Walking the Emmaus Road - Part 2

Daily Byte

Yesterday we introduced the questions, “What do you do and where do you go when your whole world is falling apart?” Over the next four days we’ll be looking at the story of two of Jesus’ disciples for whom these questions were real. They are the two disciples we read about in Luke 24 who were walking on the road to Emmaus.

We know very little about the town of Emmaus, and what it represented for these two disciples who journeyed there. In all likelihood it was their home, but even of that we cannot be sure. What we do know is that it was away from Jerusalem. Jerusalem, a place of disappointment and despair for the disciples of Jesus. A place of desolation and defeat, for it was in Jerusalem that their Lord had died. But Emmaus was away from that place, it was away from Jerusalem. It was to Emmaus that these disciples walked.

Frederick Buechner writes:
"Emmaus is the place we go to in order to escape - a bar, a movie, wherever it is we throw up our hands and say, "Let the whole damned thing go hang. It makes no difference anyway." Emmaus may be buying a new suit or a new car or smoking more cigarettes than you really want, or reading a second-rate novel or even writing one. Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred: that even the wisest and bravest and loveliest decay and die; that even the noblest ideas that people have had - ideas about love and freedom and justice - have always in time been twisted out of shape by selfish people for selfish ends.”

If Emmaus is indeed such a place, it's understandable that the feelings that are experienced on the Emmaus Road are dark ones indeed. While the two disciples were walking away from Jerusalem, escaping perhaps from all that had happened there, the chaos of Jerusalem couldn't be left behind. Dark and desperate feelings followed them like the deepening shadows that grew longer as they walked in the fading daylight.

Sadness - because the one whom they had been following was dead.

Disappointment - because the hope for deliverance that had been growing within them had been dashed.

Anger - because they had been abandoned.

Hostility - because their own religious leaders had engineered their Lord's death.

Despair - because they didn't know how to pick up the pieces and carry on.

Confusion - because some disturbing, perplexing stories had been reported by their women-folk returning from the tomb that morning.

Exasperation - because their Lord's body could not be found.

These are the dark and desperate feelings of the Emmaus Road that make us want to run away and hide.

But it is precisely on that Emmaus Road that these two disciples are found by the risen Christ. He walks with them and talks with them and so shares in their journey right to its end. But his presence transforms the destination of that journey from being a place of escape, to being a place of encounter. That's the good news of Easter, which we too are called to hear and receive.

Over the next few days we’ll explore in greater detail exactly what happened when they were met by the risen Christ, for it’s what can happen for us.

Pray as you go:

Lord God, sometimes it feels like I just have to get away, to escape from all the stress and strain of life. Thank you that you are not intimidated by these feelings within me, and that wherever I may go, you are there. For your risen presence fills the entire world. Amen.

Focus scripture
Psalm 139:7-10

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.