Easter Sunday 2022: Later That Same Day

Who is the third who walks always beside you?

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you

Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded

I do not know whether a man or a woman

—But who is that on the other side of you?

T.S Eliot, "The Waste Land"

So....Emmaus.

Stop me if you heard this one:  two guys are walking down the street, talking about a third guy who's not there because he's dead.  And that's what they're talking about.  And a stranger asks them what they're talking about, and they fill him in while thinking "Is this guy from out of town or something?"  And they get to a diner, and they invite him in to have dinner with 'em (seemed like the thing to do, ya know?) and in the middle of the meal suddenly they realize this guy is the guy they were talking about!  Who's supposed to be dead, but maybe not!  And then, as sure as he was there, this guy they were talking about, he's gone!

Waddya make o' that?

Now that same day two of them were traveling to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.  They were engaged in conversation about all that had taken place.  And it so happened during the course of their discussion, that Jesus himself approached and began to walk along with them. But they wouldn't recognize him.

He said to them, "What were you discussing as you walked along?"

Then they paused, looking depressed.  One of them, names Cleopas, said to him in reply, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who doesn't know what happened there these last few days?"

And he said to them, "What are you talking about?"

And they said to him, "About Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in word and deed in the eyes of God and all the people, and about how our ranking priests and rulers turned him in to be sentenced to death, and crucified him. We were hoping that he would be the one who was going to ransom Israel. And as if this weren't enough, it's been three days now since all this happened. Meanwhile, some women from our group gave us quite a shock. They were at the tomb early this morning and didn't find his body. They came back claiming even to have seen a vision of heavenly messengers, who said that he was alive. Some of those with us went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had described; but nobody saw him."

And he said to them, "You people are so slow-witted, so reluctant to trust everything the prophets have said! Wasn't the Anointed One destined to undergo these things and enter into his glory?" Then, starting with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted for them every passage of scripture that referred to himself.

They had gotten close to the village to which they were going, and he acted as if he were going on. But they entreated him, saying, "Stay with us; it's almost evening, the day is practically over." So he went in to stay with them.

And so, as soon as he took his place at table with them, he took a loaf, and gave a blessing, broke it, and started passing it out to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.

--Luke 24:13-31, SV 

"That same day" is the day we now call Easter Sunday.  It's the day of the resurrection.  "Two figues in dazzling clothing" (Luke 24:4b, SV) appeared at the tomb and announced the resurrection, but in Luke's version nobody has seen anything of Jesus yet.  And when they do, they don't know who he is.  Not until he eats with them at table.

It still surprises me this story isn't read at every eucharist.  Among the gospels, it is the only story where Jesus is revealed in taking a meal.  Yes, John has Jesus cooking fish on the beach, and eating it, but the disciples know it's Jesus when they walk up to him.  They're surprised to see him, but they know it's him.  Here two strangers to the audience of Luke's gospel share a meal with the man they've been mourning for three days; and they don't realize it until the bread is broken. If that's not a reference to the eucharist, I don't know what is.

But is the bread now his body?  Is that what Luke is saying? Does Jesus still have a body?  He seems to, but they don't recognize it; and as soon as they do, he leaves.  He vanishes; he disappears. Need I say, bodies don’t do that?

Don't overlook the gesture of hospitality, either.  I think that's more important here than ever we credit.  Abraham was visited by God in the three strangers who came to his tents at Mamre.  They stopped because Abraham invited them to.  They ate because he offered the meal.  Jesus stops at Emmaus because Cleopas and his unnamed friend invite him to, little knowing who he was.  But Abraham didn't know who was at his tent, either.  They were strangers, and he offered them the comforts of his home.  Cleopas and his companion offered a meal, probably at the home of one of them (there really weren't any restaurants as we imagine them, certainly not in a village like Emmaus.  I've lived in villages that small.  The one restaurant that was there while I was was run out of an old home; and it didn't last long.  To offer someone a meal was to invite them into your home.  How many of us do that for strangers?).  Hospitality is a key aspect of Christ's teachings, but we overlook it.  We don't spend much time thinking about even his teachings on humility:  "The first of all will be last and servant of all."  We elevate "servant" to a position of public authority and honor, and while we more highly esteem the office holders who say they are the "servant of the people," that's not the meaning Jesus had in mind.  Servants served in households.  They served who ever came into that house, sat at that table.  Maybe today we should say "waitress of all."  And without even tips.

The Emmaus story is unique in the gospels.  There's no echo of it in John's post-resurrection stories, or in Matthew's.  Mark has one in the longer ending; it echoes Luke, almost:

A little later he appeared to two of them in a different guise as they were walking along on their way to the country.  And these two returned and told the others.  They did not believe them either.

Jesus' post-resurrection appearance in Mark is to Mary of Magdala, "from whom he had driven out seven demons."  But no one believes her; and they don't believe the unnamed two, either.

In Matthew, he appears to Mary of Magdala and "the other Mary," and the 11 go to the place in Galilee where the two women have told them to, and there they see Jesus, "though some were dubious."

In Luke, the Emmaus story leads directly into an appearance by Jesus among the 11, where he eats some fish (did he even taste the bread the first time?) to prove he's not a ghost.  Matthew has mentioned that the priests and elders bribed the guards to say the disciples stole the body, so stories were already about challenging the gospel narratives.  John tells several stories to prove Jesus is no ghost; but no one says quite what he is now.  In Luke he teaches the disciples a bit more, and then leads them out to Bethany (!), where he ascends into heaven, proving he is no longer of this earth, even if he isn't a ghost.  (Bethany finally earns a mention in Luke here; it is the site of the anointings in the other three gospels).  It's the most interesting of the resurrection stories because it involves hiddenness (or disguise), revelation, appearance/disappearance, confusion, and strangers.  The two men in the story are strangers to us, the audience, which makes Jesus as stranger even easier to grasp.  They should know him, but we don't know that clearly, because we don't know them.  We know Jesus, and think we'd have recognized him when these two (strangers to us, and therefore dismissible), don't.  But then, we are not among the 11; why would we do better? And why does Jesus appear to them, and not the 11; or Mary Magdalene, or "the other Mary"?  Where does Luke get this story, and, like his version of the anointing, what is he trying to tell us with this version of events?  A version unlike any other in the gospels, and yet as similar to them as his anointing is to the other three.

The story of Emmaus is no small thing.