by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Now on that same day two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
—Luke 24:13-35 (NRSV)
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The gospel today is well known to anybody who has spent any time in church. Please bear with me as I quickly summarize it. A couple guys were walking down the road away from Jerusalem. They met a stranger which turned out to be Jesus walking along who apparently hadn’t heard the big news of the day. They told him it was widely rumored that Jesus of Nazareth had been resurrected from the dead. After telling this stranger the news the stranger who we know to be Jesus used scripture to let them know that this event had been preordained. Then as it came to be late in the day they invited Jesus to have supper with them which he did. During supper he took bread and blessed it before breaking it. It was then they recognized the stranger as Jesus and went back to Jerusalem to tell everyone they had seen him.
The story asks some important questions. Here are a few. Why didn’t these men recognize Jesus since they apparently knew him on some level? Do we find Jesus or does Jesus find us? How important was it that they invited Jesus to have supper with them? What part does Eucharist play in the story?
Let me address the last three first. In scripture Jesus appears to always accept an invitation to someone’s home. On a couple of occasions he invited himself, but generally Jesus is a true gentleman. He usually only goes where he is invited. That’s a key for us. Jesus has “found” these men on the road and they had the good sense or manners to invite him in. We can do the same. These men found Jesus through simple hospitality and friendship. That is where we will find him too.
And then the reference to these men recognizing Jesus the moment he breaks the bread is important too. This is an obvious reference to Eucharist, our breaking of bread during the celebration of communion. This is where we can discover Jesus again and again in the breaking of bread and sharing of the cup.
Then there is the first and most obvious question. Why didn’t these men recognize Jesus, especially since they had known him on some level? Why didn’t they recognize him? I am going to tell you a story I last told six years ago that I think addresses the question. I hope you find some meaning in it.
Belen, New Mexico is a sleepy little town of about seven thousand people just south of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s primarily a bedroom community. Most people live in Belen and work in Albuquerque, making the short drive of just a few miles back and forth. The only business in Belen from a quick glance out the window as you pass through at seventy five miles per hour is the church business. You can see several spires from the freeway.
One of those churches is St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, an easy two blocks off the freeway. St. Joseph’s is a pretty impressive white stone structure with a capacity of about one hundred sixty people in its beautiful old sanctuary. Like most churches, attendance has fallen off from the hay days of the sixties, but for its’ two services at eight and ten the combined Sunday attendance is probably in the neighborhood of one hundred twenty people, not too bad in these days of shrinking churches. For Christmas and Easter they often push two hundred.
St. Joseph’s is famous for its outreach. They have a number of groups that meet there regularly like AA and the Boy Scouts, the sort of worthwhile groups most Episcopal Churches host. In addition, they have a food program providing canned goods during the week and sack lunches every Saturday. There is even a small amount of money available to help the homeless out with funds for bus rides and, once in a while, an overnight stay in a local motel.
St. Joseph’s is known throughout the area as an exemplary House of God, living out its Christian principles. Every place the Bishop goes she brags about St. Joseph’s and often suggests to other churches that they emulate some of the things being done there. And this is where our story begins.
On the third Sunday in September, Homecoming Sunday in fact, there were a couple new faces scattered about in the congregation. As most visitors do, they arrived without a lot of fanfare a few minutes before the beginning of the ten o’clock service and quietly found a place to sit. They even managed not to displace any regular members who, although there was no sign indicating so, seemed to believe that they owned a certain seat in the pews.
After the service the visitors were invited to that famous Episcopal tradition, the coffee hour, and some of them went. One visitor, a Latino fellow with a certain quiet confidence about himself, chatted with several of the longtime members, who later seemed to clearly remember him and the manner in which he spoke and carried himself. The Rector and his associate both chatted with him too and, though they would never admit it to anyone else, found him to be a little intimidating in some way they just couldn’t quite put their fingers on. Maybe it was the fact his name was Jesus, but then why would that have bothered them? Lots of Latino men are named Jesus.
As time passed Jesus kept coming to church and became more and more well known in the congregation. Both men and women were drawn to him and his welcoming personality. He was invited to any number events, many of which he attended. He especially seemed to like the pot lucks and he was a regular at Bible study.
