Imagine saying goodbye to someone in one town, and then finding them back home when you return. And knowing you did not pass them on the road, and as yet in human history no mechanical modes of transport had been invented. “How did you get here?”
The disciples whom Jesus met on the road to Emmaus (a story Luke tells just before this week’s passage begins) didn’t recognize him when he walked with them. But in Emmaus, they prevailed upon him to eat with him – and the moment they realized who he was, he vanished from their sight. Then they hightailed it back seven miles to Jerusalem so they could tell their brethren what had happened:
“They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
Easter Sunday may be a few weeks back, but in church-land we’re still exploring the events of that day. This week we revisit the scene when Jesus showed up in the upper room Easter night – but now we get Luke’s version, which picks up as the two from Emmaus arrive back in Jerusalem and compare notes with the ones in the Upper room. It’s hard for us to imagine the excitement that those early encounters with the Risen Jesus occasioned in his followers. In that one day he’d appeared to Mary, to Peter, to a few other disciples, to Cleopas and the other on the road, like teasers for the big event. And now, Bam – here he is in Jerusalem!
“While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them,
‘Peace be with you.’”
"How did you get here?" That’s a question we might find ourselves asking more often, the better we get at figuring out when Jesus is with us. Like, we might have felt his presence at church on a Sunday, and then be surprised to find him waiting at our kitchen table at home. Or we might experience him with us as we visit someone in a hospital, and find out that at the same time he was comforting another friend in prayer. One of the gifts of resurrection bodies, it seems, Is the ability to bi-locoate. No longer bound to human flesh and space and time, Jesus could materialize wherever and whenever he wanted.
And guess what? He still can, even ascended – because now he has us to make him known. Flesh and Spirit – that is how Jesus’ presence is still mediated to the world. As much as we want to train our inward eyes to discern the presence of Christ, we also want to be conscious about when and where we’re called to make known the presence of Christ, to allow him to work through us.
I don’t know about you; I’m always surprised when I realize Jesus has shown up in me for someone else, though he said he would. That’s how he can be everywhere, wherever there are faithful followers willing to bear his Spirit to the people around them. We are Christ’s resurrection body now!
And if we don’t know what to say, we can always start with the words Jesus used: “Peace be with you.”
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