Encountering the Risen Christ

“Now on that same day, the first day of the week, two of the 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?’” -Luke 24:13-18 NRSV

In the Easter gospel reading, Peter is the first of the disciples to more or less return to what he had been doing before meeting Christ. Or, at least, he didn’t do much to listen to the message of the angels who appeared to the women in the tomb. The most he can manage is to return home after seeing for himself that the tomb is empty.

As we go deeper into Luke’s version of the resurrection, we find that others are doing much the same as Peter. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and his companion, seem to be returning to what they knew before their encounter with Christ in his earthly pilgrimage. They are returning to what they knew before. Their hope that Jesus was going to be the redeemer of Israel deflates, and so they, like Peter, go home. 

As they are journeying home, though, something amazing happens. Jesus joins them on the way to Emmaus and walks with them. Jesus wants to know how the people who claim to be his disciples are regarding what has transpired over the last three days. He asks them plainly enough, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” We might understand this question as a test, and I suppose, in one way, it is just that. Jesus is testing to see if those who followed him all the way to Jerusalem (even if not all the way to the foot of the cross) have taken any of what he told them would happen to heart. The response from Cleopas and his companion is a moment of disappointment for Jesus, and he states as much later in the text when he says, “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?” (Luke 24:25–26 NRSV)

It seems that the events of the resurrection are too much for the disciples to continue to hope that all Jesus told them would come true. The companions on the road to Emmaus have lost hope and have turned away from the light of the world once again in the journey they make to Emmaus. They need one more reminder that those things which are impossible for mortals are possible for God. (Luke 18:26-27 NRSV)

In his latest book Leaving Emmaus, theologian and professor Anthony Baker builds an argument that perhaps what we need is to return to the basic questions of faith not simply to reinforce what the church has taught down through the ages but rather to have a changing of the mind - a repentance. (Baker, xii) A return to the basic questions of the faith is an opportunity for us to reflect critically on how we have, like Cleopas and his companion, encountered the risen Christ in our time and in our own lives. 

Thus, it seems that it is perhaps the whole church that is on the road to Emmaus having failed to hang on to the hope that is found in the resurrection. We, like the two disciples, need more reminders of how we are invited to live and die differently precisely because we have encountered the risen Christ in our lives. (Baker, xiii)

Now, it strikes me that perhaps part of the problem for the church is the way that we mark time from Lent through Easter. In the week leading up to Holy Week, we mark time very intentionally spending some part of our day in prayer and worship as we move towards the pain of Good Friday. And though we continue that worship through to the Great Vigil of Easter to proclaim the resurrection, we largely fail to mark time as intentionally in Bright Week - the week after Easter. 

As a body, we travel all the way to the cross through the liturgies of the church appointed for Holy Week, but we are missing a most important part of the narrative that we tell as Christians when we do not also mark Bright Week with as much intention. It could be said that we fail to live into the hope of the resurrection because we do not travel the road of resurrection as intently or with as much reverence as we travel the road to crucifixion. It certainly brings to my mind how Christian life would be different if we were to mark Bright Week as intentionally as Holy Week in order to hear the resurrection accounts from the Gospels with as much vigor as we travel the road to crucifixion. I wonder if a move like that in the church would help us to live and die differently, as Baker suggests we are called to do as a people faith. 

Though Bright Week is nearly over this year, I hope that you will join me on Wednesday evenings in Easter to explore some of the basic questions of our faith as we, like Baker, leave Emmaus. I invite you into a season of critical reflection as we grapple with our faith and with our hope as followers of the Risen Christ. Let us take some time to wrestle with the big questions of our faith, and let us, like Cleopas and his companion, encounter the risen Christ in the hills and valleys of our lives. 

In Christ,

Hunter+