Easter Day – evening
Sunday 1st April 2018
Easter Day – evening
Ezek 37. 1-14
Luke 24. 13-35
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
The two people who feature in our New Testament reading for this evening are not apostles. They are not one of the 12 – or the 11 as they have become after the events of that first Easter. They are friends of Jesus, but not part of the ‘in crowd’ . One we are told is called Cleophas or Clopas, the other is unnamed, but may well have been his wife.
They have been in the upper room with the other disciples, they have witnessed all that has happened, they are heart-sore and dejected. All their great hopes and dreams seem to have come to naught. They have heard wild talk from some of the women of the body of Jesus having been snatched away. Some say he has risen from the dead, but to them this seems like so much wishful thinking – wild talk, an idle tale they could not believe. We probably would have felt much the same in their shoes – or sandals.
Jesus walked beside them along the road, though they did not recognize him.
I wonder how often Jesus walks beside you and me, and we don’t realize he is ther, anxious to help us understand the things that are puzzling us, if only we would ask? Whether it was because these two were walking towards the sunset (because while the exact identity of this Emmaus is uncertain, and there are several candidates, they are all west of the city of Jerusalem). So whether the sun in their eyes made it hard to see the features of the stranger walking and talking to them; or whether their grief and certainty that Jesus was dead, prevented them from recognizing the true identity of their companion, we don’t know, but for whatever reason, their minds refused to believe the evidence of their eyes. Anyway, Jesus began to explain how the OT had predicted that the Saviour, when he came, would be rejected and killed but would rise again to new life. And often the New Testament tells us things that fulfil prophecies made in the Old.
The words of the stranger were so compelling and intriguing that they invited him in to stay with them; to eat and spend the night – in true biblical hospitality. It is this passage that gives rise to the famous hymn ‘Abide with me’ , although I doubt if many in a football crowd singing it at the top of their voices know the origin of the song they sing!
In modern times we might say, “Come on in and spend the night with us,” but the resonance of the old words stays in our minds. Abide with me.
But that is good, because it prompts us to ask, “When was the last time I invited Jesus into my home?” Yes, we know in the abstract that he is there always, but it is often not until you deliberately invite him in that you are consciously aware of his presence.
So on this Easter Day evening, I leave you with this; There is a lovely prayer – apparently by the seventeenth century Welsh poet and physician, Henry Vaughan:
Abide with us, O most blessed and merciful Saviour, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. As long as thou art present with us, we are in the light. When thou art present all is brightness, all is sweetness. We discourse with thee, watch with thee, live with thee and lie down with thee. Abide then with us, O thou whom our soul loveth, thou Sun of righteousness with healing under thy wings, arise in our hearts; make thy light then to shine in darkness as a perfect day in the dead of night. Amen