Luke 24 verses 13-
It’s said that a significant part of the kind of person each of us is today comes from the experiences that are locked in our memory from earliest childhood. Some experiences are insignificant while others can change our life. Many of our life experiences are no longer in our conscious memory, but in casting your own mind back you will remember some experiences that warm your heart, and no doubt others that you would rather forget. Perhaps you would like to bring one good memory to mind just now and give thanks for it.
I remember a conversation from many years ago which changed the course of my life.
Most of the conversations we have we don’t remember, but this one I do, despite the
fact that it was about 40 years ago. I had walked up Calton Hill with a good friend
of Christine and myself. I’d been trying to work out the direction that God wanted
my life to take. I had worked with young people in a voluntary capacity but none
of the obvious career routes for me seemed to be working out. We sat in the sun
discussing possibilities and our friend suggested that given all the work I did with
young people my ‘ministry’ might be to become a teacher. I think I just laughed
because it seemed impossible to me at the time, since I had no qualifications and
aged 24 didn’t really fancy studying for exams, and university seemed a far-
In today’s Gospel story two followers of Jesus are walking to Emmaus having experienced a dramatic week of events that had raised their hopes that Israel was to be redeemed, then dashed their hopes in terrible despair at the crucifixion of Jesus, and confused them with the reports of the loss of Jesus body. As they walk they are having a deep conversation reflecting on, and mulling over these events and what they feel about them. They want to understand, and the topic of conversation should have brought them joy, hope, a sense of victory. Instead, they are sad, disappointed, in retreat, with a sense of loss, travelling away from the tumult and tragedy of that week in Jerusalem. Their initial conversation does not bring them understanding; does not change their life.
Jesus had been arrested, convicted, condemned, tortured, crucified, and entombed, but they leave Jerusalem rather than going and finding out for themselves if the disturbing reports that Jesus' body was no longer in its tomb could be true. Which of us could blame them for feeling so low after such experiences?
They sadly walked towards Emmaus probably scared that they too might get caught up in the violence of these events. But, as they are walking and talking, the risen Jesus meets them and thus begins a deep conversation and series of events that does change their life. These two followers, even though Jesus is standing beside them, are unable to perceive the reality of who he is until Jesus leads them into a conversation which gets below their superficial understanding. He challenges their slowness of heart to believe all the prophets have said and begins to teach them and interpret the scriptures for them. They began to hear a song of divine possibilities and dreams. They begin to have a new way of understanding scripture, a new way of understanding the Messiah, a new way of understanding suffering love, a new way of understanding true redemption.
Jesus teaching, and his challenge about their slowness of heart, gets below the surface of their thinking and they do not want the discussion to end, so they urge him to stay and it’s only at this point, as they break bread and share a hospitable meal together, that their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus. Their physical and emotional experiences of the past week and their new understanding of the scriptures through the teaching of Jesus are brought together by the opening of their spiritual eyes so they can recognize Jesus.
I just love verse 32 when these two followers of Jesus say to each other “Were not our hearts burning with us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” They have had an experience which changes their life! Their conversation with Jesus was no idle superficial chat. There is conviction that what Jesus said is true; they know it; they feel it; their emotions are stirred; they are excited; they are passionate; and most of all they are moved to action. Whatever fears drove them from Jerusalem are gone and they immediately return to tell the disciples that Jesus has been made known to them in the breaking of bread.
That conversation with the risen Jesus transforms them (v.31), convicts them (v.32)
and makes them witnesses (v.33-
Too often in life our conversations and discussions are at a superficial level. We like to get together and reason and discuss, but just being together to talk and share our experiences and ideas cannot truly answer the main problems and questions of life or give us peace. Like those early followers, we need the presence of the risen Lord to make our hearts ‘burn within us’.
We live in a society today where close family relations are becoming rarer and where loneliness, that powerful emotional feeling of emptiness and isolation, is prevalent. Like that sense of feeling cut off, disconnected and alienated from other people and from God, that those early followers must have felt at the beginning of their journey to Emmaus. Christians today have the opportunity to demonstrate there is more to life than the superficial experiences we often have, by the creation of community in which real meaning is shared, by conversation which addresses the deepest needs of people; by sharing food and hospitality and by the breaking of bread together. It is in a generous, hospitable and sharing community which demonstrates the presence of the risen Christ that people are able to have their spiritual eyes opened as they glimpse the kind of relationships that only become possible in the God who meets us at the deepest possible level of human experience and who deals with our deepest needs and sighs and longings.
We have the privilege of experiencing family and community here at St James, and
we pray that the experiences of our children will indeed have a positive impact on
them for the rest of their lives, as their spiritual eyes are opened. Let us also
pray that God will show us how we can share what he has given to us with our local
community So, as we take part in communion today – in the breaking of bread -