What tethers us to each other? And more than just tethering us to each other, which is important, we need something that will link us to God. Something that holds us to God when we struggle; when the vocalization of our faith feels like it is not enough to confront the challenges of the day.
Perhaps you might find these two readings offer a way to answer these questions.
Following the resurrection of Jesus, the two unnamed men heading away of Jerusalem have experienced a lot. We can infer that they were familiar with the events of Jesus’ death. His suffering. Perhaps they even heard some of the first reports of the empty tomb.
And after listening to these first reports of Jesus’ resurrection and seeing so much in the eyes of the disciples, one thing was clear: it was time to go. That should surprise us. And in their haste, I wonder if we find something that we could identify with in our walks as Christians. Now neither Cleopas, nor his travelling companion, express it directly, but something is off.
Today I want to consider with you what might be going on in their hearts.
Move 1- exiles
In both Luke’s famous “Walk to Emmaus,” and in 1 Peter 1, we have concept presented us that is similar.
But before we get to Emmaus, let’s focus in 1 Peter 1:17. . . and specifically the last half of that verse. It says, “live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.” Now at first glance these words fit nicely into the lives of 1 Peter’s audience.
As I said last week, 1 Peter was written to the church of Asia Minor; to people who defined themselves as living under persecution and oppression regardless of how these terms are defined. Be it physical or spiritual, 1 Peter makes no distinction. He knows his hearers struggle—just as you might as we listen and think about these words following the Easter miracle.
So, let’s first look at verse 17 in more detail.
“Reverent fear.” Before I define the term with you, I wonder when was the last time that you could say that you felt some sense of reverent fear?
Peter starts this clause with this one Greek word. It is a word whose context determines its application. For the context determines whether this fear which we are feeling, even if we do not speak about it, honors God or if fear, our anxiety, cripples the faith of the person experiencing it. One commentator I read even wondered if the faithful members of the church would benefit from an alternative translation of the word as: holy awe. So, we could start this section by saying, “Christian, live in holy awe.”
But the second, and final, half of the verse is where the meat of this passage is found. This is also where our intersection point with Luke, and Cleopas and his friend, begins as well. This is where we read the word Exiles.
Now every Hebrew, and every church member, might find their mind drawn back through the history of the church when they hear the word exile.
The word exile causes our minds drift around to stories that speak about the exiled state that we have been taught. We think of Egyptian slaves struggling to make bricks and living as nomads in the desert. Perhaps you also remember the Hebrew people living far from him in Babylon and fearing the invasion of Assyria before that. We hear the prophets of the Lord talking about an unfaithful people living outside of the Holy Lan because of the sins of their ancestors. And those words from God’s prophets call us to change our ways before we too become exiles.
In the New Testament, post-resurrection world, this term reaches back in the mind and memory also. It reminds God’s people that they have always lived in a state of transit. These people have always dwelt away from their home—regardless of how home could be defined in any specific moment.
But… exile is far more than a matter of geography.
This word that Peter writes occurs only in 2 places in the New Testament.
The first is in Acts 13:17. In that text, Paul and Barnabas are preaching in the Gentile world and as they preach, they remind the Church that detours can also be stages in the salvation history of God’s people. These stages forge a new identify and new dependence upon God for His children. If God’s children are not going to be tied to one geographic place, then they must trust in the relationship that they have with God. For although we could be tempted to think that we are exiled from God, our relationship to God, and with God, says that this is not so.
The second occurrence, of course, is here. And as Peter uses the term for exiles, he uses it to encourage the church to live in holy, reverent, fear of God (back to that first idea). He tells them (us) to be Holy as Jesus is Holy and because of what Jesus does on Easter.
This work then brings a question to my mind, and I wonder if it does to yours?
Move 2- The walk to Emmaus.
If exile is more than about geography, and if we are to live holy lives in response to what we deal with each day, then why did these two men retreat those seven miles toward Emmaus? Why did they not stay with the disciples and the remainder of followers of Jesus who had the testimony of the empty tomb, Mary’s tears on Easter morning?
More poignantly why did they leave?
These two followers of Jesus must truly have felt like they were exiles… and again an exiled state is more than a state of living away from one place or longing to return to another. It is not about geography.
Why not stay together when you need each other the most?
This feeling would be part of the struggle that Thomas felt last week also. He was not there when Jesus appeared behind that locked door the first time and so he missed something and I believe that presented to him with the choice to consider himself an exile.
I believe that these two sojourners on the Road to Emmaus were worried and they were anxious about the future following Jesus’ death. Like you, I know my world history, and I know of the brutality of the Roman Empire. Yes, the Roman authority, and with the Hebrew High Priest’s blessing in hand, executed Jesus, but where is the faith that the Resurrection which Jesus foretold, would be enough for these two people? Where is the faith in the gospel that Jesus taught?
When you are anxious, when the tension in your life rises, our first response is often to accept, our exiled state rather than confess and remain close to where Jesus is revealed to us.
Too often our response when things get hard as the Body of Christ, and our faith is being stretched is to start walking towards our own Emmaus and accept that things, as good as they were before, they are done. That chapter is over and there is nothing more to see or to learn.
Move 3- Jesus comes alongside.
This is the point where Jesus arrives in Luke 24. Perhaps he was there all the time, as he was with Mary in the garden on that first morning as she wept. Luke does not give us this detail and so we are left to wonder and consider.
But whatever the case may be, these two individuals have an encounter with Jesus on this road in their exiled state. It is an encounter that Jesus initiates himself. He chooses to reveal himself. He chooses to walk with them and not away from them.
And while we often rush to the revelation of Jesus around the communion table after supper where their hearts are strangely burning because Jesus taught them the scriptures of the Old Testament on the road and helped re-learn something foundational that they would carry with them from that point onward.
Notice some of those little details, as I mentioned on Easter. For those details help to bring color and shape to what Jesus does and wants from each of us.
The evening is growing close, and Luke says in verse 29 that they ‘urged him strongly’ to come with them. The road is not safe after dark and Jesus seems to be going on to another stop. For when we feel exiled away from Jesus, it is then most necessary that we return to the Lord and keep hold of what is transformational for us.
Even if, like these two disciples, we are not totally sure what makes it transformational in the moment. They wanted him to stay. They wanted him to help.
Conclusion
And so, when you find yourself feeling exiled, just as our friends on the road did, on wherever your faith journey takes you, and remembering that this is not a matter of geography, what choices do you make to ask Jesus to remain close at hand? How might you live in a reverent fear with God and help others when they find themselves in that same place of exile?
DM
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