God give us clear minds, open spirits, and loving hearts. Amen.
The significance of a stranger, do we ever ponder that? Do either
one of you take the time to make conversation with a person on the
street, or on the BART, or any other place that is not familiar to you?
Today I want to share this story with everyone….
on one sunny, hot, June afternoon in Utah, my Uncle , cousins, and
I were sitting around telling jokes, after cleaning up the church after
having our convocation that particular weekend.
All of a sudden we felt this gush of wind and dirt pick up in front of us
and turned itself into a devil twister and travelled to the paved highway
that runs along the entrance to the mission grounds. What was most
strange about that gust of wind was that we all chose to notice it and
look at it at the same time.
We couldn’t even tell a good joke, or pay attention to a good joke being
told but, right there in that instant we all chose to watch that gust
of wind turn itself into a devil twister. If you don’t know what a devil
twister is…. come talk to me later and I will explain further…
So we followed the devil twister’s path toward the highway and out of
nowhere a man in a white sheet or garment with black combat boots
appeared. His hair was long and dark brown, his skin was very dark,
remember we’re looking at this figure from a distance….we all sort
of looked at each other bewildered, and we all kind of accepted the
presence of this man to match those that we often think of when we
picture Jesus.
Although we were not talking we knew immediately what the other
was thinking….
The person paid us no mind or could not hear us….but he kept walking
finally over the hill and out of view….then finally we came out of our
trance, it really was like a strange trance, for 5 min? 6 min? I’m not
really sure on that. But none of us ever questioned if that could have
been Jesus? For some reason it felt right that whoever that person was
we seemed to all agree that it was Jesus.
That day that hot sunny afternoon, always pops into my head whenever
I hear the phrase, “What if that homeless person was Jesus? Or, what if
that person talking to himself incoherently was Jesus?”
It never fails to enter my thoughts especially living here in the Bay Area
and seeing all these children living on the streets, some with animals,
that they cannot afford to feed, so they beg day after day, they barely
move away from their regular sleeping spots.
The point is …. What if that was Jesus? How would you know what
Jesus looked like? You will know it in your heart, is what I always hear
when I hear myself question it….your heart begins to beat… that is what
I feel every time I see a teenager lying in the street, or sitting with his
beastly friend.
The question is am I willing to talk to him or her? Am I willing to talk to
Jesus in the flesh?
Most of the time the answer is “No, I have to hurry or I’ll miss the next
train.”
But, when I do have the time the conversation, has always been
meaningful, the person is in dire straits and is just trying to make it to
the next day, you not only learn about the person in front of you, you
also learn that this could easily be yourself if you allowed it.
Now let us ponder the words in the gospel….
The Gospel tells us, the band of Jesus’ followers was now leaderless
and was falling apart, with two of them already on their way home. The
reports that Christ’s tomb was empty did nothing to alter their thinking;
it only confused them. Their entire world had come apart. The two
despondent disciples summed up the situation very neatly, "we had
hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel."
Human hope is a fragile thing, and when it withers it’s difficult to
revive. Hopelessness as a disease of the human spirit is desperately
hard to cure. When you see someone you love and care for overtaken
by illness, which goes on, and on, despair sets in. It almost becomes
impossible to hope for recovery, to be even afraid to hope because of
not being able to cope with another letdown.
The Emmaus Two had erected a wall of hopelessness around them,
and they were trapped in their misery. "We had hoped ..." What they
were saying is "We don’t expect it now, but once we did. We had it, this
thing called hope, but now it’s gone." I wonder if this is something that
we can identify with? Has something or someone come between our
relationship with God? If so, listen to the Emmaus story because the
heart-breaking experience is only its beginning!
As the travellers made their weary way to Emmaus a stranger fell
alongside them. It was going to be one of the most wonderful walks in
history! We know, of course, that it was the risen Jesus, but somehow
they didn’t recognize him. In fact Luke tells us "they were kept from
recognizing him." It wasn’t an accident that they didn’t notice who he
is or that they were too preoccupied to look at him in the eye. No, they
weren’t allowed to recognize Jesus for a purpose. It was so that they
might be in the same position as ourselves some 2,000 years later.
Visual appearances of Jesus ceased at his Ascension. They are not
granted to us. Like the two on the road we have to make do with other
people’s testimony that Jesus has risen from the dead. Like them we
don’t know quite know what to make of it. Did it really happen? What
precisely happened? How could it have happened? We have to make
up our minds as to what we believe.
On that hot sunny June afternoon we chose to believe that it was
Jesus and with that acceptance….. Jesus disappeared over the hill,
because "In his infinite courtesy, Jesus remembered the frailty of over-
strained nerves and bewildered minds and came, not too suddenly
or overwhelming upon them, but in a way which He alone could do,
revealed Himself as the Risen Christ."
This is what Jesus had shown to Cleopas and the other follower on that
day, and they did not recognize him until he broke bread with them.
They saw his hands - they were different from when he had broken
bread at the Feeding of the Five Thousand, and at the Last Supper. They
were the nail-pierced hands of Jesus. In an instant they knew him. And
in an instant, he’s gone.
Why did Jesus have to disappear? Couldn’t he have stayed longer? He
could, but he didn’t because it’s all part of the education of his last 40
days on Earth - how to manage without his bodily presence from now
on; exactly the same as we have to do some 2,000 years on. But he
is with us still by his Spirit; he is with us as we fellowship with him in
worship and, in obedience to his command, as we remember him in
the "breaking of bread" service.
I can imagine Cleopas and his friend standing in amazement; perhaps
embracing in great joy, asking each other, "Were not our hearts burning
within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures
to us?" Their world had come together again. That heart-burning
experience is something that we all need. We need it in a conversion
experience when the Spirit of God makes us realize that we need Jesus
as our Savior and Lord. We need it as we allow the Holy Spirit to apply
the truths of Scripture in our daily walk with Jesus.
Well, where are we in our experience? Are we still heart-breaking
because we need to meet the risen Christ? Perhaps we’re still in a
heart-searching process - if so, let it continue as it will surely lead to the
heart-burning experience we all need.
God deeply longs for each one of us to walk with Him in close
fellowship so He can fulfill His plans for our lives. The Emmaus Two no
doubt had walked this way many times before. Yet this day would be
different, for it was the time for a life-changing encounter with their
Lord. He can draw near to us at any time.
The ways of God aren’t always obvious so we must be open to allow
him to enlighten our understanding, to take us into a new level in our
spiritual experience. Life will never be the same again! Christ is risen
from the dead! Christ is the Savior! Christ is the hope of the world!
Amen
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