Our Walk to Emmaus – Luke 24:13-35

The visit of Jesus to the disciples on the road to Emmaus – one of whom is named and neither one who was one of the Twelve – has become a touchpoint for the journey of faith that we are on in this life.  We take the road that lies before us and as we travel that road, we meet the risen Jesus. But it is more than just taking the road that lies before us because it is a road along which we walk not unaware of what is around us and before us for this is the journey in which the whole history of the salvation of the world is opened to us and as we hear again that history, we arrive at the moment that we are in and our eyes are open to the presence of the risen Christ. Back in the 1940s in Spain, a priest saw the need for people to step aside from their daily life and take a retreat during which the participants would be led to reflect again on their faith and commitment as believers in God and the Lord Jesus Christ. It evolved into a three-day retreat called Cursillo – Spanish for a short course – that challenged a lot of the misunderstandings of the faith and helped people to connect the dots in a meaningful way and discover again the depth of God’s grace, mercy, love and forgiveness that God desired them to experience in their lives. In some places, this spiritual retreat came to be known as the Walk to Emmaus as – perhaps for the first time in their lives – people’s eyes were opened to the true depth of the faith that they professed.  Participants would leave that time entering what they came to know as the Fourth Day – the first day after the awakening or reawakening of what it meant to live as a disciple of Jesus and a believer of the truth revealed through Jesus Christ.

Luke has given us this account to show that there were more than the 12 disciples who were pondering the events of that day when Jesus was crucified and laid to rest in a tomb. And so, we find two people taking a walk to the village of Emmaus which is their home.  They are discussing the recent events just as any of us might discuss a news event of any significance. When Jesus joins them as people would have, they are puzzled that he seems to be oblivious as to what has occurred in Jerusalem in the last week.

They begin to share with him what has taken place – a great prophet was delivered up by the leaders of the people to be condemned to death.  They share their hope that he would have been the one to redeem the people – of course, the redemption expected was a physical release from foreign control and oppression.  They also tell him that this prophet – known as Jesus - had predicted that he would rise from the dead, but when the women of their group went to the tomb they found it empty with no sign of a body.

While Jesus could have simply said that he was the prophet who had been crucified but is now raised from the dead and stands before you, he chose to lay before them the plan of God for the redemption of the people as prophesied through the Scriptures. For Jesus knew that they needed to connect the dots, they needed to be able to trace the path and ponder the whole story.

As they drew near to Emmaus – their destination - they saw that he was intending to go further.  But as the day was drawing to a close, they invited him to stay with them.  Tomorrow would be a new day, and the stranger could continue his journey then.

When the evening meal was set and they were ready to eat, Jesus took the bread, blessed, broke it and gave it to them. No words were spoken except the words of blessing, but when they witnessed the breaking of the bread, they recognized that the one who had journeyed with them that day was that prophet who had been crucified. He was alive! He was risen from the dead.  And suddenly, he vanished from their sight.  They needed no more confirmation as to who he was or what had been accomplished through him.  He had spoken all the words they needed to hear while walking with them on the road.

As they reflected on the experience of that walk, they remembered that the words he spoke had touched their hearts and spirits in a way like the times they had heard Jesus speak during his earthly ministry.  They knew at that moment that the prediction of his resurrection from the dead was true.  Immediately they returned to Jerusalem to share with the inner circle of disciples what they experienced.

The appearances of Jesus are all different, but they have one thing in common.  Jesus meets each person at the place where they need him to be, and he speaks the words they need to hear. Each one comes away with an assurance that the resurrection is real and that Christ has overcome the power of death to end life with God. Jesus appears to Mary in the garden - a touching personal moment between Jesus and the woman whom history tells us loved him more than any other. Jesus appears to Thomas whose boldness in wanting to touch the risen Christ is granted that Thomas and others should not believe him to be a ghostly apparition but truly alive. On another occasion, Jesus prepares a fire and waits for the disciples to come on shore and shares a meal of fish with them and then he eats a piece of that fish right in front of them so that it may never be said that his resurrection was a fake.

All together these witnesses give us a picture of a God whose every word was true and who was willing to touch the hearts of people and reassure them in ways that could never be denied. Those first disciples could go forward on the mission he would give them because he had prepared them to walk the walk and talk the talk.    Eventually he would stop appearing to them and they would receive the Holy Spirit in order to continue to share God’s grace, love, strength and wisdom for this life, that people might be encouraged to take the road of faith and be assured that no longer could anything separate the people from God.

The walk to Emmaus is still today a powerful symbol for our spiritual journey and the renewing and deepening of our faith. It is a walk that begins as a journey to faith in God and culminates with the assurance that comes to us through the Holy Spirit.  It is a walk that we are to make every day of our lives.  Whenever we spend time in prayer with God, whenever we take the time to read Scripture, whenever we take time to be in a place where God can meet us, we are journeying to Emmaus.

Each of us begins that journey in a different place and each of us will take that journey at a different pace; but one thing we can be assured of – the Lord will be there to take that walk with us.

AMEN