After poring over the gospel lesson for this week, I keep thinking about that road. That road to Emmaus must’ve been a sad, disappointing and lonely road for those two disciples. I imagine them walking briskly, eager to leave the last three days behind them, eager to leave the city of Jerusalem, a place that was now dangerous for them, were they to be identified as Jesus’ followers.
I imagine their hushed conversation interrupted by periods of silence, as each of them re-played the scenes over and over again. How could this have happened? What are we missing? Their sadness and fear turning into despair and profound disappointment. This was not what they were expecting; this was not what they had in mind. They were ready to be part of a revolution. Instead, they were on the run.
I imagine the two were so consumed by their thoughts and their feelings, they didn’t even notice someone join them as they continued their trek to the village of Emmaus. The two disciples are startled, jerked out of their fog as the stranger begins asking them questions: What are you talking about? Things about Jesus? What things? I imagine their annoyance as the stranger’s curiosity turns into outright insult: how foolish you are…
Luke writes that the hearts of the two disciples burned within them as the stranger began talking and teaching. As they neared the village, the two had a strange feeling, like they had met this fellow traveler somewhere before.
You know the rest of the story—with the evening darkness growing, the two invite Jesus to stay with them; they gather around a table, Jesus takes bread and blesses it. Their eyes are opened. They finally recognize him and just as quickly, he vanishes. Unfazed by the strange disappearance, the two hurry back to Jerusalem to tell the others.
The road that we have been traveling over the past five or six weeks has been at times a sad, lonely, frightening road. It is a journey we weren’t expecting. Although we have found ways to cherish this time and make the best of it, I think it’s still a road we are eager to put behind us. And how easily our sadness and fear turns into despair: will this road ever end, will things get back to normal, will we get through this?
In the moments that we are consumed by these thoughts and feelings, the risen Christ strides up alongside us and makes our hearts burn. On this road that we walk, Jesus shows up and walks with us. On this road that we travel Jesus reminds us of God’s proven track-record of bringing salvation and life, even in the grimmest circumstances. Jesus reminds us that he has been on this road before. Jesus promises that this road doesn’t end with suffering and death, it ends with resurrection.
We are treated this morning to a beautiful, moving arrangement of the old spiritual, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.” (Click here for a link to the song). The origins of this song come out of the black experience in the South during Jim Crow—a period of time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries during which thousands of black men and women were lynched—horrific acts of mob violence—often for just being black. The words to this song describe how black folk found refuge and hope in the crucified Jesus, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…But Jesus. Glory, Hallelujah.” Jesus knew their trouble, because he, too was branded a criminal and lynched. He, too, was tortured, mocked and executed; he, too, was hung on a tree.
Now, of course none of us will ever begin to know it feels like to suffer and live under the threat of lynching, but just knowing that Jesus has suffered and felt many of the same things that we struggle with helps you and me have faith that God is with us, in whatever experience, on whatever road we encounter in this life.
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen but Jesus. When Jesus meets us on the road, he brings with him the experience of the cross and the empty tomb; that even in the most difficult experiences, there is promise and hope of redemption. The risen Christ opens our eyes to his resurrected presence. He keeps showing up and meeting us, giving us hope in the midst of despair, joy in the midst of sadness, and life in the midst of loss.
Dear people, this road will come to an end, and we will get through this, we will get through it together and we will get through it because the resurrected Christ finds us, even when we do not feel it, even before we know it; Christ finds us and stays with us. Glory, halleujah.