On the Road Again

You can see a video version of this sermon here.

Luke 24:13-35 

You probably know that on Easter Sunday morning, some congregations gather at dawn for a sunrise service, capturing the idea of light coming out of the darkness, picking up on the image in the Gospel according to John of Mary Magdalene arriving at Jesus’ tomb “early on the first day of the week while it was still dark.”

 

I’ve been to a few of those over the years. But my wife, Ellen, has never been along for even one of those.

 

I’m the morning person in our house. Ellen, most definitely, is not. She says: “Jesus and I have an arrangement. I’ll meet him later on the road.”

 

That’s where we are today. On the road. Again.

Remember this song from Willie Nelson?

 

Art by He Qi

On the road again

Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again
And I can't wait to get on the road again

Think about those words for just a moment.

On the road…making music with friends.

On the road…seeing things that I may never see again.

 

Our  story today from the Gospel according to Luke takes us out on the road…with friends…seeing things in a whole new way. I can understand why Ellen thought it would be a good idea to meet Jesus on the road.

 

The image you see is by He Qi, a Chinese artist currently living in California as the artist-in-residence at Fuller Theological Seminary. I love his vivid use of colors. We’ll see the second part of his portrayal of this story as well as other images as I continue. 

 

I think that much like the two people in the Emmaus story, we’re on the road in our own lives as we try to figure out what it means to follow the way of Jesus. 

 

Sometimes we’re as confused and disillusioned as those two travelers we heard about today. 

 

Sometimes we’re nourished by the encounters we have along the way. 

 

Sometimes we’re energized to go out and share our excitement with others. 

 

So I’d invite you to come along with me on this journey to Emmaus.

 

Of course, finding Emmaus is a little tricky. In the Holy Land today, there are several sites that claim to be that village. Nobody knows for sure where that original Emmaus was, other than about 7 miles from Jerusalem. The folks on the road back then knew where they were going in a physical sense. Their spiritual journey – and ours – is more complicated. 

 

Put yourselves in the place of these two people. They were not part of Jesus’ inner circle. They were on the B team among the followers of Jesus, part of that wider group who had come to look at him as the hope for their future. 

  

Artists’ portrayals usually picture them as two shell-shocked men on the road. That’s the image we have in that Tiffany glass window in the room at the back of the sanctuary that we call the Emmaus room. 

That 131-year old window – the first Tiffany window in Madison – was in our church when it was on the block downtown where the Concourse Hotel now stands. It was in storage here when this building opened 60 years ago but then found this place of honor in the early 2000s.

 

More recent images, like the one from He Qi or this mosaic by Rowan and Irene LeCompte from the Washington National Cathedral tend to suggest it was not two men on the road but a man and a woman, perhaps a married couple. 

 

Personally, I like that image, but what is essential here is that we have two people who are feeling very disoriented and very demoralized. And then they meet a stranger, someone they do not recognize as Jesus. 

 

Perhaps this is because people walking under the hot Israeli sun kept their hoods up over their heads. Perhaps it was because the resurrected Jesus had a new look about him. Whatever it was, he noticed how sad they appeared.

 

“What are you talking about?” he asked them. 

They were amazed that he had not heard about all the turmoil in Jerusalem, the execution of “a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.”

Then those excruciating words of disappointment, even of despair:  “We had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.”

 

They felt alone, abandoned, mired in grief. 
They were afraid. 
They were looking for something, not realizing that what they were looking for was already with them.

 

Let’s pause for a moment and consider what has happened up to this point in the story. Jesus encounters two people on the road and recognizes their sadness. He does not walk on by. He reaches out to them, asking what is wrong. That’s one lesson from this story for us.

 

But when they tell him why they are sad, Jesus’ words in the story have a kind of harsh sound: 

 

“Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!” And then he gave them a tour of the Hebrew scriptures.

 

Let me frame this just a little bit differently. The couple on the road were in deep grief. They were puzzled over the story about the women who went to the tomb and said that Jesus was in fact alive. How could this be? How could any of this be?

So Jesus walked with them. He helped them understand the sacred writings that were their heritage. The Messiah was not to be a warrior or a powerful ruler but someone who would transform the world with his message and his life. 

 

This stranger reminded them by his presence and by what he said -- that in the midst of their anguish and confusion, God was still walking with them.  

 

It’s not only a reminder to us that God is always with us. It’s also a model of what we do as followers of Jesus. We walk with people in their times of suffering. 

Mosaic by Rowan and Irene LeCompte

They were beginning to see something in him that had not been immediately obvious. And then they did what followers of Jesus do – they offered him hospitality – a meal, a place to stay. 

Their spirits had been nourished. Now their bodies would be nourished as well.

 

Luke has just a brief but powerful description of what happened next: “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.”

Breaking bread and sharing it.

 

Folks here do that on the third Monday of every month at Luke House, passing bread around the tables as you eat with strangers you have met. You do that here on Sunday mornings as you invite any and all to share bread at this table. 

In a broader sense, we do that when we put food – bread and other items - in the Community Fridge. We do that when we buy bread and other treats from Just Bakery as through our sharing we open new opportunities for the people learning job skills there.

 

Art by He Qi

The power of Jesus breaking bread at the Last Supper, at this table in Emmaus, in so many places in our lives is what helps us see Jesus in the people we encounter every day – and for them to see Jesus in us.

 

“Then their eyes were opened,” Luke writes, “and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.”

 

The reality of this man they had followed so passionately, grieved so deeply, rediscovered so curiously – the reality of Jesus had not changed. But now they saw him differently. 

 

They went back to Jerusalem and told others about their experience. They did not keep it to themselves.  As Luke put it, “The two disciples described what had happened along the road and how Jesus was made known to them as he broke the bread.”

 

Their disappointment had given way to hope. 

 

Their misunderstanding of the sequence of events from Friday’s execution to Sunday’s discovery had given way to a new understanding of what this all meant.

 

Their sense of abandonment as they walked on the road back home gave way to once again knowing they were part of a community of people gathered by Jesus and people unwilling to give up on his message. 

That experience propelled them out into the world with new energy,.

 

Icon by Sister Marie-Paul 

As we move out of here this morning, we can carry with us the images of this good news from Luke. 

We can walk alongside those who are suffering. And if we are the ones suffering right now, we can be assured that our God is walking with us.

 

We can share our bread. And if we are the ones who needs nourishment, we can be assured that the bread of life is there for us.

 

We can live with hope.  And we are walking the road in confusion and disorientation, we can lean on one another on this journey.