'Now on that same day two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.'
--Luke 24: 13-35
An Eastern icon of the Walk to Emmaus.
Those of you who are of the Methodist branch of the Jesus Movement, or who grew up in that denomination, will be familiar with Walk to Emmaus. It is a weekend-long retreat for folks to deepen their relationship with Jesus, where they can be renewed and reminded of their belovedness. In the Episcopal tradition our version of this weekend is called Cursillo (spell it). In the fall of my first year of seminary we juniors—that’s what we called first year students—went on a retreat to Connecticut with the middlers—the second year students—and one of the activities we participated in was what we called an Emmaus Walk, where a junior was paired with a middler, and we walked the trails and back roads around the conference center, getting to know each other and hoping maybe Jesus would show up.
Any road that we travel, where Jesus meets us unexpectedly, is an Emmaus road. This story from the Gospel of Luke that we hear this morning is the origin of that term. Two disciples, in the late morning of Easter Sunday, are walking to a town called Emmaus, when a stranger approaches and converses with them They get the stranger up to speed on all the goings on, especially regarding the recent death of their teacher and friend, but there’s also whisperings that he rose from the dead earlier that day, though no one can be certain. The stranger scolds them for their lack of understanding but agrees to stay with them long enough to share a meal together when they get to the town, and once that meal is shared, the eyes of their hearts are opened and they realize it was Jesus with them the whole time. They then head back to Jerusalem to share their story, their lives forever changed by this encounter on the Emmaus road.
I once walked to Emmaus. In the summer of 2011 I spent three weeks with a group in the Holy Land, studying a course called Palestine of Jesus . After spending time in Bethlehem, Galilee, and Jerusalem, on our last day we headed out to find that old Roman road and have our own Emmaus walk. Well, sort of.
I say sort of because no one actually knows where Emmaues is, or was. There is no town with that name anywhere near Jerusalem today. Luke tells us it was the equivalent of about 7 miles outside the city, but some ancient sources like Josephus say otherwise. Through the years four different towns have laid claim to being the modern-day Emmaus,, so we hedged our bets. We walked along a wooded road near one such town called Motza, which was quiet and peaceful, with no signage, or any other tourist attractions, and then we closed out our experience by celebrating the Eucharist at the Convent of Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant in other possible Emmaus town called Abu Ghosh.
On (one of the) road(s) to Emmaus.
Throughout the day there were some whispers amongst our group as to whether or not we were walking the actual road to Emmaus, but both of our guides—one an Episcopal priest from California and the other a Palestinian Christian from Jerusalem—reminded us that trying to figure out where modern-day Emmaus is located is really not the point. Given that the story only appears in Luke’s Gospel, with Emmaus never being mentioned anywhere else, and none of the ancient mauscripts being able to agree on where the town was located, it really is an impossible task. This story is not concnerned with such details. As our Palestinian guide would often say, “If you come to the Holy Land seeking facts, you’re going to leave sorely disappointed, but if you come looking for truth, you will find it.” That’s because there is a difference between fact and truth, a reality that our western culture hasn’t quite grasped yet, especially since the Enlightenment. Facts are about quantifiable, provable details like whether or not that was the real road. But truth is about the deeper meaning of the story, and the truth of Emmaus is that Jesus risen Jesus showed up then and still shows up now, usually unrecognized, and it is often not until well after that fact that we realize he was there.. For that reason, I’d say this story, more than any other post-Resurrection account, sums of our modern-day Christian experience.
I find these two disciples on the road fascinating. One gets a name—Cleopas—but that name never appears anywhere else in Scripture, and the other doesn’t get a name at all. I like that! This story reminds us that Jesus comes to us all—both the well-known and totally unknown—and more often than not, we don’t recognize him,. We, like them, are so pre-occupied with what’s going on in the world around us that we can’t see him, but when the dust settles and we have a chance to reflect on the experience, we notice the presence of the living Christ in our midst, and like those two disciples we are changed by that encounter. This is Gospel truth, even if the facts of the story are a tad wonky.
Can you recall a time when you looked back at an interaction with someone and said, “Wow! I think Jesus was in that!” That’s an Emmaus moment. Maybe it was a day later, or a month, or a few years, but I bet most of you have had those moments when you have looked back with hindsight and realized Jesus was there all along. One such moment happened to me in 2007, when I picked up a hitchhiker on US 23 between my hometown of Pound, VA and Pikeville, KY, where I was working at the time. This guy was a heavy-set fella, who was making his way to West Virginia and by all accounts was not making good progress. So I invited him to get in and drove him as far as I could. He told me about his family, his siblings who were ill and children who were going through various struggles, and when I dropped him off, and I met my friend for lunch in Pikeville, I told him what had happened, and he said—in that wonderful Free Will Baptist tone of his—“Well, brother, ya never know! That guy might have been Jesus!”
I’ve often recalled that encounter, and I think my friend was right. I think I did meet Jesus along that road, and I think I helped Jesus get to West Virginia, and I think Jesus used that moment to shape the way I would interact with strangers in the years to come, whether in New York City, Lexington, Kentucky, or now in Asheboro, North Caroline.
I wonder: what have been your Emmaus moments? And how they have shaped you? But even more than that, I wonder how this time, right now, might be an Emmaus moment. Cleopas and the other disciple were filled with fear and uncertainty on that first Easter when they met the unrecognizable Jesus.
In a similar way, many of us are experiencing this time with tremendous fear for our world, as we see unemployment rise and more and more people getting sick and dying. We are all of us uncertain about when social distancing measures will be lifted, and even when they are we don’t know the ways all of this will affect our lives moving forward. Like last week, we find ourselves sharing a lot in common with these two disciples. Yet like them, Jesus still comes to us. This is the very core of the Easter proclamation, that the Lord is risen indeed. You may not recognize him, but he’s there. And that encounter with him will change you forever if you let it. So will we have eyes to see him in our midst right now, surrounded by so much fear and uncertainty? Will we allow ourselves to be changed by the risen Christ or when all of this is over will we just return to business as usual?
I don’t think it’s an accident that we cannot find the actual road to Emmaus nowadays. I think the purpose of the story is to remind us that Emmaus can be anywhere at any time. Your street that you’ve walked your dog on 12 times a day, that’s an Emmaus road. The grocery store line, where folks are scared but hungry, and so they risk their health to feed their families, that’s an Emmaus road. Those ordinary, everyday moments that you experience in this time of quarantine, those are Emmaus moments: working in your yard, sitting down to a meal, praying in silence when you just don’t have the words anymore. Even when you, like those two disciples, are afraid and confused, even those times are Emmaus moments. Because the risen Christ is there in the midst of all of our moments.
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