Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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The story is a sorrowful one, at least at its beginning. Two men, obviously broken in spirit, walking at dusk along a dirt road toward a nothing little town. (We don't know if Emmaus was their home, or merely a town on the way to somewhere else, or just a place to escape the misery of Jerusalem.) Two men who had had the mainstay of their hope kicked out from under them. Two men who could not imagine a future. Two men who were dry as dust inside. And they are speaking to each other, but there is no enthusiasm in their words. They're just rehashing the terrible facts, without a glimmer of hope. A stranger joins them and asks what they're talking about, and they (Luke tells us) "stand still, looking sad," and tell the stranger about the cruel death of Jesus - Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had loved, and in whom they had invested so much of themselves. They describe the crucifixion and then speak what are, perhaps, the saddest words in the Bible, "But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel." Later, when they invite the stranger to stay with them, their words give us insight into how they are viewing their own lives at that moment: "…it is almost evening, and the day is nearly over." Haven't we been there? Discouraged, depressed, hopeless, nothing to look forward to. "It's almost evening, and the day is nearly over."

Lots of irony in this story. Cleopas, one of the men, chides the stranger: "You must be the only mother's son in Jerusalem who doesn't know what happened there this week." But, of course, the stranger is the only one who does know the meaning of what has happened in Jerusalem. They are thoroughly downhearted and believe that Jesus' death represents the frustration of all their hopes. But, of course, Jesus' death is the fulfillment of all their hopes. They tell what the women had reported that morning, about an empty tomb and angels, but they add that some of the men had checked it out and, while the tomb was, indeed, empty, they had not seen Jesus, so they don't know what to think…while all the time they are seeing, and talking to, the risen Christ! And they don't recognize him! Lots of irony in this story.

Now, of course, you know (as Paul Harvey would say) "the rest of the story." How they finally recognized Jesus in the breaking of bread, and how they then remembered that their hearts had burned within them when he was speaking to them on the road, and how they rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others, only to learn that Jesus had appeared in Jerusalem, too. And despair began to give way as night turned to morning. For centuries after that, and even today, the risen Christ has turned despair into hope.

When we are discouraged, will we (can we?) see Jesus? In our deepest discouragement, will we (can we?) recognize the Risen Christ - in all his resurrection power - or will he be to us just another stranger on the road? (It's not the facts, but how we perceive the facts, that counts.) One message of this story, surely, is that Jesus can find us even at our lowest points, like a good shepherd finding the sheep that is totally and utterly lost. That's a comfort. For we often are lost in our despair. But there's a warning in the Emmaus story, too: that Jesus often comes when we least expect him and appears in unfamiliar guises. We have to be alert and watch. We have to imagine, and hope, and trust and take the risks of faith. And that is hard to do when we're down. That is why these two men, on the road to Emmaus, didn't recognize him: their grief overwhelmed them and closed the eyes of faith. Where do we find the power of the risen Jesus when we are down?

Look to the past, Jesus told them. Look to Moses and the prophets and see if they didn't say the Messiah would have to suffer. "…he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures," Luke says. One way I find faith when I'm down is to look back at the Biblical record. Facts are facts even when I'm depressed. I read in the Bible how God has kept his promises - even though it often seemed that he would not. I look back through the traditions of the Church, to the great prayers and hymns and rituals (like the breaking of bread). These things were developed when times were good to sustain us when times are bad. I look back to my own past and see how God has always remembered me, and cared for me, even when I have forgotten and cared little about him. And in that looking back I find hope, and resurrection (I recognize the risen Christ.) in these old things. There is hope to be found in the past. That why we love to hear the stories of Jesus and keep telling them. They're not long ago and far away.

I also look to the present to find (and hopefully to recognize) the risen Christ. Is Christ in that stranger on the road who has engaged me in conversation and who, I think is wasting my time? Is he in the bread and wine of communion? Is he at my work? Is he in the beggar along the road? Is he in that trial of mine (that "cross" I have to bear - and we all have them)? Sometimes we recognize Jesus (and find hope) in things we think are problems, in things we think are holding us back. You remember the kite that longed to be free of the string, the string that just seemed to be weighing it down and preventing it from flying high. But when the string broke, and the kite was finally free, it crashed to the ground. Sometimes the things that seem to be holding us down are actually holding us up. Look for Jesus in the present. Look for him in the things that hold us back.

Finally, I look for (and hopefully recognize) the risen Christ in the future. Most of Jesus' resurrection appearances had a future orientation: Go forth and baptize, meet me in Galilee, preach the gospel to all the world, wait for the Holy Spirit. And, indeed, he did have a future planned for his friends, and amazing and glorious future. But when we're discouraged, like those two on the road to Emmaus, we see no future. (One way we identify a depressed person is that he makes no plans. The future, for him, is just more pain.) The future, for those who understand Easter, on the other hand, is full of excitement and promise. For when you control the grave the sky's the limit!

I know that God has been with me in the past, is with me today, and (most important) will walk with me in the future --no matter what the future brings! Life has not always been easy, is difficult in some ways today, and will surely have its sorrows tomorrow. But the Lord is my shepherd. His rod and staff comfort me. …goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…" Will we recognize the risen Christ, the hope of God, as we walk the dusty roads of our lives?