An adventure in (almost) missing the point
If you’ve ever lost a loved one, you’ve had this experience. Along with the grief, you also remember the good times. Meeting with others, you’ll say, ‘Do you remember the time that…?’ Or, ‘I can still see him at….’ ‘Didn’t we have a great time when…!’ ‘If she’d only lived a bit longer, she might have….’
Whenever you speak of the person, it’s almost always in the past tense. That’s the way death is. The present experience is gone, leaving only the past with its stories, its memories, its unfinished work and unfulfilled promises. Hmmmm.
They were walking along a dusty road, to a village about four miles away. Feeling sad, they looked sad to the stranger who fell in step with them. Amazed at his apparent ignorance of current events, they launched into their story, the one with the unhappy ending. ‘Haven’t you heard about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet?’ they asked. ‘We were hoping it was he who was going to redeem Israel.’
It is no surprise, convinced as they were of Jesus’ demise, that ‘their eyes were prevented from recognising him.’ While it’s a serious story, one can almost see the twinkle in Jesus’ eyes, and the chuckle just behind the words, when they challenged him with: ‘Are you the only one…unaware of the things which have happened…?’ Jesus’ response to them, shortened perhaps to keep from laughing out loud, was simply: ‘What things?’
Their encapsulated version of all that had transpired even included the fact that their short journey was taking place on the ‘third day since these things have happened.’ ‘In fact,’ they say, ‘Some of the women in our company are saying they had a vision of angels, who said Jesus was alive.’ Not given to believing such things easily, they admitted that some other disciples had viewed the empty tomb, ‘but Jesus they did not see.’ While not stated clearly, the inference is that the travelers put more confidence in the non-sightings of Jesus by their male colleagues than in the angelic encounter of the women.
We know the rest of the story. As the two travelers shared a meal at the end of the day with their new acquaintance, their eyes are finally opened. They realize they’d been walking and talking with the risen Jesus. The episode ends with the statement, used by many to underscore a passionate commitment to Jesus: ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was speaking to us…?’ While they were likely quite serious, there might also have been an element of: ‘Oh, I knew it all along. Didn’t I keep telling you, “We’re going to see Jesus today!”‘ The beauty of 20/20 hindsight.
My point? We tend to believe what we see while we disbelieve what we can’t see and are already predisposed not to be believe. Paul’s first prayer in Ephesians must become our own:
I pray that the eyes of [our] heart may be enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe,’ a power like the same power that Cleopas and his friend almost missed.
To the disciples’ credit, they did ask their fellow-journeyer to share a bite to eat at the end of the journey. Jesus might have continued on but for their invitation. Finally, their eyes were opened. Finally, they recognised Jesus in their midst. Finally, they took note of their burning hearts.
Earth’s crammed with heaven / And every bush afire with God / But only he who sees takes off his shoes / The rest sit around and pluck blackberries… (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)