Feel The Burn

Luke 24: 13-18 and 25-28 (complete reading: Luke 24: 13-35)

Now on that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about 11 kilometers from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days…”

Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’

There’s a lot more than this to this week’s Gospel than what's above but let’s just zero in on this scene for a minute. Visualize yourself walking along with these two men, listening in as they seriously discuss this whole Jesus situation, both of them struggling with huge disappointment that he wasn’t the Messiah after all. It had all seemed so hopeful, so promising and exciting but now…what a gong show! The whole city was in a state of shock. Everybody was in a flap and all were talking about it, not just his followers.

Nobody could believe the priests had gone ahead and actually had him crucified. So many were appalled at how awful Jesus had looked as he carried his cross up to Golgotha, not like a Messiah at all. Most were sharing about where they were when the earth started quaking and how frightening it was. Everyone had heard about the body being missing and there were speculations about where the Romans might have moved the body. Hypotheses were made, opinions were firmly stated, gossip was rampant and rumors were flying. The two men were talking about it all because there was nothing else to talk about. 

“Mary said she saw him.”
“Nah, she never saw him. I heard she just saw a gardener and thought it was him. Mary’s a nice woman but not too reliable.”
“Well, the tomb was definitely empty anyway. Some of the women plus Peter and John saw that.” 
“That doesn’t mean anything. Lucas said the Romans moved him a couple of hours after they sealed the tomb with a stone.”
“How does Lucas know that?”
“I heard he was talking to some Pharisees and they told him that’s what the High Priest had asked the Romans to do. Lucas thinks they took his body right out of Jerusalem so there’s no chance of it being found.” 
“Well, no matter where he is now, he’s dead.  I guess we have to face up to the fact that he wasn’t the Messiah after all. The Messiah would never have allowed himself to be nailed to a cross like a common criminal. So…what he was really all about we’ll never know.”
“ All I know is I’m not hanging around Jerusalem waiting for the Romans to pick me up. Those women are crazy going around saying they’ve seen angels and that he’s alive. That’s all the priests are waiting for – an excuse to round us all up.”

Then this total stranger comes up to them. Doesn’t know a thing. Never heard of Jesus, the Nazarene. What’s with this guy? Everybody has heard of the Nazarene. He asks them to fill him in and so they do. They talk and talk about the Jesus they saw and heard. They talk about the miracles they witnessed and the ones they only heard about.  They tell him about the impact he had on everyone. They talk about what everybody thought he was and what everybody said about him.  They tell him about the rumors they’ve heard. They talk about how everyone’s excitement has been extinguished and their dreams shattered. Hope is gone and everything is as dreary and miserable as it was before he came. They talk until there’s no more to say.

Then this strange guy has the gall to say, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!”

It’s interesting that when we read that line where Jesus says, ‘Oh, how foolish you are,” most of us assume that his tone of voice is one of derision, a tone where we could easily replace the word ‘foolish’ with ‘idiotic’ or ‘stupid’. But in this instance, what Jesus was saying was not that they were stupid; he was saying they were being heedless of all the facts. They weren’t considering the whole picture. They weren’t looking for the divine design or seeking God’s light to illuminate his patterns. In other words, they weren’t paying attention.

We’re not like that....right?

Oh, how foolish they were… they needed to pay attention. They had witnessed the wondrous culmination of God’s complete plan of salvation and all they could see was the failure, the loss, the grief and the confusion. All they listened for were words that confirmed their worst suspicions and fears. All they wanted to talk about was why he failed, how he failed and perhaps even that they knew all along he would fail. As long as they could talk, analyze and critique, they felt a little more in control, a little less vulnerable.

But in order to see the larger picture, they needed to lose the thoughts, lose the fear, lose the opinions, lose the limited focus, lose the chaos of words, words, words and… 

Pay attention! They needed to pay attention.

Pay attention to what? Perhaps to a single bird singing at dusk, alone but triumphant and strong. Words can’t do it anymore. Words skim the surface and twist it. We line them up in our heads, dig them out, push them around, shape and reshape them, lay them out and then walk away still carrying them. And the birdsong is drowned out.

Pay attention:

To the sky between the notes of the one bird song. To an unusually calm ocean, so still it reflects the deepening burnished sky. Bird song. Still ocean. A sky smeared with the silver of soft but amazing beginnings.

Pay attention. Not to the chaos but to the still patterns of God’s incredible design.

In the beginning was the Word. The Word became seed, became lamb, became carved stone, became bread, became flesh, became Word, became lamb, became bread, became full circle…

Pay attention.

In the beginning was the Word. In the end was a cross. In the end was the beginning. The Word.

Pay attention to the design within the patterns, to the spaces between the notes, to the meaning behind all the text.

What was lost became found…what was empty became full...what was broken became healed...what was question became answer...what was death became life…a full abundant circle.

Have you found your full circle – any full circle? Do you follow a full spectrum God who creates complex patterns, fascinating eternal fractals and divine proportions - or a black and white linear God? Pay attention.

Let all your words float away. Pay attention to the only Word that matters…

…the Word that will set your heart aflame.