Daily Worship

The Long Road Turns to Joy

Jim Campbell June 30, 2014 0 0

Luke 24: 28-35

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going further.  But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’ Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread.

Lord, this is such a recognisable and human story:
Two friends traumatised, utterly disorientated 
Walking out to a village in the country.
Perhaps for a purpose,
Or perhaps just for something to do
To stop themselves going crazy…..

Their shoulders are hunched,
Their steps slow and ponderous.
Their faces say it all:

In the horrors of Golgotha,
They have seen hope crucified,
In the brutality of the cross
They have seen love strangled.

Yet, as the stranger instructs them
Warmth returns to their hearts
Familiar words of Scripture burn as fire.
The steps become firmer….
The shoulders lift.
    
When eyes are opened
In the breaking of bread
The horror of Friday is seen in a new light:

The seeming crucifixion of hope
Has actually been the crucifixion of despair.
The seeming strangling of life
Has actually been the strangling of death
And its power over humanity.

From the empty tomb 
And by the way of the Cross
Comes a new community,
A colony of the new creation.

Lord, enable me to live out your Easter life
In the company of my sisters and brothers.
Amen.