Third Sunday in Easter (Year A)
Perhaps you remember the chaos at the airport during the holiday season over this past winter. Due to bad weather and airport miscommunications, hundreds and thousands of flights were cancelled across the country, leaving people stranded and desperate to find a way home for the holidays. Maybe you or someone you know were one of the many at the airport trying to catch one of those cancelled flights.
The same thing happened to a group of 13 strangers trying to catch a flight from Florida to Tennessee. Unable to find other travel arrangements, this group of 13 complete strangers made an interesting decision. Together they would rent a passenger van and road trip the hundreds of miles to their destination. How unusual in this day and age—an age of so much caution and mistrust—for a group of compete strangers to come together in this way, having never met and yet united on a mission.
Of course, living in the world of cell phones and the internet, the group of strangers made videos along the journey and posted them online to share their impromptu adventure with the world. They quickly went viral on the internet and their story became famous—people were fascinated about this group of traveling strangers on a journey.
Well, after hundreds of miles and hours on the road together, the group reached their destination, and at the end of their journey they parted ways no longer as strangers, but as friends. One traveler in the group said the trip had restored her trust in humanity, reassured her that people could be good. The unexpected journey had transformed her outlook on life and her outlook on the strangers around her. It is true that sometimes the journeys we take and the strangers we meet along the way can change everything.
Well, in our Gospel today we find two disciples who are also on a journey. They are on the road to Emmaus, and as they travel along they are reflecting on recent events. These two disciples are dismayed and confused. So much has happened to them in the last few days. They remember the feeling of hope they felt when Jesus came into Jerusalem. It was only a week or so since Jesus had rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts of Hosanna, and yet, it seems so long ago. How quickly their hope had turned to despair as Jesus was crucified. But now Jesus was dead and buried, and these two traveled along the road, weary and unsure of what to do next.
But, suddenly, here came a man, a stranger, who spoke with them. This man must have been living under a rock because he hasn’t heard anything about Jesus’s crucifixion, which is all people have been talking about for the last three days. But the disciples, wanting to be polite, patiently brought the man up to speed as they travel the road together.
And as they walked along, this man listened to their story and then shared some interesting ideas of his own. He was well educated about the scriptures and talked about Moses, the prophets, and Jesus. He said all of these things came to pass as part of God’s plan. And the two disciples listened to their new companion, bust still they did not recognize him. It wasn’t until hours later, breaking the bread over supper, that their eyes were finally opened to recognize Jesus. It had never been a stranger with them along the road, but rather the resurrected Jesus himself.
But what is it, I wonder, that kept these two disciples from recognizing the resurrected Christ? Was it a divine act that kept them from seeing, or were these two disciples just clueless? Who knows for sure, but I wonder if perhaps it was their expectations that had kept them from seeing. They had expected things to turn out differently with Jesus, but Jesus had fallen short of their expectations with his death. And now that Jesus was dead, they expected that to be the end of that. They expected one thing, and when the opposite happened, they were unable to see it.
I wonder how often it is that we do the same thing. What are our expectations of Jesus? Where do we expect to find Jesus in our lives? I think most of us would say we expect to see or experience Jesus at church, but do we expect to encounter Jesus at the grocery store or the post office? We expect to see Jesus in the faces of church members, friends and our families, but do we expect to see the face of Jesus in the stranger, or in the face of the outsider? How often might it be that we miss Jesus in our daily lives because we don’t expect Jesus to be there? How often might we look back and see Jesus afterward, but miss Jesus in the moment?
I got curious about this question this past week, so I decided to go on a hunt for stories. I wanted to know about some of those unexpected places, situations and people where Jesus showed up and wasn’t recognized at the time. I found a lot.
I read a story about a 7 year old boy who was sick in the hospital. The doctors were unsure if the boy would survive, and so the mother prayed at his bedside as the boy slept. At some point, as the hours ticked by, a nurse walked into the boy’s hospital room and started a conversation with the boy’s mother. The nurse introduced herself and reassured her that her son would be alright, and together they prayed before the nurse moved on to see other patients. Within a few hours of the visit the boy’s vital signs began to improve and over the next few days he recovered. Later, as hospital staff was preparing to discharge the boy, his mother asked to see that nurse again. She wanted to thank that nurse for her prayers and companionship during that difficult moment. She asked for that nurse by name, and the strange this was, there had never been a nurse or hospital employee with that name. The boy and his mother believe it was an angel or Jesus himself.
I read another story about a man who was down on his luck. He was going through a divorce and had lost his job. He drank a little too much to dull the hurt he was feeling, and he didn’t know what to do next with his life. One night he stopped at a gas station near his house to buy some more alcohol, and as he walked toward the door a man standing on the sidewalk nodded at him and said to hang in there because it was all going to be okay. The stranger said good things were around the corner, just wait and see. Now, he didn’t know this man, but as he went in to make his purchase he got to thinking about this stranger on the sidewalk. How could this stranger possibly know what was going on in his life? He decided he wanted to talk to the stranger some more, so he put the alcohol back on the shelf and went outside the door, but the stranger was gone. Both confused and intrigued, the man got back in his car and drove home, thinking about the stranger’s words all the way. Those words stayed with him over the weeks and months that followed. He sobered up, got a new job, and remarried two years later. He credits the stranger, his “Jesus in disguise” as he called him.
I read a news story about prisoners in a Georgia prison who saved the life of a prison guard suffering a heart attack. The guard was alone at the time, and the prisoners could have chosen to use that moment to take the guard’s gun, unlock the doors and attempt an escape. But instead, prisoner’s rushed to the guard’s side and used his radio to call for help, giving aid until emergency responders arrived. These three prisoners were credited with saving the officer’s life. Jesus definitely showed up in the faces of those three prisoners on that day.
The stories go on, each one different, but Jesus is present in each one of them.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were not expecting to see the resurrected Jesus, nor were any of these everyday people expecting to see Jesus in the face of the strangers around them. And yet, the face of Jesus was in each person, in each kind act, in each unexplainable or unexpected situation. They may not have been aware of Jesus in the moment, but looking back it was clear. Jesus in disguise.
The same is true for us. Everyday in our lives as we go about our errands and activities, we are encountering strangers. We encounter strangers in the checkout line, in the bank or in the car stopped at the light next to us. We encounter strangers in the new employee at work, or the new resident in the retirement community. Each one of those strangers has the potential to be Jesus in disguise, present in your life in ways both big and small.
The challenge for us, often times, is to slow down and open our eyes to those around us. Who are the strangers around us who embody God’s presence, and when might we be that “Jesus in disguise” for someone else? The Good News for today is that Jesus works in unexpected ways and in unexpected people, the Spirit is always moving.
So today, let us give thanks for the strangers in our lives, the many “Jesus in Disguise” people who accompany us along the journey. And with God’s help, may we open our eyes and our expectations—because Jesus does indeed walk among us. Thanks be to God, Amen.