new church life: march/april 2016
our walk to emmaus
The great gift of the revealed internal sense of the Word is not only that we can
come to know the Lord there but to see and understand how everything in the
Word speaks to our own lives. The Easter story has its obvious and enduring
promise of salvation and eternal life – but so much more.
How much of ourselves can we see in this story? And how much can we
learn and apply to our lives?
It is easy to identify with the happy throngs welcoming Jesus Christ as
their king on Palm Sunday. In their eyes He had come to deliver them from the
hated Romans – in their eyes, a natural king. It took less than a week for them
to realize that their vision was different from His and for their roiling voices
to turn from “Hallelujah!” to “Crucify Him!” What happened? And how does
that relate to us?
We assume – like Peter – that we would never deny the Lord. But Peter did
– three times. All of the disciples who followed Jesus abandoned Him in His
time of need. Whether confused, afraid, unsure, they did not stand with Him.
Peter denied even that He knew Him – and then was ashamed.
How often might we feel inspired – by a sermon, a moment of reflection,
reading the Word, experiencing a glorious sunrise – only to be sucked back
into the demands and drama of “the real world”? How often do we turn away
from the Lord – even unconsciously? The disciples surely were not crying out
“Crucify Him,” but they did shrink from the evil surging around them, and we
may know the feeling.
It is as though they had not been listening or really understood what the
Lord had been teaching them. It was after His crucifixion and resurrection
that two of His disciples – and through them all of us – came to know and
understand the Lord on the Road to Emmaus, and to find real meaning in
their lives.
When they set off on their walk to Emmaus, they were distraught. They
had seen their Lord crucified. He was gone from their lives. They were sad,
confused and suddenly unsure about their lives. The Lord had been preparing
them for this, but they did not understand. And so they turned away from
Jerusalem – away from lives that had been centered on the Lord – for a forlorn
journey. They had no idea what they were looking for, or what they would find.
The risen Lord joined them but they did not recognize Him and were
stunned that this stranger could not know what had just happened over this
dark weekend. As they revealed themselves to Him, He revealed Himself to
them. And He admonished them: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe
in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory?” And then, “beginning at Moses and
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