April 2005
To Emmaus, or back again? The choice is yours!
(published:Divine Truth, April 2007)
In this post Easter season, I felt led to write about what we call the "Emmaus Encounter". There are so many things which stand out in this little episode mentioned in St. Luke's Gospel 24:13-35 .
Cleopas and another unnamed disciple are so dejected about Jesus' crucifixion & death that they are leaving Jerusalem to go to Emmaus - which is interestingly enough " seven " miles away - the Biblical number for perfection - they were going as perfectly far away as they could.
In order for these disciples to experience Jesus, they had to go through five distinct stages, which we too must undergo:
I] We need to be broken :
Cleopas & his friend were crushed. Even their faces are "downcast ".
Why did they need to be broken? Because they held many wrong convictions, just as we often do:
(01) Too often like these disciples, we believe in Jesus only for what we want from Him. In their case, it was a political redeemer. In our case it may be physical healing, financial blessings and the like. And when we don't seem to get what we're after, we are dejected, downcast. Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God (Mathew 6:33) we all too often seek for material things.
(02) They did not believe that Jesus had resurrected. Though the women who discovered the tomb empty & seen the vision of angels had told them so, but they still did not believe. The fact that they were so downcast & depressed and going as far away from Jerusalem as they could proves this. How often we reject the good news preached to us from people who've had personal encounters with the Lord only because we haven't had one for ourselves!
Our false notions must be broken, we must be re-molded with right thinking. we must be "transformed by the renewal of our minds" (Romans 12:2). This transformation involves the letting go of our ideas & our desires - which often is a crushing & breaking experience. But it is the first step towards discovering Jesus.
II] The Word of God needs to be broken to us :
Once our old thinking & our old selves are broken.once we have "died to self", we must fill ourselves with the Truth, the Word of God.
Like the disciples, we too need to be explained the truth of the Word. It is so important that we not only take the scriptures and read but that we read and understand.
We should pray to the Holy Spirit to enlighten us as we read scripture. We should seek the advice of holy people of God regarding difficult passages. We should be ever ready to listen to the Word being preached, at church, at our prayer meetings, through anointed books.
The more we fill ourselves with the truth of the Word of God, the closer we are to experiencing Jesus in a close personal way.
III] We need to accept Jesus of our own free will:
After breaking the Word to the disciples, Jesus "acted as if he were going farther" Why did He do this? Because He is a gentleman God. He has given us free will and He will never force Himself open us.
Cleopas & his friend were already so overjoyed ( they would later say "were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" vs 32) when they heard the Word of God, that they " urged strongly " Jesus to stay with them.
When we hear the Word of God, we too should freely accept Jesus into our lives and desire deeply for Him to stay with us.
IV] The Bread must be broken:
The real and true opening of these disciples' eyes & recognition of Jesus as Who He really was came when they sat at the table with Him and when He "took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them"
They were reminded of the last supper where Jesus did the same thing and asked us to do the same in His remembrance. True revelation of Jesus comes when we obey His Words.
It is the sacrament of Holy Mass that is referred to. Each time we join in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and we participate in this Godly act, we too should have the same divine experience these two disciples had.
V] We need to fellowship with Godly people:
Lastly it is when we fellowship with people who obey God that we discover God. If these disciples had to ignore Jesus or to not listen to His Words or to not sit at table with Him, they would have lost out on the single greatest experience of their lives. Of meeting their personal resurrected Saviour.
The disciples fellowshipped directly with God. We too can have similar experiences when we fellowship with people who are filled with the Holy Spirit. They explain to us the Word of God, they by their living example enable us to obey the Word of God. through them we see Christ for ourselves.
~
After going through these five stages, the disciples "eyes were opened and they recognized him". They "immediately left and turned back " (though it was already late in the night) and went to spread the good news of their experience.
Perhaps we feel sometimes it is very late in the night of our lives to turn to Jesus. If we follow the five stages Cleopas & his friend went through, we will no longer feel that way, instead we will be, like they were, filled with enthusiasm to go do what the Lord intends us to.
If you are on the road to Emmaus (going in the perfectly opposite direction & as far away from Jesus as you can), ask Jesus from your own free will, to break you - to transform your thinking, to fill you with His Word, to break bread with you, through fellowship & to bring you back to where you belong.
Wishing you the Peace of Christ this Easter Season & always,
April 2005
