Easter Octave Homily

Easter Octave Homily April 14, 2012

“Where have you been for the past week? You must be the only one in town who doesn’t know what happened.”

Cleopas and his friend were rushing to get out of Jerusalem. Three days before, the Romans had captured their teacher, tried him, and crucified him. They knew what Romans did to disciples of disruptive Jews. Cleopas and his friend hid in the city for three days, then decided it was safer to run. There was a little town seven miles from Jerusalem. Nobody would find them there.

Then this stranger joined them on the road and started asking questions, too many questions, suspicious questions. How could he be so ignorant? Was he trying to trap them?

“What did happen?” the stranger asked again.

Cleopas took a deep breath. He might be an informant, another Judas. Cleopas would have to choose his words carefully. “You have heard of the teacher of Nazareth?” he began. “He was a prophet mighty in word and deed in the sight of God and all the people. A few days ago the priests and our rulers handed him to the Romans, who crucified him.” Cleopas tried to gauge how the stranger was taking the story. He took another breath, and decided to risk telling everything. “We hoped He would redeem Israel, but they killed him. Then the strangest thing of all: Some women came from His tomb this morning telling us that it was empty and that they had talked with him. If the Romans hear that, we’re all dead.”

Cleopas paused. For a few moments, the only sound was the scrape of sandals on the dusty road. When he glanced over, the stranger’s face was stern, almost angry. Cleopas never forgot what he heard next. “You fools! You simpletons! Have you never read the Scriptures?”

Cleopas looked in astonishment at his friend, but the stranger wasn’t finished. He started with Adam, Abraham, then Moses, Joshua, David, and Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Joshua, Zerubbabel, on and on. “Don’t you understand the Scriptures? Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter His glory?” As the stranger talked, Cleopas felt his heart burning. His friend’s eyes gleamed like lamps.

When they arrived at the inn in Emmaeus, the stranger continued walking down the road. Cleopas followed and stopped him. “Please, stay with us. They day is nearly done. Come and eat.”

Later, as they reclined at the table, in the thickening light, the stranger took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. Light seemed to fill the room and in that brilliant flash their eyes opened and they saw for a moment the face of Jesus. Then He was gone. Bewildered with joy, they rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the others that they had seen the Lord, and that they recognized Him in the breaking of bread.

Cleopas and his friend knew the whole gospel. They knew about Jesus’ death and even His resurrection. Jesus was with them. It wasn’t enough. Even with all that, they still abandoned the mission of Jesus. Instead of staying in Jerusalem to be witnesses, they fled. To become witnesses, they not only had to know about Jesus; they had to know Jesus as the surprise ending to the long history of Israel. Being with Jesus wasn’t enough; they had to recognize Him as Jesus, and they could only do that by eating with Him. To them Jesus was an ill-informed stranger – until He taught everything concerning Himself in all the Scriptures, until He gave thanks and broke bread.

At Trinity, we talk a lot about how the Old Testament foreshadows Jesus. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. Some might wonder if we shouldn’t be doing something more practical, something more missional. But the Word and the Bread are the source of our mission. For us, as for the two disciples on the road to Emmaeus, Jesus is an unrecognized stranger until with burning hearts we learn that He is Israel’s Messiah who has suffered to enter His glory. Like Cleopas and his friend, we become witnesses only by breaking bread, which opens our eyes so we can see that Jesus has joined us at the table.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.


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