We had hoped - Emmaus Road

My April 'bit' for church newsletters - based on the Emmaus Road Easter story

We had hoped…

On the road to Emmaus the couple walking along tell the stranger what has been happening in Jerusalem and about Jesus’ death, ending with the comment ‘and we had hoped he was the one we were waiting for’.  

It was the Sunday, they had heard the news of the empty tomb – still fresh and unbelievable news, but the confusion of the loss of the hopes they had previously had is still raw. When they started following this Jesus of Nazareth I don’t know what they expected or hoped for but crucifixion was not likely to have been in their thoughts.  So all that had happened had crushed their hopes, even amid rumours of resurrection they say ‘we had hoped….’.

Life and its unexpected events can leave us in situations very different to what we had hoped for or dreamt of. Yes there are different lives we had not considered, even rumours of hope filled lives beyond the difficult times. But we may need space to acknowledge the hopes that have had to be laid by, grief for what might have been is valid, and maybe is needed to help grasp fully what is in its place.

The stranger on the Emmaus Road stays unknown giving them time to tell their story and how they had hoped, gently he opens up their thoughts to new possibilities, and only then in the breaking of bread do they find the resurrected Jesus has been with them.  

God is with us in broken hopes and in learning to hope again.

Celebrating Thomas

After Judas, Thomas is the disciple that gets a bad press - Doubting Thomas - but I don't think that is fair.

It is the day of the empty tomb and in the evening Jesus appears to a group of disciples in a locked room, Thomas we are told wasn't there. Cue questions about his commitment to the group, ideas that he was on the fringe, not in the core cluster.  But people react differently to grief and stress and fear, so Thomas was maybe an introvert, someone who needed a bit of space alone to get his head around all that had happened.  It is okay to take some space away from the crowds, it is okay to gather together with others - neither is an indication of commitment, merely different personalities.

So Jesus appears to the gathered group - from the first accounts of the empty tomb that morning and rumours of resurrection it had been a confusing day. Jesus appears and says 'Peace be with you', they have this encounter that helps them as they try to make sense of all that has happened in the past few days.   They later tell Thomas all about it, and he says he can't believe until he sees, and from this he gained the nickname of Doubting Thomas.

But what if Peter or Andrew or brothers James and John were the ones missing that night? Why do we expect more of Thomas than of any of the other disciples? They are convinced because they have had a direct encounter with the risen Jesus, an experience of seeing the impossible that allows them to believe the apparently impossible. Thomas is not a terrible doubter, but has a normal rational response. We are not designed like Alice in Wonderland's White Queen who believes 6 impossible things before breakfast, and our faith doesn't need us to do that. Thomas is just a normal man asking realistic questions.

It is an encounter with God that draws out our faith, other people's experiences and stories of their encounters have a place but we cannot expect others to take on board a 2nd hand experience.  A  week later Thomas would have his own direct encounter with the risen Jesus, and believes totally- 'My lord and my God'.   He is with the group then, his questions and not yet believing has not separated him from spending time with the others.

Thomas should be celebrated, he shows us important things about our faith - that we can take the time we need, that questions are not a barrier to faith but can be a path to it. That however wonderful our own story is we can't expect it to be enough to create faith in someone, though it may get them thinking. That we are not to be divided by differences in belief, or unbelief - we still travel together.