The Journey Continues: The Road to Emmaus

When we think today of The Resurrection, we think of the event on that early Sunday morning 2000 years ago. We sing hymns and songs about Jesus rising from the dead. We listen to stirring sermons meant to coax us into living a life more reflective of the Easter event. And we spend time with our families, eating ham or watching the young (or those who are young at heart) gleefully search for Easter Eggs. And then we resume our lives: work, school, relationships - all continue for us after Easter.

The context of that 1st Easter is vastly different. Depending on which Gospel account you read, the witnesses to the empty tomb were very few in number. But if you continue to read in the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, and then go on to the Book of Acts, you find that the witnesses to Jesus being ALIVE were far greater - counting in the thousands. For these thousands, the Resurrection was not seeing the empty tomb, but being in Jesus' presence: seeing the nail marks in his wrists and feet. Seeing not just a man, but a man in whom there was light. His laughter. His appetite. His compassion. This was the same man they'd known, but now, He was alive - and in a manner of life that they could not compare to anyone else. 

We must take this Truth of the Resurrection to heart, and live the Resurrection as those early saints did: living it as if we, too, had seen and witnessed the Living Lord. Living each day in gratitude, in love, in compassion and empathy. We must share that Good News, not just of Jesus' rising from the dead, but that His gift of grace is for us all. Just as those two men, travelling to Emmaus discovered the Joy in the Message of salvation through grace, let us also be joyful in the journey of grace, freely and lovingly given. 

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!!!

Soli deo Gloria