Given at Christ Church, Bulkington
Luke 24. 13-31
Rembrandt, Supper at Emmaus (1628) now in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris.
Somebody asked me why I’d set this reading during Holy Week, when it takes place on the first Easter Day, after the Resurrection. Wasn’t I putting the cart before the horse?
Well, firstly, the theme for these three short Holy Week talks is encountering God—the first was about wrestling with God; the second about returning to God. The Road to Emmaus points to the reality that God is with us always, albeit often unrecognised by us.
Often, we don’t recognise God’s presence because He’s acting in ways that don’t fit our preconceived notion of what God is. That’s at the heart of the Emmaus story, of course: God isn’t supposed to be someone you’ve never met before, who joins in your animated conversation on a long walk. Many a sermon has been built on the need to be alert for God appearing to us in the face of a stranger, and while that point is well made, many of those sermons I’ve heard over the years slightly tut-tut at the folk in the pews for not being more sensitive or open-minded.
I think, however, that we should be a bit less harsh on ourselves.
Here’s a detail that’s easy to miss in the Emmaus story. When Christ first approached Cleopas and his friend and asked what they were talking about, they just stood there, still, presumably with plenty of time to take in His face but “their eyes were kept from recognizing him”. Notice this is in the passive voice. The closing of the friends’ eyes is something that has been done to them, not a choice they have made. Similarly, when Jesus breaks bread “their eyes were opened”. If God is sovereign, then our noticing His presence must lie in His gift more than it does within our control.
There are times in our lives when we feel God’s presence literally touching us. At other times God seems remote. We can even feel He has abandoned us. I’ve found both these experiences at their most intense when life was at its hardest for me. The toughest experiences – bereavement, severe ill health for ourselves or loved ones, employment problems, relationship breakdown – seem either to draw us alongside God or push us away from Him. Perhaps sometimes God’s presence is too intense for it to be safe for us to sense it too directly.
Beyond these life crises, one of life’s most difficult experiences is to have our cherished illusions about our lives or the nature of the world shattered. It was just that Cleopas and has friend had endured. A difficult experience, but often the necessary prelude to growth, to starting the next stage of a journey.
Here’s the final reason for exploring this Eastertide Story during Holy Week. The Christ who breaks bread with the disciples is the same God cries out “My God, why have you forsaken me” on the Cross.
The person we are when we feel ourselves to be close to God is the same as the person who sometimes feels far from God. We need to love both those versions of ourselves, integrate both of them within our self-understanding, because both these elements are necessary to any journey towards God and His plans for our lives.
As T.S. Eliot wrote:
“…the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
This Eastertide, may the Paschal mystery draw you closer to the God who is always with you. Amen.
Top image: Titian, Supper at Emmaus (1538), Hangs in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
