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            Today’s second lesson, the appearance of the risen Lord to the two disciples at Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), is one of the gems of Biblical literature.  It is a classic example of the Greek theme of anagnoresis or recognition, and it has been compared to the story in Homer’s Odyssey of Odysseus’ recognition by his wife Penelope at his homecoming. 
            But it is not just the consummate literary art of this gospel story which has so captured the Christian imagination throughout the centuries. Its unparalleled fascination lies, I believe, in the extraordinary psychological insight with which the author depicts how, little by little, human fear and unbelief are overcome by the grace and power of the risen Lord.
            The disciples’ decision to abandon the holy city at the first opportunity, in order to return home, is the visible result of the collapse of all their expectations, as far as Jesus of Nazareth was concerned.  The had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel, that is to say, that he was the Messiah, but this hope has been disappointed through his condemnation and crucifixion.  All that remains is their realization that Jesus was “a prophet mighty in deed and word” (v. 19). 
            Had events been allowed to take their normal course, the departure of the disciples would have resulted in their exclusion from the further advance of salvation history.  But at this point Jesus intervenes.  He joins the two disciples along the way and begins to restore their ruptured fellowship with him.
            The mysterious stranger convinces them by his explanation of the scriptures that, despite everything, or rather because of everything, Jesus is the Messiah.  Then he manifests himself to them and disappears. 
            After the resurrection the physical “remaining” with Jesus can be only fleeting and temporary.  But Jesus’ physical disappearance, far from terminating the renewed fellowship with him, prompts the disciples to seek him where alone he can be found: with the apostles in the holy city. 
            The climax of the episode is the disciples’ “conversion”: “They got up immediately and returned to Jerusalem” (v. 33).  There they learn of the Lord’s appearance to Simon and are present, with the rest of the community, for Jesus’ final appearance.  Through his personal intervention the risen Lord has brought home the two runaways. 
            In this story we see contrasted two kinds of hope: the human hope which sees no further than the possibilities of what human beings can do, and the hope which is rooted in faith in God’s almighty power. 
            During this Easter season we are called upon to ask ourselves in what our hope is founded.  The hope of the Emmaus disciples was a religious hope.  It expressed their commitment to all that was noblest and exalted in the national expectation of Israel.  Yet this hope was marked by that fatal limitation which characterizes so much of our thinking about God: our implicit demand that God fulfil our expectations. 
            Such hope, in which we try to set limits to God’s actions, inevitably collapses, since our thoughts are not God’s thoughts, and our ways are not God’s ways.  Yet God destroys our human hope only to make way for a hope which is proportioned to the infinite good that God wills for us.
            May the risen Lord, the shepherd of the sheep, follow after us as he followed after those two disillusioned disciples, and may he convert our fear and sorrow into confidence and joy in his resurrection.                     

April 19, 2009

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