A walk with Christ
(From the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verses 13-35)
On the afternoon of Jesus' resurrection, Cleopas and his 10-year-old son Aaron were on their way home to Emmaus. It was a long walk - 7 miles! - and the day was warm. As they walked they talked with each other about all the things they had seen during the Passover celebration in Jerusalem.
"I loved Jesus," Aaron told his father. "I can't believe he's dead. I miss him so much!"
"I do, too, son," his father said with a sigh. "I had no idea how much trouble he was in. When we stood outside the Holy City and cheered for him, it seemed like God was with us, that Israel would finally be redeemed! Now it feels like we've lost everything - including Jesus' body." His words died off.
"Who would want to steal his body, Father?" Aaron asked.
"I don't know, son. I don't know." Cleopas replied.
The two walked in silence, lost in their thoughts. After a while, they happened upon a man sitting along the side of the road.
"Greetings, friends," the man said. "Peace be with you."
"Peace? Ha!" replied Cleopas. "We're feeling anything but peaceful, my friend, given what has happened in Jerusalem in these past few days."
"What are you talking about?" the man asked.
"Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know what has happened?" Cleopas asked.
"They killed our friend Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth," Aaron spoke up. "It was awful." He began to cry. "He was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all people. Our chief priests and leaders handed him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. We had hoped that he was the Messiah."
"Yes, and besides all this," Cleopas added, "it is now the third day since these things took place. This morning some women of our group astounded us. They went to Jesus' tomb and they didn't find his body there. But they did find angels who said that Jesus was alive. Some of us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said."
"Talking with angels sounds crazy!" Aaron added. "My father and I wonder if someone may have taken Jesus' body. But who would do such a thing?"
The stranger said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer and then enter into his glory?"
He began to walk with Cleopas and Aaron. All the way to Emmaus he reminded them about all that they already knew - about God's gift of the Law and God's continual call to justice and mercy spoken through the generations by God's prophets.
In no time at all they reached Emmaus.
"Here is our home," Cleopas told him. "Please stay with us. It's almost evening. You must be hungry and tired, as we are."
"Thank you for your hospitality," the stranger replied, and he followed them into the house. Cleopas' wife set the food and drink on the table for all of them.
The stranger took the bread in his hands. He raised it up before them and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. "Take, eat," he said.
Aaron gasped and cried out. "Jesus!"
And Jesus vanished from their sight.
Leaping up from the table, the boy shouted, "Father! Mother! It was him! It was Jesus!"
"I know!" Cleopas replied, happily. "When he was talking to us on the way home, my heart was burning with excitement. Everything he told us made complete sense to me."
"Me, too!" Aaron said. "It was Jesus all that time! He's live, Father! He's alive!"
Immediately the family got up from the table and returned to Jerusalem. They found the disciples and their companions gathered together. And Cleopas, his wife, and his son told what had happened on the road and in their home - how Jesus, the Christ, the one sent by God, had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Questions to think about:
When has Jesus come close to you?
What did that feel like?
Who have you told about Jesus?