The time frames for today’s readings require us to put aside our usual sequential, way of thinking and, as they say, “go with the flow.” Since this is the Third Sunday of Easter, we might have expected today’s readings to follow immediately upon the resurrection. The gospel does — but not our reading from Acts.
Did you catch the opening phrase of our first reading? “Then Peter stood up….” Well, that’s a big change from what Peter did on the night of Jesus’ arrest. While he was being tried before the Sanhedrin, Peter was outside in the courtyard denying three times that he knew Jesus (Mt 26: 57-75). Yet, today we are told, “Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice and proclaimed….” Is this the same Peter? The frightened disciple has become the bold preacher. He tells the assembled crowd that they killed, “Jesus the Nazorean [a] man commended to you by God.” What has gotten into Peter, the brash fisherman? He and the others, who once said they would follow Jesus to his death, but fled when the moment of testing came?
That’s why we have to be flexible in our time frame for today’s readings. Peter is not giving his speech right after the resurrection, but immediately following the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. It’s not what got into Peter, it’s who. It’s Pentecost Sunday and Peter and the others are filled with the Holy Spirit and that has made all the difference.
As a result of Peter’s speech (today’s reading is only a part), Luke tells us “some three thousand were added that day” (Acts 2: 41). Imagine the diversify of those 3,000 who, by their baptism, also received the Spirit. Among the newly baptized there would have been people of all ages. Some would have been searchers for a deeper share in the life of God, while others were casual in their religious pursuits. Among them would have been people carrying guilt, perhaps for a long time. The sick were certainly there; both women and men; free and slaves; the desperately poor and the comfortable; citizens of Jerusalem and foreigners who had come to the city to celebrate the feast (2: 8-12).
That was “back then” and today is the Third Sunday of Easter, not yet Pentecost. Still, Peter’s message might stir our consciences and our longings. God raised Jesus, Peter reminds us today. New life has been given us too and maybe stirred up an awareness of our Pentecost longings. What gift of the Spirit would we like this Pentecost? There is time to think about it.
Is there guilt we would like cleansed by the Spirit’s flames? Physical or spiritual healing? Courage to be, like Spirit-filled Peter, more forthright about our faith? New energy for prayer? More courageous witnesses to our family and friends? A rekindling of the flames of justice? Pentecost is an ancient feast and a new one too! Peter’s own witness today reminds us what is possible when the Spirit descends on waiting disciples. What new thing would we like the Spirit to do for our tired, habit-bound spirits? We have a month to pray for the wisdom to recognize our need and to pray for the Spirit to come with gifts for our waiting spirits.
Have you noticed how many gospel stories take place on the road, while people are going somewhere or leaving a place? The Emmaus story fits into these traveling narratives. Cleopas and possibly his wife (John 19:25), have left Jerusalem, where their hopes for Jesus and themselves died on the cross. We are told they are going to Emmaus, perhaps back to their former lives and ways. But you get the sense that where they are going is not important. It’s going to be a dead-end place for them, where they will try to forget the dreams they once had with Jesus and live out the rest of their lives.
These two disciples are on the move, but they are not going anywhere — until the stranger joins them, listens to their heartache and then inspires them to make a surprising move, back to Jerusalem. There they will tell their traveller’s story, how they met the risen Lord on the road.
Luke and the other evangelists have revealed God’s movement towards us. In Jesus we have been invited to move as well. From the beginning of the gospels the call to the disciples was understood as leaving everything behind and moving forward to follow Christ. Jesus led the way to Jerusalem and others joined. After his resurrection and the coming of the Spirit, they will become travelers again, going out to the whole world to announce the Good News. The risen Lord beckons each of us and gives us the grace to move forward. We are called, like the Emmaus disciples to share with others the God we have discovered as we have traveled.
The disciples leaving Jerusalem are not members of the prominent, inner circle of Jesus’ band. They are like many of us, everyday Christians walking along, preoccupied by their disappointments. They tell the stranger who joins them about Jesus’ death and their dashed hopes. “But we were hoping….” Even though they have heard the report of the women that Jesus was alive, they aren’t gladdened by the news. Jesus needs to instruct and remind them that the prophets had foretold the Messiah’s suffering.
They arrive at Emmaus and invite Jesus to stay with them. When he breaks the bread and gives it to them, “Their eyes were opened.” The events of the Last Supper are taking place again. After their encounter with the risen Lord Cleopas and his companion are on the move again, with a message that has set their hearts on fire. What they saw as an ending, was just the beginning, a beginning that only God could start — bring life from death.
When the stranger joins the two on the road and asks them what they were discussing, Luke tells us, “They stopped and looked downcast.” Their journey has stopped, they don’t know where to go or what to do. But God has entered the scene, the moment is charged with possibilities. Perhaps we are asking this day — “What to do next? Where to go?” We have stopped on our journey. On this Sunday we are doing what those first disciples did — we are “gathered together.” We are a church and the resurrected Christ and his Spirit are with us. We meet the risen Christ when the scriptures are proclaimed and interpreted for us. We meet Christ in our community, our prayer and the breaking of the bread. As he presided over the meal with the Emmaus disciples, so Christ presides at our table today.
We will leave this gathering place to tell others about the resurrected Christ. We will also experience him as the Emmaus disciples did, in the strangers we meet as we travel — especially among those who are suffering and have had their hopes dashed. We will be signs of hope to them because we have met Jesus as we have traveled and been fed by him in his word and sacrament.