Year A

Luke 24:13-35

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Road That Opens Eyes

In the course of a lifetime, we travel many different roads. Of course, there are the paved roads as we go to and fro but we also travel unpaved roads that can bring discovery, wonder, joy, tragedy, and disappointment. It was the road of deep disappointment that the two disciples traveled in today’s story. It takes two hours or more to walk seven miles, and that is how long these two disciples have to talk over the roller coaster events of the past three days; the trail, the crucifixion, the silent procession to the tomb and then, the women’s vision of angels, the empty grave. Real death, yet, now the rumor was that he had risen. Someone said that someone said his tomb was empty, but that could mean anything. Even those who saw him in the flesh had a hard time convincing anyone else it was true.

Thomas did not buy it, not until he had seen for himself and with only seven resurrection appearance stories before Jesus ascended to heaven, not everyone would see the resurrected Christ leaving many people to weigh the evidence for themselves, to listen to the testimony of those who were there and decide if, and what they would believe. This was the situation faced by Luke’s church at the time of the writing of his gospel. It was the situation Paul addressed in his letters to the churches of Asia Minor. It is our situation today. None of us were there for the death or the rumored resurrection. All of us have to make a decision about the truth we have heard. But if it is all true, if the Lord is risen indeed, then we may have based our decision to believe on an encounter with the living God. Yet, we still may question, how do we encounter this living God? For Luke, the answer is somewhere on the road between here and Emmaus.

It was on the road to Emmaus, as the disciples are talking over the events of the past days, that a stranger comes up behind them and asks them what they are talking about. Jesus appeared as a stranger to them because as the scriptures tell us their eyes were restrained in such a way that they were unable to recognize this stranger. Almost immediately Cleopas and the other disciple, who according to tradition was either Peter or James, stopped and began to describe the destruction of their dreams. They had been convinced that Jesus was a great prophet. A prophet of marvelous deeds, a prophet who gave great promise of delivering Israel again to the golden age changing everything, but those hopes had been dashed.

There had been a moment of confusion earlier that Easter morning when some women had gone to the tomb and started the rumor that Jesus had been raised from the dead. But most people were not taking this news seriously. “Nonsense”, they said. Peter had been to the grave as well, but he did not see Jesus, only a shroud lying in the corner of the tomb. So, discouraged and with sadness they spoke to the stranger of the travesty perpetrated by the state, the torture, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, as they headed to Emmaus to take up their old life once again.

We, who read the gospel from the other side of Easter, can forget how hard it was for the disciples to believe. In and of itself the empty tomb did not convince them. Convincing them would require intimate, personal encounters, and over the next six weeks Jesus provided exactly that with one such encounter occurring on that road to Emmaus. Those disciples were not prepared to believe even after walking with him before his death, until Jesus allowed their eyes to be opened and later Jesus rebukes the disciples because of their lack of faith and because they were not prepared to believe until they had seen him. He said to them, “How foolish you are, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. It is significant that Jesus did not choose to open their eyes right away to give them the eyewitness proof they wanted. He certainly could have but he chose to remain hidden because they did not yet understand the way of the cross. Even though he had begun to show them early in his ministry that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed and raised on the third day.

So beginning with Moses, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning him-self. But the two travelers to Emmaus still did not respond because they were too concerned and blinded with their own grief and fears. Sound familiar, we are often blinded by our concerns, our hopes, our needs, and our troubles and often we do not realize it is him. Just like those first disciples, our lives are filled with walks to Emmaus and as Jesus walks beside us and within us, he just waits, hoping, we will recognize him. But his presence will not bring understanding if we are not open to him, if we do not allow him to be a part of our lives, and if we do not understand the way of the cross ourselves. Each of us has to come to recognize his risen presence in our lives.

Jesus tells us and shows us how we can recognize him. When he joined the travelers to Emmaus he revealed that in the scripture and in his presence we see the reality of God. Cleopas and the other disciple recognized him as the risen Lord as he broke the bread during the meal. Their eyes were opened. And, even after he has ascended to God, we can continue to meet him in the scriptures and in his presence at the table in the bread and wine. But it was only after Jesus had ascended that later reflection let the disciples see the revelation in this experience with him. And sometimes that is what we have to do. Reflect upon an experience to realize our Lord was there walking with us. It is then our hearts burn within us and like those disciples, who when their eyes were opened they could not keep the good news to themselves, neither can we.

The risen Lord comes to meet his frightened and disbelieving disciples to bring them from doubt to faith in order to recruit them as witnesses and to call them to preach good news. In the name of Christ and in the power of the Spirit, the disciples will preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations. Clearly Jesus tells all his disciples that “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The risen Christ tells us his coming among us is to set a fire in our hearts that won’t be quenched until we are covering the ends of the earth with the good news. Our Lord shows us that we can recognize Him, in our lives by studying the scriptures, by recognizing him in the breaking of the bread, by listening for his personal call, by knowing him as the God who suffers with us to reveal God’s self, and by experiencing God’s power at work in our lives as we work to spread the gospel.

Frederick Buechner, priest and author once wrote “Sacred moments, the moments of miracle, are often everyday moments, the moments which, if we do not look with more than our eyes or listen with more than our ears, reveal only….a garden, a stranger coming down the road behind us, a meal like any other meal. But is we look with our hearts, if we listen with our being and imagination…what we may see is Jesus himself.” Then, we too with joy can say, “our eyes have been opened and we have seen the Lord.”