Bible Text: Luke 24:13-35 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
If there is one person that all Canadians can agree is a hero I believe it would be Terry Fox. His story is one of incredible tenacity, challenge and tragedy, but also one of strength, perseverance and hope. His difficult journey began when he was diagnosed in 1977 with osteosarcoma in his right knee which later had to be amputated. After that he met Rick Hansen who invited him to play, wheelchair basketball. Perhaps inspired by this relationship and by a story of an amputee who finished a New York Marathon, Terry Fox decided to train as a marathon runner despite his disability. In 1979, two years after being diagnosed, he completed his first marathon in Prince George, finishing last, but his effort was met with tears and cheers from other participants. After that Terry announced he would run across the country for cancer research. While he was unable to finish that trek, he did manage to run for 143 days and 5, 373km and raised $1.7 million. Now of course the Terry Fox Run is the largest cancer research fundraiser in the world, and has raised over $600 million. I don’t think Terry could have ever imagined that his efforts would have had such an impact- and considering he was never able to complete his goal, he has inspired a nation- becoming one of its greatest heroes. We have all seen that image of him dipping his foot into the Atlantic Ocean when he took that first step, with the entire country ahead of him. Just that first day must have been a difficult walk, and I understand that he had challenges with his road crew and family during the journey. Regardless of the distance, it was a long journey and not an easy one to make.
Sometimes our journeys are difficult and can feel like long walks or uphill battles regardless of actual distance or terrain. In fact sometimes we can be walking on level ground, but because of the burden we are carrying or what lays ahead of us we can feel hopeless and the walk seems all that much longer. I imagine that is what it must have felt like for the two disciples who find themselves walking a mere 7 miles between Jerusalem, where they were coming from, and Emmaus, where they were going. In Luke’s version of the resurrection story the three women who met the angel tell the disciples about what they say and heard, and the disciples take it for an idle tale, except for Peter who runs back and sees the empty tomb. Which means that for these two disciples walking on the road, they are still absolutely disillusioned with Jesus, their faith and how they spent the last three years of their life, following a rabbi around the Middle East and thinking he was the Messiah. But no Messiah would have died as a common criminal, right? It was a walk burdened with these doubts, disappointments, sadness and likely shame. Quite possibly they were ashamed that they had just spent the last three years with a guy who was crucified. Perhaps one of the disciples felt one way and the other felt another way. This is why they were deep in conversation.
We don’t really catch it in the NRSV translation but this was indeed a very deep conversation, even debate. The NRSV says they were talking and discussing but in Greek the narrator uses three terms, homileo, antiballette and syzeteo to describe this conversation. Homileo, is where we get the terms homiletics or homily, homiletics meaning the art of preaching. They are preaching to one another- trying to interpret with their knowledge of Scripture what has happened over the last few weeks. Antiballette is essentially comparing and contrasting, it means to “place against”. They were debating these interpretations and syzeteo means “with emotion”. This was a very lively, intelligent, difficult and possibly heated debate. No wonder when this stranger meets them on the road they are too busy blinded by their emotions to even see who this stranger is. Have you ever been out for a walk with a friend or loved one and that walk has turned into a heated conversation. Your walk might turn into a clip and speed up. Or, perhaps a better analogy for the modern day would be: have you ever been on a road trip with your family or loved one and either you or your kids are fighting? It can turn a pleasant drive into a loooog trip. When we’re stuck in that car, travelling with someone, and a fight or debate breaks out we forget all about the destination or the ability to enjoy the scenery. We forget that we are on a journey together. Sometimes our anger at something that happened to us or a comment someone made, can then flavour our entire experience. I think this is what is happening on the road to Emmaus. They are arguing and therefore their vision is clouded. It’s only 7 miles but it seems like a long walk and then this stranger has the gall to ask, “What are you discussing?”
Luke gives us, the readers a little insight by sharing with us that this stranger is Jesus but that the disciples’ eyes were kept from recognizing him. In some ways this resurrection story and appearance is unique in that unlike almost all the other stories where there is a flash of light, or an angel or an earthquake or at the very least an appearance in a locked room, this story is rather mild. I believe Luke is allowing us the possibility that Jesus sometimes comes to us not in big scenes but in gentle appearances. As one commentator put it Jesus comes to us, “Less as a flash of light and more as the gentle probing of our heart’s entanglements on the road to our next chapter.” We do not always come to a resolution regarding faith with big fanfare; I would claim that this is not the norm. Rather we come to a realization regarding faith over time in subtle ways until it all of a sudden strikes us that something about our perspective has changed, or that Jesus was with us all along, or that Jesus stands with us, even engages us in debate, until we can clearly see Jesus within our world. This story of the road to Emmaus is about a transition from blindness to sight or rather faithlessness to faith, but it is not done in one instant but rather through conversation and a meal.
Let me digress for a moment to talk about this meal. Most of the time we refer to Communion or the Lord’s Supper within the context of the Last Supper, because it was at this one meal that Jesus told the disciples what it all meant. But here in this story we are reminded that the Lord’s supper is also a meal that celebrates the resurrection; that this is a foretaste of the banquet meal that awaits us at God’s table. Charles Wesley actually called it the antepast of heaven- antepast coming from the same root for antepasto, which if you know your Italian means, before the meal. It is what one eats before the main course comes along. Our journey in life is the antepast of heaven too in that it is a foretaste of what awaits us and we cannot even imagine what awaits us because it is beyond us. As Paul says in Corinthians, now we see in a mirror dimly but then we will see each other face to face.
Let me come back to our theme, it is kind of like the now hugely popular Terry Fox Run. The actual Terry Fox could not have imagined it would be what it would become. In his entire walk Terry Fox persevered until he just couldn’t walk anymore and while it is a tragedy that he could not complete his walk across the country, what he has accomplished posthumously is incredible. Sometimes we can’t see where our walk is leading us and we have no idea what affects it will have; but then Christ reveals himself, gives us food and nourishment for the journey and helps us to know what we can do, especially when we have others who are walking with us, discussing and engaging the Scriptures with us. And remember that our legacy could make a greater impact than we ever could have imagined. Amen