He did have one character flaw though. He almost immediately started bringing unsavory people with him to church. This made everybody a little uncomfortable, especially at coffee hour. Some of them looked like they hadn’t changed clothes in a while. A few others weren’t always as quiet as you might expect a person to be in church. A couple of times he brought known community outcasts with him, people who were known trouble makers or had a bad reputation of one kind or another. Many of the congregants urged the rector to speak with Jesus about this issue but the timing never seemed right. Besides, Jesus was such a great guy and his friends never seemed to be a problem while they were at church with him. So the rector figured no harm no foul and left Jesus alone about this one issue for the most part. Ok he did ask Jesus a couple of times why he was associating with these people but it never went too far beyond that.
Here is where some of the real trouble probably began. You see Jesus knew his scriptures. It was almost eerie how well he did. It was much like he had been there for the actual events the stories were retelling. He pointed out things that were not in the center of the story, little things on the edges of the passage that turned the meaning just slightly and somehow made the scripture more personally meaningful to everyone in the room. If you didn’t know better you could almost sense that the Rector was becoming angry with Jesus, or maybe jealous with what he thought of as Jesus’ know-it-all attitude. He suddenly seemed a little stiff, and sometimes his words became a little sharp and snippy.
But it just couldn’t be true that this wonderful and popular rector was having problems dealing with his feelings about Jesus. He was just too nice a guy and being a Rector is a pretty serious and stressful business and that was probably the root of the issue. After all who could ever get mad at Jesus?
It all seemed to come to a head one Sunday, the third week in November, during the second service. A real pillar of the church was reading the second lesson in his normal, wonderfully schooled, baritone voice when he suddenly looked around wildly, made some strange strangling noises as he grabbed at his chest, and fell backwards from the lectern, to the horror of the entire congregation who looked on the events happening right in front of them in open mouthed wonder.
For a moment the place was frozen and time almost stood still, and then out of that silence, several people came back to reality and rushed to his aid. One of those was Jesus, who appeared to take charge of the situation, put his hands on Tom’s chest closed his own eyes as if praying, and then told Tom he was ok.
I kid you not. That’s what he said. “Tom you are ok.” And then he was. Tom sat up and glanced around with the strangest look on his face. He would swear later to anyone who would listen that he had been dead. He claimed he had died instantly of a heart attack, seemed to be traveling serenely toward the most beautiful light he had ever seen in the distance, and then suddenly found himself jerked back to St. Joseph’s and the lectern where the excitement had begun.
Jesus, for his part, asked people not to talk about what had happened and what they had seen. This, of course, did no good at all and the stories about him began to spread like wildfire throughout Belen and into Albuquerque.
From that moment people began to see Jesus in another way. Just who was this man who did the things he did and acted the way he acted? People were split. Some believed him to be really special, maybe someone sent by God. Others thought of him as perhaps some sort of magician. Others said he was talented, a really nice guy, but come on, he was nothing extra special. Everything would eventually be explained and the world would move on to the next attention grabbing sound bite. And yet his fame continued to grow.
One thing for sure was that folks in the area were lining up on one side in support of Jesus or the other thinking him to be some sort of a menace. The local clergy in Belen became upset as folks left their churches and started going to St. Joseph’s hoping to meet this fellow Jesus. Local businesses, on the other hand, were happy to welcome the new visitors to Belen because it meant new income streams for them. There were even street venders selling little trinkets commemorating all the excitement that was building.
Jesus however seemed pretty unfazed by the whole thing. All the questions he was being asked seemed to amuse him more than anything else. Even when the bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande, and some of her cronies, came to see him and grill him on his interpretations of scripture he just kept on keeping on. When the Bishop seemed to get a little miffed with him and stormed back to Albuquerque he took it all in stride.
And then one day he just up and left town. He didn’t say goodbye. His parting words to his closest friends were just asking that they love one another, and remember him once in a while when they sat down to have a meal. Perhaps he would return one day.
And so the story ends. They are still telling it in and around town. Just exactly who was that guy? Isn’t it incredible they never really figured it out?