Easter Day Meditation
Daily Scripture Passage: Luke 24:13-35
They urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us.”
— Luke 24:29a
The story of the disciples and Jesus encountering one another on the road between Jerusalem and Emmaus is gorgeous in part because of its pathos. You can almost feel the longing the disciples felt when Jesus said he was going to leave them. “Stay with us,” they pleaded. Later, in the story they tell us why. Being with him had set their hearts on fire.
Luke says this happened just days after Jesus had been crucified. All the disciples’ hopes had been destroyed. He was gone, and the pain of the loss consumed them. It is amazing, then, that the disciples did not even recognize him when he drew near.
The story of the Emmaus road is the story of every group of disciples. It is our story. We long for him. He draws near. We do not see him for who he is. We see him for just a second. Then, just as quickly, he vanishes from our sight.
Note that the story does not say that he left. It says that he vanished from sight. Here is a footnote to add to Luke’s Gospel: Actually, he was still there.
Easter Day gives us a good chance to see him. We have had the forty days of Lent to remove our blinders and rub the sleep out of our eyes. Maybe today we can be like the disciples at their Emmaus dinner table who finally saw. It will not last, though, because it never does. We will lose sight of him again, but it does not mean that he is gone.
On my better days, I look at people who beg on our streets, especially the ones who are emotionally distressed, and I wonder if they are the stranger on the road to Emmaus. Am I blind? Maybe instead I should take notice of the ordinary people in my ordinary life, the people who are easy to miss. Is this the person on life’s road who is the Presence of God?
Christ is risen. Note that we do not say that he was risen, that he was resurrected. He is risen. He is resurrected. He lives among us, a stranger on life’s road, walking along side us whether we recognize him or not.