Luke 24:13-35

So, we have two disciples on a seven mile walk – trying to make sense of what they have just experienced in Jerusalem. But maybe we too need to find a way of understanding what may seem to be extraordinary.

     Just under 6 years ago I was in North Wales trying to understand the meaning of life. While there I was expecting to join a church book club online. But it was cancelled as the new Priest in Charge now had a diary clash. What was a man to do – but to walk up Snowdon instead!! The up bit was hard, but the down bit was much more interesting as I moved between various groups  of walkers and enjoyed the conversations. One special memory was a group of medics from Nottingham – we had a fascinating conversation about managing Covid – I saluted them for what they were doing for the rest of us. I am glad that I met them. Walking can be so enriching.

     In Perthshire I got to know a retired Rector from a neighbouring charge – she had retired early from that role and joined our congregation. She still had lots to give. She  took some services and was a member of the book club which I referred to earlier. But she told a story of an event that happened after she had retired and relocated. A walker was walking on his own past her garden gate. So, she invited him in for a meal, gave him a bed for the night and gave him some food as he set off in the morning. She never knew who he was, why he was walking or where he was walking to or from. Was her guest being guided by the Holy Spirit to a house where he would be welcomed and cared for? She puzzled a bit about it but just accepted the experience and the joy as a gift.

     Over the last year or so I have experienced a couple of coincidences involving meeting people that I struggle to explain as I wander on my life journey. Was the Holy Spirit at work?

     But here we have two disciples who have set off with a purpose.

     They are in deep reflection – and why wouldn’t they be. Jesus had been killed and maybe they feared the same fate. At the very least, their hopes and dreams have been shattered. What is going to happen next and what are they going to do?

     And in such circumstances, being joined by someone else might well just not register. Just how much can we take in after being involved in a car crash? And might we need some therapy to help us to view the events in a calmer light?

     After a prompt from Jesus, Cleopas sets out his take on the events in Jerusalem – in a fairly fearless and risky way – given that he did not know who this stranger was and who he might be connected to. But Jesus teases him and rewards him by moving into teaching mode – “interpreting” the scriptures to them. I sense that the disciples are warming to their stranger even if they still don’t recognise who he is.

     And so, as the disciples reach their destination, they invite Jesus in to stay with them. They still don’t know who he is – just as Frances never knew who she had invited into her house. 

     At the table he takes over the role of host as “he took bread, blessed and broke it”. And in doing so he reveals himself to the disciples, and then he vanishes from their sight! 

     If Cleopas and his fellow disciple thought that they had had a traumatic time in Jerusalem, then their walk and meal and the realisation of what they had just experienced must have been just as extraordinary – but in a more joyous way. 

     And so they set out to retrace their steps back to Jerusalem where they rejoined the eleven and their companions to share their joyous news.

     What does this tell us? I think it is that Jesus walks with  us as we travel through life – even if at first we cannot see him or recognise him. We just need to be open to the possibility. And we need to talk to him openly – about our fears and our uncertainties.

     How else could I explain the recent coincidences that I referred to earlier – and how else could I have found joy in Wigtownshire after my soul searching in North Wales in the autumn of 2020?

     And how else could we explain some of the other coincidences that we must all have experienced whether on a long walk or when we have been grappling with tricky problems and we suddenly see what appears to be the “obvious” solution that has been in front of us all the time. 

     We must believe that Jesus loves us and wants to help and support us – even when we are in the heart of a storm that seems impossible for us (and the disciples) to comprehend.

Amen.

Philip Colville