EASTER 3 Year A April 23, 2023
Acts 2:14a,
36-41 •
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 • 1 Peter 1:17-23 • Luke
24:13-35
We may be a
long way from Christmas, but it might be worth pondering the word, “Emmanuel”,
meaning “God with us”, as that theme is really what God is all about. God wants to be with us. It is why he sent the son and in our Gospel
story today, just when they thought that Jesus was gone and they were probably
also feeling the sentiments of Psalm 22, “My God, my God why have you abandoned
me, they discover that Jesus is with them again.
“On the road to Emmaus” is a story and a
phrase that has inspired countless people over the centuries and it has
inspired the movement, that we know as Cursillo, others know the movement by
another name, the “Emmaus walk”. So,
what is it that was going on as these two disciples travelled to Emmaus?
The main
characters are Cleopas and another unnamed disciple. You may recall that there was a lady named
Mary, the wife of Clopas mentioned in our Easter readings, as the one who was
at the crucifixion with Mary the mother of Jesus. It is possible that Cleopas and Clopas are
the same person and it is suggested that he was a relative of Jesus, possibly his
uncle.
It is even
suggested that these two disciples are Cleopas and his wife. They were possibly on their way home after
spending time comforting Mary. Whatever
the situation was, the important thing is that they encountered Jesus. Initially, they did not recognise him for his
true identity, but saw him as a fellow traveller on the road. They couldn’t help but be talking about all
that had been happening, as it was central to their lives as Jesus’ disciples,
but they didn’t recognise Jesus as the one who was walking with him.
Is it
possible to be a follower of Jesus and not truly recognise him?
Today’s
readings urge us to reflect; Jesus has said, what we do to the least of
“these”, meaning other people, we do to him….
Have we failed to recognise Jesus in others?
But, on a
more basic level, is it possible that we don’t recognise that Jesus is with us,
at all? Certainly, Jesus does walk with
us, as he promised to always be with us through his Holy Spirit, but we don’t
always sense him there. Many times
lately, I’ve heard people say that they attended a prayer meeting, retreat, or
service and “God showed up”. What do we
expect? Of course, he showed up, after all, God is
always with us and the point of our meeting is to reflect on and become aware
of his presence with us. God is with us
always and this is His desire. He wants
us to be aware of His presence; Emmanuel.
The
disciples met Jesus in the flesh. We
often think that this gave them an extra advantage in knowing Jesus, but it
seems it could be possible that this may also have been a stumbling block. They knew Jesus the man who performed
miracles and irritated the pharisees. If
this Cleopas was actually the relative of Jesus, then he even knew Jesus, the
baby, toddler and young boy. Sometimes
there are basic things that create a presumptions and get in the way of us
seeing the deeper reality and we miss the truth.
We all can
be guilty of this. We base our reality
on what we have experienced… it is only natural, but we need understand that
our experience and that of every other human is limited. We need to find our reality in something that
is bigger than us, beyond us, and more true than us… we need to base our
reality in the one who said he is the way, the life and the TRUTH.
The two
disciples were on the road to Emmaus talking about how Jesus had been crucified
and discussing that some of the women had claimed Jesus had risen from the
dead. Based on their limited experience,
they were undecided as to whether or not this was something to believe. On the positive side, Jesus had raised
Lazarus, a widow’s son and a young girl from the dead and had healed many. On the negative side, people weren’t usually
risen from the dead, and the people who Jesus raised from the dead did not die
the violent and extreme death that Jesus did.
Also, if Jesus had that kind of power, why would he have gone through
allowing himself to die on the cross?
Now, in the
light of this logical thinking about Jesus, we can understand why Jesus said to
the disciples, “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.”
We have our
own understandings and presumptions about Jesus. If we were born into a Christian family or
attended a Christian school, we might know quite a lot about God and think that
we pretty much know all that there is to know about him. In my experience with children who I have taught
singing, and those that I was involved with many years ago with school based
retreats, state school student have been a whole lot more open to hearing about
Jesus than private school students. And
some of those Religious Instruction teachers did a mighty fine job in laying
the ground work. So, what is going on?
I fully
support and acknowledge the good in having private Christian schools, but it
simply can be a fact that some of those students feel that they know all there
is to know about God because they have had this particular education. Maybe we need to teach them the Jewish theological
understanding about God… and that is that we could study God all our lives and
never know more than a microscopic, tiny fraction about God…. But if we want to
know and try to know, God is pleased.
What are
your thoughts about Jesus’ opinion of the Pharisees? They were the religious leaders… the
experts. And their arrogance in thinking
that they knew more about God than the others, led to many of them missing the
coming of the Messiah – AND actually crucifying him.
There are
some things that needed to be understood about Jesus. Firstly, he was indeed the Messiah. This is part of the message from Peter to the
Jewish people as he preached on the day of Pentecost. How would you feel to be in their shoes? They were the very ones who crucified Jesus.
Secondly,
but most importantly, as Peter explains, "Therefore let the entire
house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and
Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."
God made him
both Lord and Messiah. God made Jesus,
Lord. He gave him every authority
and we know from Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians that God has given Him
a name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
shall bow, in the whole universe and every tongue will confess that Jesus the Messiah
is Lord.
There is a
very important aspect here, that we in our lives, need to also acknowledge
Jesus as both Messiah and Lord. We know
that Jesus came to die for us and bring us back into an unconditional
relationship with the father, but have we bowed to the Lordship of Christ? Have we acknowledged that Jesus is the Lord
and King… the authority in our life?
The
Israelites to whom Peter was speaking reacted to Peter’s message by being
greatly convicted and asking what they must do to be saved. Now, understand that these were potentially
good, law-abiding citizens. They were
being told that they were responsible for crucifying the author of life because
they didn’t recognise him – and they agreed, that this was correct. They got it wrong and crucified an innocent
man… the Messiah.
The Holy
Spirit convicted them and they repented.
Repentance is not just a feeling of sorrow for doing something wrong,
but more correctly, it is to change your mind.
To repent is to change our thinking from being centred around justifying
our actions, to then do a complete turn around and agree with God, that we
actually are a people who need his grace, mercy, forgiveness and love. The Good News? That is what God does… lavishly he gives us
grace, mercy, forgiveness and love.
The question
is, do we still fail to recognise Jesus?
Where do we expect to meet Jesus?
At that prayer meeting, retreat or service? Good…
we will… but remember, he is always with us. And guess what? We also meet Jesus in the most unlikely of
places. Remember, he is a friend to
sinners and people of ill repute.
Recently
there was a scripture from Jeremiah that struck me. It was about those who trust in flesh not
recognising the hand of the Lord when he came to rescue. I think the same goes for everything. If we place Jesus as both Lord and Messiah in
our lives, we will begin to recognise Jesus in the places where we would once
not have expected, and we will know that the presence of God is always with
us…. Just sometimes we don’t notice it as much as other times.
Most
importantly, we need to have our own Emmaus walk experience, where we speak
honestly with Jesus about our faith and our doubt and ask Jesus to open our
eyes so that we see him. We acknowledge
and agree with God that we need a saviour, a Messiah, and submit to the
Lordship of Christ. He promised to send
his helper, the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth – God with us
always. May we know his presence, feel
his presence and trust in his presence and love beyond all our own
understanding and may our hearts burn within us with the affirmation that we
know the truth.
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