Texts: Acts 2:14, 36-41 1 Peter 1:17-23 ( Series A, 3rd Sunday of Easter) Ps. 116 :1-4, 12-19 Luke 24: 13-35
I am not an English major, but have you ever noticed that some of the saddest words in our language begin with the letter D? For example, disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despondency, depression, despair and death. Disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despair and death - all of these words sum up how Cleopas and his companion were feeling as they trudged up the road toward Emmaus. They had left the downhearted and confused band of disciples who were afraid and bewildered over what had happened to Jesus on Good Friday. The two men, as they travelled along, were also sad and disillusioned.
The Master they had loved and followed was put to death – a cruel and degrading death on a cross. Jesus had been made a public spectacle, exposed to the jeers of all who passed by.
Only a week before, their hopes had risen high when the excited crowds welcomed their Master waving palm branches and shouting ‘hosanna’. But now Jesus lay dead in a sealed tomb. Their hopes were dashed; the dream was over!
Even the report of the women that Christ’s tomb was empty didn’t raise their spirits; it only confused them even more. The two despondent disciples walking the road to Emmaus summed up the situation very neatly when they said, "We had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free!" Human hope is a fragile thing, and when it withers, it’s difficult to revive.
My road to Emmaus begun with the stranger some time in July 1969. Even though I was baptized as a child, and brought up in a godly environment, faith was not personal until I met Jesus on the road to Emmaus. This happened in the summer of 1969 when the roof caved in for me.
I was a middle distance runner and at 18 yrs. I clocked 2.06 minutes for 800 miters or ½ a mile –without a coach and bare feet. I was popular among my peers, and it was my dream to work hard and represent my native country Ghana in 1972 Olympic which was to take place in Munich, Germany.
But my athletic world came unglued when I couldn’t make up the team to be trained for the Olympic. I felt these emotions in my members: disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despondency, depression, and despair.
That evening I stayed over night at my oldest sister’s place, and it was hard falling asleep at nihgt as the event of the day kept repeating itself in my mind over and over. Wee in the morning I took my Bible to read for the first time in many years because I couldn’t fall asleep. And when I opened it fell on Luke 19: it is the story about Zacchaeus. “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost”
My Christian life prior to this moment was like a smouldering fire that gives no light, just smoke to cloud things up. But once I came into the presence of the Risen Lord my heart was ablaze! A burning fire that gives light for all to see, and I saw, understood, I believed and faith was reborn in me and I haven’t look back since! All because of the Risen Lord! Jesus’ victory became my restoring hope. It became the anchor of my life.
The road to Emmaus is a symbol of the Christian life. This story is about ordinary despair, and ordinary, Monday-morning drudgery. It is a story about meeting a stranger, hearing his words of comfort, sitting down at table and sharing a meal. This is story about the meaning of Easter for us.
It enables us to see that the risen Lord gives hope and joy, when all we see is disappointment, discouragement and despair. It enables us to see the world, not as a place of death, decay, and defeat, but as a place waiting, groaning toward God's final victory.
This story about the walk to Emmaus is a story for every day life in 2008. If you are walking the Emmaus road right now or when you will walk it in the future with those sad Ds - disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despondency, depression, and despair – let me remind you that we are not walking alone. The unseen "stranger", the risen Jesus is walking with us.
When our Emmaus road is filled with discouragement and despair, let’s walk it with Jesus. Walking with Jesus, our road will become a great highway of companionship, conversation, belief and hope.
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
April 6, 2008