The Road to Emmaus – Luke 24:13-35. April 24, 2019

Jesus är uppstånden, ja, han är sannerligen uppstånden!

In Luke 24:13-35 we join two of the disciples on the road. They are on their way to Emmaus and they have spent the weekend before celebrating easter in Jerusalem, where their rabbi have been crucified and killed. What started as a great triumph when entering Jerusalem turned into a complete disaster. Understandably this is what they talk about. A third man joins them and they start talking about what has happened as he seems completely ignorant about what has happened.

As the two disciples are astonished this man doesn’t know what has happened in Jerusalem says something about the magnitude and the buzz Jesus’ death caused as this was somewhat before Twitter and Facebook and news did not travel quite as fast as now. But this man explains to them what they have experienced. “Can’t you see though you were right there, this had to happen, the scriptures are full of it?” But it is only when they at the end of the day break bread with this man that they realize it is Jesus who is talking to them.

My class of sixth-graders have had the misfortune of having me teach them arts, painting, sketching and the likes this year, and that is not playing to my strengths, to say it politely. Lately we have tried to sketch the human body in different postures as well as different objects and I find myself repeating to them over and over again; “Look at the object/model and sketch what you actually see, not what you THINK you see.”

I think this is part of what happened to the disciples. They were so convinced Jesus was dead they never stopped to consider any other option. But God’s perspective is very different to ours. What he can do, and why he does it are mostly a mystery to me, but that is what makes the journey with Him so exciting. In hindsight I can sometimes, perhaps, glimpse part of His reasons if I am lucky, but often a long time afterwards, at least in my experience.

To me being a follower of Jesus is about changing my perspective. It is about seeing my brothers and sisters as Jesus would see them, not as I think I see them or how the world tells me i should see “them”. To see them as God intended them, not as I what I would like them to be. More often than not we assume to know other people’s reasons and what is driving them. But we never really do. Nothing is EVER black or white, although we desperately want the world to be just that, because it would be easier to make sense of. When you open yourself to Jesus’ perspective you can no longer see your brother as only bad. Because Jesus is looking at us through His love for us, a father’s or mother’s love, a love without condition.

Jesus challenge to us is to see each other as He intended us to be. To see what and who your brother or sister REALLY are, rather than what or who you THINK they are. My way of answering this challenge is always asking myself the question “Why?”. I try to keep challenging myself to let Jesus work with my heart so I can see others through His love. When I momentarily succeed, it is a truly life-changing change of perspective. The picture below is a classic on different perspectives, do you see both of them?

Guds rika välsignelse!

Isak – GSCMC Finland