Cleopas and a Disciple to be Named Later

The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke the 24th Chapter

Now on that same day two of them 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.

These two disciples... one named Cleopas and the other whose name we don’t know... these two disciples were leaving Jerusalem and headed out of town.  They were leaving for good because the hopes they had for their faith community had been crushed.  In other words, they were leaving the Church… their church... for good.  

They might have been the first to leave a church in disappointment but they certainly weren’t the last.  Lots and lots of us, me included, have had our hopes crushed in the church.  Sometimes things happen to the point where we feel like we have no choice but to leave and sometimes it feels like the church has left us.  For Cleopas and the other disciple it was because the one they were following, Jesus, had been killed and with that change they couldn’t see any future.  For us there are probably 60 different reasons:  theology, Biblical interpretation, clergy misconduct, mean people, financial differences, abuse, burn out and at least 54 other reasons.  The wounds may be old or recent, they may be healed or they may still be open and throbbing.  

Church is SUPPOSED to be a place to live into the hope of abundant life, a place where we take out our hearts and souls and open them up, hoping to have them fed and nourished, so when things with church mess up so badly that we need to leave or worse yet when our church leaves us, it hurts down to our very being.  It is a profound, lasting, life altering pain.  That was the kind of profound, lasting and life altering pain that Cleopas and that other disciple walked down the road to Emmaus with that day.  It was also on THAT road (the one that led away from the Church) and into THAT profound, lasting and life altering disappointment and pain that Jesus came.  Jesus met them on THAT road.

You see, Jesus doesn’t meet us in our lives only once we’ve got it all figured out, once we’ve perfected life and once we’ve gotten all of our stuff together... Jesus doesn’t meet us only at the destination... Jesus meets us on the road, in the most broken and pain filled moments of life.  So Jesus caught up with Cleopas and that other disciple because no matter where they were on the road... no matter how or what had wrenched the hope out of their lives, everyone is important to Jesus... whether they are able to recognize it at the time or not!

So as they walked along, Jesus asked them to tell him their story.  We all have a story.  When we get hurt, we have a very important and painful story to tell...in a way, when we’re hurt like that, our story is about death and a tomb just like the story Cleopas and that other disciple had to tell.  Then, Jesus just listened... he didn’t try to fix it... he just listened.  It turns out Jesus is pretty smart.  He knew they had to tell the story... they had to bring it all back to the surface if they were ever going to deal with it... if they were ever going to heal.  How many times do you have to tell that story?  Well, as many times as that story needs to be told.  

When Cleopas and the other disciple were done with their story, Jesus told THEM a story.  He told them THE story.  Beginning at the beginning, Jesus told them how God has always cared for God’s people and all of creation.  He reminded them of all the times God had protected, rescued and saved the people of Israel.  He reminded them that God loved us all into being, breathing life into us.  A flood couldn’t get in the way of God’s love and neither could enemies, slavery or exile, heights or depths or anything else in all of creation.  Not even things that seemed insurmountable like an impassable sea, long dead, dry bones, a fiery furnace... not even death could stop God from caring for God’s people!

  

Jesus told them THE story and then... well, then he just let that story sit with them.  Telling the story we have to tell and hearing THE story... God’s story… it does work.  Sometimes it works before dinner like it did for Cleopas and the other disciple but often it takes much longer before it finally works it’s way into broken hearts where the healing can begin.  Jesus didn’t expect or demand them to heal in a certain amount of time.  In fact, after telling THE story, Jesus was headed on down the road.  If anything, it seems he expected it WOULDN’T happen before dinner that night.   But when they were ready, when their story had been told, when they had opened themselves up to the possibility of healing and when THE story had worked that healing... when they were ready to move on again... so was Jesus.  

That story of hurt and healing and meeting Jesus on the road isn’t just a 2000 year old story.  It’s our story.  That other disciple in this story who isn’t named... it’s not that they don’t have a name because someone forgot to write it down... that other disciple isn’t named because each of us is meant to understand that other disciple is us.  Each of you are the unnamed disciple!  You are the one who has had your hopes dashed by hurts and betrayals and abandonment and disappointment and death BUT... you are also the disciple whom Jesus is walking with RIGHT NOW as you walk THIS road at THIS moment in time.  

It may be that you will only recognize Jesus at the end of the road in the breaking of the bread, but it is where you are right now, just as you are in THIS moment, in the midst of THIS hurt and fear and change and brokenness... along THIS road where Jesus meets you, where your story needs to be told and where the healing has a chance to begin.

May you have the courage to open your heart and your soul and tell your story... not to blame or accuse but to honestly acknowledge and air your hurts and the pain.  May you have the compassion to make the time to hear others tell their story as many times as they need to tell it.  May you have the confidence to tell THE story, God’s story, knowing that the inexpert, imperfect way you tell it will turn out to be EXACTLY how it needs to be heard in that moment for that person.  And may we all have the patience to wait for it all to work, confident that when we are ready, Jesus will still be with us, ready to break bread and send us back... back to be the church again… a church which will be very, very different than the one we knew before, but a church which will have been transformed by the power of the resurrection, equipped anew and ready now to do nothing less than change the world!  Amen.