The road to Emmaus is one of my favourite resurrection accounts. There is a movement of
walking away, encounter, recognition, reflection and returning.
At the story's start, the disciples are walking
away from Jerusalem. They are sad and discouraged. They don't know which stories to believe about Jesus and his apparently missing body. Unfortunately, life sometimes gets us down, and we find ourselves walking away from the places of encounter with the Lord.
Jesus meets the disciples along the road and has a conversation with them. They talk about Jesus and how the scriptures are about him, even though they don't recognise him. It's a moment of encounter with the risen Lord. He walks with them and chats with them. The risen Lord meets us on our journeys of despair too. He is with us in our traffic jams, work
stress, school assignments, and family worries. Though sometimes we do not recognise him there.
Jesus remains for a
meal with the disciples and prays with them. It's at this moment of breaking bread that they recognise him. It seems so obvious that it should have been him all along - were not our hearts burning within us? When you reflect on your ordinary experiences in life, do you ever look out for those burning heart moments? They may be just when God was joining us on the journey. It is not only through experience that we meet God in our lives but through reflection on these experiences.
Having reflected upon their experience of the risen Lord, and possibly with their hearts still burning, the disciples turn around. They return to Jerusalem and share the joy of their encounter with Jesus. When we meet the risen Lord and reflect upon these meetings, we find
ourselves drawn back to our Jerusalem, to lives of Christian fidelity, community, prayer and service.
Where have you met Jesus this
week? When was your heart burning within you? Where might the Lord be calling you to return?
