The Road to Emmaus

Luke 24: 13-35

It is on the road to Emmaus that Jesus makes his first resurrection appearance in the Gospel of Luke. We enter into the story as Cleopas and his companion, whom many believe to be a woman, probably his wife, are leaving Jerusalem after the Passover to go to home Emmaus. It is not hard to imagine the heaviness of their hearts as they walk away from the greatest tragedy they had ever witnessed and the most disillusionment they had ever felt. Only a few weeks ago, they saw Jesus, the one whom they believed to be the Messiah, sent by God to free Israel from the oppression of the occupation of the Roman Empire. They were part of the crowds that waved palms and laid cloaks on the ground as Jesus made his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. They remembered shouting with the crowds, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” believing that Jesus would get rid of the Roman occupiers and take over the as King of Israel thus giving Jerusalem back to the Israelites.


Cleopas and his wife had expected to see a military or cosmic revolution, instead they witnessed an execution. Jesus, the one whom they placed all their hopes on died in the most shameful way possible, he was hung on a cross like a common criminal. The one whom they thought would be their savior was now dead and all their messianic hopes died with him. They journey on the road to Emmaus with their heads hung low, feeling like fools for believing that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah.

It is at this moment of desolation, of hopeless, of disillusionment that Jesus meets Cleopas and his wife on their journey. The gospel is careful to point out that their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus. They had not yet understood why God sent Jesus to live and die the way he did. Their view of redemption was too narrow to conceive of the salvation of the world through the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

When Jesus caught up with Cleopas and his wife, he asked them what they were talking about. They stopped walking. With sad faces and a bit of incredulousness Cleopas answers him, “What rock have you been hiding under Mister, don’t you know what has happened in the past couple of days in Jerusalem! It’s all that the people are talking about.”

Jesus was not put off by their rudeness, instead he asks them to recall the story, to bring him up to speed so that he might understand the things that happened Cleopas’ perspective. Cleopas explains, " Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people…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.” (Luke 24:19-21b)

“But we had hoped” In spite of Jesus’ miracles, in spite of Jesus’ radical preaching about the kingdom of God, in spite of the women coming from the empty tomb to proclaim that Jesus was still alive, Cleopas and his wife are unable to believe the realness of Jesus’ resurrection or even his messiah ship because their vision of redeeming Messiah was too narrow to conceive of liberation through the promise of resurrection. “But we had hoped…” with these words we hear Cleopas giving up on his dreams of salvation. How many times have we said, “But we had hoped…” “But we had hoped that he wouldn’t get laid off.” “But we had hoped that the new treatment would put her cancer into remission.” “But we had hoped that we’d be parents by now.” “But we had hoped that our committed relationship would be recognized as a real marriage.”

I recently saw a TV show where two of the female characters decide to get married. Callie and Arizona had been in a relationship for over a year and are even raising a child together. They had reached a point in their relationship where they were ready to make a lifetime commitment to each other and they wanted have that commitment blessed in front of their family and friends in a ceremony officiated by a priest in a church. Unfortunately a number of events happen that get in the way of that dream. Callie’s mother who is a devout Catholic does not support the relationship or even Callie’s child because it was conceived out of wedlock. Callie dis-invites both her parents because she can’t deal with her mother’s negativity, thus her father won’t be there to walk her down the aisle. Then on the day of the wedding the priest’s wife gets in a car accident and he is unable to officiate because he has to be with his wife in the ER. Seeing that her wedding was not going to go as she had hoped it would Callie decided it off.

Callie’s good friend Miranda comes over to talk Callie into putting the wedding back on. Callie tells her it’s not happening, every thing that she had hoped for: her mother’s support, her dad giving her away, being married by a priest in a church - none of these things were going to happen. ”It’s not even legal,” Callie laments, “There’s no priest, it’s not going to be in a church, it isn’t even real. What’s the point.”

But Miranda tells Callie, “First of all you do not need the law, or a priest or your mother to make your wedding real. And the church can be anywhere you want it to be…because where do you think God is. God’s in you…God’s in me. God’s right here in the middle of us…Now some churches haven’t caught up to God yet. Your mother hasn’t caught up to God yet and by the way she may never catch up but it’s OK. If you are willing to stand up in front of your family, friends and God and commit yourself to another human being to give of yourself in that kind of partnership…for better or worse, in sickness and in health, Honey that is a marriage, that is real and that is all that matters.” (1) The definition of real marriage that Miranda shares with Callie is much wider than the dream wedding that Callie had hoped for.

Messiah-ship, salvation and redemption is much wider Cleopas and his wife hoped for. Jesus tells 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.” (Luke 24:25-27) The promised redemption of scriptures was not just about the redemption of the nation Israel but the salvation of the whole world. Jesus reminded them that prophets from the time of Moses had never been accepted by their people but were persecuted for the saying the very word that God had sent them to share and because Jesus was a prophet sent by God to share God’s word, of course he was persecuted, even killed for sharing the radical good news of the gospel. However, God vindicated Jesus by showing victory over death by raising Jesus from death show the world that ultimately good overcomes evil, love overcomes hatred and that not even death can contain God’s aim to set things right for all creation. That the risen Christ is the Messiah because the promise of new life is the salvation of the world and that is all that matters!

It has been said if you want to see Jesus, go to church. That in community we see Jesus in us and between us as we hear the scriptures and break bread together around the communion table. Through the sharing of the word and sacrament we become transformed, our lives are changed because we see can God’s love and grace in action. This is what propels us to go out and share the good news outside our walls that God so loved the world that he sent his son to be with us, to preach to us, to die for us and to be risen to give us life ever lasting. Yes many parts of the world have not caught up to God yet but that’s ok because God will always catches up with us. May it be So. Amen.



[1] “White Wedding” Grey’s Anatomy aired May 5, 2011.