Eastertide - the disappointed
Readings for this week April 10 – 14
Click here for a pdf of this week’s readings
Day 1 – Sharing the Experience
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 24:13-14
When we find ourselves in times of deep darkness and despair, our first response is often to withdraw into ourselves, keep our own counsel, and not share anything of our experience of loss, disillusionment and pain with anyone else. After all, how could they possibly understand what we are going through or how we are feeling? There’s no way anyone else can understand what we are feeling if we ourselves are still trying to figure it all out, so why try talking about it? The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were no doubt experiencing all these emotions, and they had the option of responding in this closed off, silent, isolated manner. But they didn’t. They talked. They shared their experiences with each other.
They could have travelled together, and yet kept silent, or, as we often do, limited their conversation to safe, inane topics of no consequence in an effort to avoid sharing too deeply. But, again, they didn’t. They walked and talked together. And it was in travelling together that they created a space for Jesus to draw near them. By sharing deeply and honestly with each other about the deep issues and experiences of their lives they allowed Jesus into their presence. And that encounter with Jesus was life-changing. It totally transformed their grief and completely reoriented their lives. A deeper, truer sense of who Jesus was, who they were, and what it means to be a community of his followers grew in them on the road and around the table.
Questions to Consider
How do you respond to the idea of deliberately walking the road between the now and the not yet with others? How does this make you feel?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, speak to me through the lives of others, and speak into their lives through me, so that we can all meet with you as we journey together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Welcoming the Stranger
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 24:15-24
Two people are having a private conversation about something incredibly important to them that has affected them deeply; along comes a stranger, breaking into their conversation to ask, “What are you talking about?” Not only that, but he also comes across as incredibly out of touch, so much so that Cleopas gets a little annoyed with him and blurts, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” The stranger even seems deliberately to play dumb a little when he asks “What things?” It must be admitted Jesus plays the part of an interfering, ignorant, socially awkward stranger very, very well!
We’ve all had encounters like this, that annoying intruder who imposes on our space, our conversation, our grief, who just can’t seem to see that we don’t really want them around. We find it hard enough to share this deeply with people we know, never mind a complete stranger. But imagine what would have happened – or rather, what wouldn’t have happened – if Cleopas and his companion had not opened themselves up to an encounter with this stranger. Imagine what they would have missed out on. Jesus often appears as the stranger we don’t recognise. We need ‘otherness’ around us in order to be stretched beyond our own limits and our own views. We need others – strangers – to push us into those new, uncomfortable places where God can show us something that we would not otherwise see, would not otherwise learn, would not otherwise come to understand – just like Jesus did for these two grieving disciples.
Questions to Consider
When did you last welcome the stranger in to your life? How did you feel? What happened as a result?
Prayer
Sovereign Lord, help me see you in the stranger and may I welcome them into my life as an opportunity to show your love to others. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – The Moment of Recognition
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 24:25-31
Remember back to verse 16, when “their eyes were kept from recognising him.” That’s where these two disciples started from, when they first encountered the stranger on the road. Now, at the breaking of the bread, “their eyed were opened and they recognised him” (verse 31). The Emmaus Road encounter can be summed up in one word: discernment. For these two disciples the question wasn’t whether Jesus was with them or not – we can see obviously he was. The question was whether these two disciples had the ability to recognise him. Initially they did not, but as the day progressed, and their journey continued, they eventually saw who he was. Looked at from their perspective, as Ruth Haley Barton says, “First they saw him as a stranger, then as a traveling companion, then as a teacher, then as a guest, then as a host, and finally as their Messiah and resurrected Lord” (Life Together in Christ, p.141).
If it seems strange – or even spiteful – that it’s at the moment of recognition that Jesus disappears, we must remember that part of what the disciples still had to learn was that, as much as Jesus was alive again, their relationship with him was going to have to continue in a new way. They would need to learn to discern the spiritual presence of Jesus with them, through his Holy Spirit. They would need faith that had moved beyond sight. They would need to trust that Jesus was with them always, and discern where he was moving and where he wanted them to go too.
Questions to Consider
How were things to be different for the disciples after the ascension? What was the contrast between their relationships with Jesus before and after?
Prayer
Almighty God, help me with discerning your presence in my life in those moments when it seems you are not there. Remind me of your goodness and faithfulness in those moments of absence. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – A New Direction
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 24:32-34
An encounter with the risen Jesus can completely change the direction you are headed. It can utterly transform the journey you thought you were taking and the reasons you had for embarking upon it. When Cleopas and his friend left Jerusalem that morning they were in despair, grieving the loss of their friend and teacher, and (quite likely) heading back home, as they may very well have believed that there was nothing in Jerusalem for them anymore. Now, here they are returning to Jerusalem at full speed, in the middle of the night, all thoughts of a bed and a good night’s sleep forgotten, as they hasten to find their friends and share their experience with them. What they have experienced on the road and around the table has completely upended the day they thought they were going to have and the future that they now can have, the new life now lying ahead of them. Suddenly, all things are possible again.
The Road to Emmaus is the story of two disciples discovering that there is no story, however presently dark, however seemingly unchangeable, however impossibly predetermined, that God cannot utterly transform and turn around. Yet note that this ‘turning around’ for these disciples was not necessarily a return to where and how they were before, or a restoration of all that they previously had. God is doing a new thing in their lives. They return the way they came as new people, with new faith, a new experience of Jesus, with new things before them, a refreshed and refreshingly new calling to follow Jesus – a calling that could now take them anywhere.
Questions to Consider
How has Jesus taken you in a new direction? How has his renewed call to you opened up previously impossible avenues in your life?
Prayer
Lord God, you are the God of the impossible. Help me see the times of darkness and desolation and uncertainty as times of opportunity for you to work in me and in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – Unbelievable Hope
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 24:33-37
Can you imagine the scene as the few remaining followers of Jesus excitedly talk about what they have seen and heard throughout the day now ending? The women who went to the body-less tomb; Peter’s visit to the empty tomb, and then a personal (off-screen) appearance of the risen Jesus to Peter; and finally the story from the road to Emmaus – the excitement and bewilderment in the room would have been palpable, as these people, once so lost and devastated, now found reason to believe that all they had hoped about Jesus – and so much more besides – might actually be true after all.
What had started off as rumour was now fact. Hopes that had been dashed were now born anew, especially when Jesus himself appeared in the midst of all them. “Peace be with you.” He might just as well have said “Hope be with you.” Yet even with all they had already experienced, and the conversations some of them had had with Jesus, and the excitement that had seen two of them immediately turn back and retrace a journey they had just taken in order to share their story with others, they still couldn’t quite believe he was really there. Further explanation would be needed in order for those first followers of Jesus to fully understand the true extent of the hope that was, literally, embodied in Jesus – a hope that would transform their lives, and transform the lives of all those soon to hear the amazing story that would ripple out from that upper room, offering love and peace and hope to all. Hope is just the beginning.
Questions to Consider
Have you ever felt like the disciples do here? When? Why?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for staying with me, even in my doubt and unbelief: for those times when your limitless love holds me close. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)