SCRIPTURE READINGS FOR
Sunday, April 30
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
Acts 2:14, 36-41
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
In the season of Eastertide, we always read the story of the walk to Emmaus, which is found only in Luke’s gospel. It features this exchange:
“Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem,
and have not known
the things that have taken place there in these days ?”
[ which may also be translated, ]
“Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know
the things that have taken place there in these days ?”
And he said, “What things ?”
- Luke 24:18-19
Do you like irony ?
The classic modern story of irony is O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.” You may remember how the poor brother and sister wanted very badly to give each other special Christmas gifts, but had no money. The sister cut off and sold her beautiful long hair to buy him a fine watch chain for his precious watch; he sold his watch to be able to buy her fancy things for her long hair. Irony.
Luke the Evangelist has a rich sense of irony as he tells the story of the resurrected Jesus appearing on Easter Sunday afternoon on the road to a village called Emmaus. Two people who had followed Jesus in his ministry were walking there from Jerusalem, discussing Jesus’ final week in the city, his condemnation, and his death on the cross.
When ‘someone’ began to walk with them and questioned them about their grief, they responded as if he were ‘out of the loop.’ I want to highlight the word which is translated, “stranger” in verse 18: it is paroikeis, meaning ‘from a nearby house— not from this house.’ In the New Testament, it is used of visitors and sojourners, neighbors and foreigners who live ‘among us,’ but are not ‘from here.’
Myself being from ‘somewhere else,’ I can appreciate this distinction. When someone who has lived ‘around here’ all her life asks me, “You’re not from around here, are you ?,” and gives me a funny look, I realize I must have done or said something she took as strange !
Clopas, who asked that question on the road to Emmaus, had no idea how ironic it was, on so many levels.
First, it was Jesus who was being asked if he knew what happened to Jesus.
Second, Clopas addressed the person walking with them as a visitor... but Jesus was the Son of the God of Israel— the same one who had asked Mary and Joseph (when he was about age twelve), “Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?”— that is, the Temple of God in Jerusalem (see Luke 2:49). So, Jesus was actually a hometown boy from Jerusalem, not a visitor !
Third, risen from the dead as he was, Jesus knew everything on earth and in heaven. Asking him if he knew what had been going on was super silly.
And there are many more ironies in this story.
Our lives are filled with irony, if we attune ourselves to recognize it. We have to admit that we can see ourselves in a story Jesus told, of the man who harvested such a great crop, he planned to build bigger barns to secure his wealth for the future— but then God informed him that he would die that night (Luke 12:15-21). Irony.
We may enjoy life more fully if we appreciate that we are all merely ‘strangers’ here. Our reading this week from 1 Peter 1 urges us to “live in reverent fear during your time of exile...” (the word translated “exile,” paroikias, has the same root as the word Clopas used, that afternoon on the road to Emmaus when he thought the “stranger” must be from somewhere else). I don’t believe that Peter’s original readers were literally “in exile” any more than we are. Rather, we feel that way.
We can rejoice in the midst of life’s ironies because we are “ransomed from the futile ways inherited from [ ] our ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ....” 1 Peter 1:17-19
If we truly follow Jesus, then we, too are sojourners, strangers, as Jesus was.
And the sooner our hearts get “strangely warmed” as those early followers’ hearts were (Luke 24:32), the sooner we can stop being the butt of irony and begin to appreciate it.
Return, O my soul (life) to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
- Psalm 116:7
Sunday, April 30
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
Acts 2:14, 36-41
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
In the season of Eastertide, we always read the story of the walk to Emmaus, which is found only in Luke’s gospel. It features this exchange:
“Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem,
and have not known
the things that have taken place there in these days ?”
[ which may also be translated, ]
“Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know
the things that have taken place there in these days ?”
And he said, “What things ?”
- Luke 24:18-19
Do you like irony ?
The classic modern story of irony is O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.” You may remember how the poor brother and sister wanted very badly to give each other special Christmas gifts, but had no money. The sister cut off and sold her beautiful long hair to buy him a fine watch chain for his precious watch; he sold his watch to be able to buy her fancy things for her long hair. Irony.
Luke the Evangelist has a rich sense of irony as he tells the story of the resurrected Jesus appearing on Easter Sunday afternoon on the road to a village called Emmaus. Two people who had followed Jesus in his ministry were walking there from Jerusalem, discussing Jesus’ final week in the city, his condemnation, and his death on the cross.
When ‘someone’ began to walk with them and questioned them about their grief, they responded as if he were ‘out of the loop.’ I want to highlight the word which is translated, “stranger” in verse 18: it is paroikeis, meaning ‘from a nearby house— not from this house.’ In the New Testament, it is used of visitors and sojourners, neighbors and foreigners who live ‘among us,’ but are not ‘from here.’
Myself being from ‘somewhere else,’ I can appreciate this distinction. When someone who has lived ‘around here’ all her life asks me, “You’re not from around here, are you ?,” and gives me a funny look, I realize I must have done or said something she took as strange !
Clopas, who asked that question on the road to Emmaus, had no idea how ironic it was, on so many levels.
First, it was Jesus who was being asked if he knew what happened to Jesus.
Second, Clopas addressed the person walking with them as a visitor... but Jesus was the Son of the God of Israel— the same one who had asked Mary and Joseph (when he was about age twelve), “Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?”— that is, the Temple of God in Jerusalem (see Luke 2:49). So, Jesus was actually a hometown boy from Jerusalem, not a visitor !
Third, risen from the dead as he was, Jesus knew everything on earth and in heaven. Asking him if he knew what had been going on was super silly.
And there are many more ironies in this story.
Our lives are filled with irony, if we attune ourselves to recognize it. We have to admit that we can see ourselves in a story Jesus told, of the man who harvested such a great crop, he planned to build bigger barns to secure his wealth for the future— but then God informed him that he would die that night (Luke 12:15-21). Irony.
We may enjoy life more fully if we appreciate that we are all merely ‘strangers’ here. Our reading this week from 1 Peter 1 urges us to “live in reverent fear during your time of exile...” (the word translated “exile,” paroikias, has the same root as the word Clopas used, that afternoon on the road to Emmaus when he thought the “stranger” must be from somewhere else). I don’t believe that Peter’s original readers were literally “in exile” any more than we are. Rather, we feel that way.
We can rejoice in the midst of life’s ironies because we are “ransomed from the futile ways inherited from [ ] our ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ....” 1 Peter 1:17-19
If we truly follow Jesus, then we, too are sojourners, strangers, as Jesus was.
And the sooner our hearts get “strangely warmed” as those early followers’ hearts were (Luke 24:32), the sooner we can stop being the butt of irony and begin to appreciate it.
Return, O my soul (life) to your rest,
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
- Psalm 116:7
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