a life story, a face and a name: JESUS!
One of the Prophets that Jesus quoted at length at the commencement of his public ministry is Isaiah. (And I would imagine Isaiah was Jesus' favorite prophet because he happens to be my favorite, and Jesus and I have a lot in common!) Isaiah gives the people of Israel the hope of redemption by a loving God, who came to redeem us in the form of his only begotten son. This God loves us unconditionally; he is with us and continues with us in and through the small or great things that happen in our day-to-day life. It is he who is reassuring us (in Isaiah 43:1-12, a passage that I would recommend we individually read and do lectio divina on) that we should not fear because he has called us by name, he has redeemed us, we are his! He assures us that when we pass through the waters he will be with us and the waters will not overwhelm us! He tells us that when we walk through fire we shall not be burned and the flames shall not consume us for he is our God, the Holy One of Israel, our savior! He tells us that we are precious in his sight, honored, and loved! He continues to assure us not to fear for he is with us to the end of times. You and I are his chosen Witnesses. We are his servants, the chosen ones; so that we may help others know and believe in him. Before him there was no God and beside him there is no savior. Our two disciples are in for a lecture that doubles up as self-disclosure!
The second discernible point is the Eucharist. In verse 28, we hear that as they approached the village, Jesus pretended to move on but when invited did not decline the invitation. God takes our little gestures of love and makes them occasions for Salvation. He joins them for a meal and then breaks bread and their eyes are opened! When we gather at the table together and invite Jesus in our midst, something happens deeper within us, something mysterious, something mystical, something bordering crazy, something that you and I cannot put a finger on; but one thing it does is to enrich our individual and communal faith. We get courage to do the impossible.
After inviting Jesus and having this intimate encounter that opens their eyes to recognize him. He vanishes from them, yet he only departed in bodily form, for he remained nonetheless present, then as now, under the form of bread. Our two disciples took a seven mile return journey to Jerusalem at night because their doubt, their disappointment, and the fear that doubt and disappointment brings, had been lifted up! The word used for their setting out at once for Jerusalem in Greek is anistanai …"to rise up"... the very same word that describes Christ’s resurrection. They too, like Christ, have been raised to new life and filled with the glorious news, like Mary the mother of Jesus at the Annunciation and the Magdalene earlier in the day at the tomb; they cannot contain themselves! Converted, they make an about-turn and dash off to announce the victory of the Lord.
We hear the same in today’s first reading from the book of Acts. We see Peter also transformed by the resurrection event and of course the Spirit of the Risen Lord to overcome his fear, a fear clearly depicted at the passion, to become bold. He too “rises up” from the death that fear causes and preaches filled with courage, and this led to a mass conversion of about three thousand people! Something happens when we celebrate the resurrection together. Our collective spirit shouts from the rooftops… “He is alive and I know it….not because I have read it but because I have experienced it!”
The third discernible point is that You Meet a Person who has Met Jesus. In verse 31, we hear when the eyes of the two disciples were opened, they recognized him, he disappeared and they asked each other: "Were our hearts not burning within us?" They rose up, returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven and said "It is true; He is alive!" Earlier on, Peter, I guess had said, “I think he is alive,” of course from Mary Magdalene’s account, but seemingly nobody was believing him. The disciples are now confirming: Peter was telling the truth because we had this experience as well!
Now, If I were there when these two guys came back, in my mind I would be saying, Good for you, Peter; good for you, Cleopas; good for you, Nameless guy...but what about me? When do I get to meet Jesus? Maybe some of us are saying the same thing and asking the same question.
The good news this morning, however, is that you have met Jesus, maybe without knowing, because you have met someone who knows the resurrection is real because he or she has met the resurrected Jesus!
If you have never met someone who has met the resurrected Jesus, this morning I want to serve as your proxy. Some of you I know and some of you I don’t know, but I can tell you as certain as the sun will go down this evening and rise tomorrow, that I have met Jesus and the resurrection is real. I will testify about a few times out of many that I have met Jesus and mostly for me it happens when the battle or darkness in my life is at its thickest. However, it is important for you to recognize that it has nothing to do with me. It is all about Jesus. It is all about what he has done in my life, just as he has done in the lives of numerous others including all (or at least most) of you listening to me this morning, and if you haven’t met him yet, I hope today is that great day for you to meet him!
I was with the resurrected Jesus in March 2005 when I was leaving a beloved vocation and religious congregation. All looked bleak, lost and hopeless; but Jesus was there whispering to me all the time that all will be well, I heard the following words very clearly in my heart one morning after a very agonizing and tearful moment of prayer: "I am preparing you for a life that will draw you even more closer to me because I want your undivided attention!" It never made sense at the time but I believed! Wasn’t my heart burning all the way as he led me to contemplative Benedictine Monasticism!
In November 2009, I had what appeared like a mild stroke and it was diagnosed as TIA (Trans-Ischemic Attack). I was terrified that I would get paralyzed on my left hand side that had weakened considerably. However the main issues were resolved within a week. I did receive a lot of visits at the Hospital and prayers were said almost round the clock by the Missionary Sisters I was working for at the time and by friends and relatives. In the midst of the fear, wasn't my heart burning because deep within me and from those who visited and called I kept hearing the voice of the resurrected Jesus assuring me that all will be well!
I met with the resurrected Jesus about two years ago when I was severely depressed and doubt about matters of faith assaulted me, but my heart was burning within me because he was there assuring me: “I am with you...there is grace for you because I am still here”... Words that seemed to come from nowhere! Wasn't my heart burning within me because I knew he was there and it was HE speaking those words to my heart!
I met the resurrected Jesus about two years back when he gave me a job that proved to be exactly what I needed. Not the money-making endeavor I was hoping for, or the rescue I wanted, but the rescue that I needed; a time of rest and healing combined with serving the needy so that I do not lose focus on the calling he had put in me a long time ago of service to the poor and needy! Wasn’t my heart burning within me throughout the duration I was on the job because he was right there with me and in the midst of it, drawing me back to him and back to his plans for me while I was busy taking the direction to Emmaus rather than persevere in Jerusalem!
Dear people of God, there is a difference between a heartburn and a burning heart! And I know from experience that people and events especially in the world, country and times we are living in at the moment, are capable of giving us both with a lethal dose of the first at times! I am however speaking of the later, a burning heart, that only comes from love or a realization that we are loved even when we don’t deserve it, and unconditionally!
Like Paul, I do not come to you with persuasive words, clever arguments, or anything of substance other than this: I have met Jesus. He is alive. He is risen from the dead just as he said! He is with us, He is in this church this morning and in a moment we are going to acknowledge him in the creed, and encounter, worship and receive him in the Eucharist, because if He is risen from the dead and He is God, we can’t do anything else but adore, worship and celebrate Him!
One question to ponder as we take a moment of reflection this morning and for as long as it lingers is...Is your heart burning within you? And if not, what is holding you back?
Thine be the glory, Risen conquering son.
Endless is the victory, thou o’er death has won!
Amen.
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