During the seven weeks of Easter, we might ponder what it means to encounter the Risen Christ in our own lives. Could you identify him? I’m looking forward to this Sunday, when we will explore more of the Easter story together and see what it might tell us about encountering Christ on our own journey.
"That same day", our scripture for this week begins. The same day as what? The day was Sunday, the day of the empty tomb. Yes, we return again, to the first Easter Sunday, to see what else happened on "that same day".
Let’s first refresh our memories of what happened earlier on that day. Luke reminds us,
24 1-3 At the crack of dawn on Sunday, the women came to the tomb carrying the burial spices they had prepared. They found the entrance stone rolled back from the tomb, so they walked in. But once inside, they couldn’t find the body of the Master Jesus.
4-8 They were puzzled, wondering what to make of this. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, two men, light cascading over them, stood there. The women were awestruck and bowed down in worship. The men said, “Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here, but raised up. Remember how he told you when you were still back in Galilee that he had to be handed over to sinners, be killed on a cross, and in three days rise up?” Then they remembered Jesus’ words.
9-11 They left the tomb and broke the news of all this to the Eleven and the rest. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them kept telling these things to the apostles, but the apostles didn’t believe a word of it, thought they were making it all up.
Luke continues the story with a pair of disciples, walking. Imagine yourself as one of these.
We are disciples, two of us, and we are walking the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. We are walking and talking, trying to make sense of all that has happened recently.
What are we feeling? What are we wondering? A stranger joins us, making us three.
That same day. It’s hard to stay focused there, isn’t it? Two thousand years later. Now what? We put one foot in front of the other in the messiness and confusion of our own lives. As Easter people, we try to look out for the Risen Christ.
Jesus is apt to come, into the very midst of life at its most real and inescapable. - Frederick Beuchner
Painting By Robert Zünd - joyfulheart ; upload Dezember 2008 ; upload by Adrian Michael, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5537171
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