God Never Walks Away!

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Year B

Church of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul, MN

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Today’s Gospel (Luke 24:35-48) which is a continuation of the story of Jesus’ two disciples who left Jerusalem to travel to Emmaus is one of the most magnificent text in the New Testament. It is a theological masterpiece that addresses some of the spiritual questions we have. The story of the Fall of our human progenitors— Adam and Eve has a correlation with the Emmaus story. The story of the Fall provides us an important key to understanding the story of Emmaus more fully. Genesis 3 tells us that as soon as Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree, their eyes opened, and they knew they were naked (v.7). In a way, they became aware of their sin and shame. Despite their disobedience, God still comes to them and walks with them. Out of shame, they tried to hide themselves from God. Their sin has caused a deep alienation from God, yet God moves to them. The Emmaus story is about two disciples, one is named (Cleopas) but the other is not. From ancient times, it has been speculated they could be a man and his wife. We don’t know for sure. This couple were traveling from Jerusalem to a town seven miles away from the capital called Emmaus. Symbolically speaking, this is a journey away from salvation. Why? Everything was happening in Jerusalem. Jesus goes up to Jerusalem, that’s where he was crucified; that’s where the resurrection takes place, that’s where the coming of the Holy Spirit happens. Jerusalem is the center; it is where the Church has gathered. But these two disciples were walking away from Jerusalem, from the Church and from salvation. Like Adam and Eve after the Fall, and like all of us sinners, they were walking in the wrong way. Just as in Genesis 3, the Lord God comes to walk with them. The most comforting message in both of these two narratives is no matter what we do, no matter how far we have wondered in the wrong direction, God comes to walk with us. God will seek us out if we try to hide from him.

Here now is the eloquent reversal between this two stories. In the Genesis story, Adam and Eve disguised themselves so that God won’t find them. In Luke’s narrative, God disguises himself. Luke says the two disciples were prevented from recognizing him. The Lord did not disguise himself out of desire to distance himself from them, rather to gradually lure them back into discipleship. With delicious irony, he asks them, “What are you discussing as you walk along? (Lk. 24:17) In response to his question, they famously talked about Jesus and the things that happened to him. Note this, their account of Jesus is quite accurate: “Jesus the Nazarene was a prophet, he was mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. Yet our chief priests and rulers handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him… Now some women from our group and some of the disciples have reported that he is risen from the dead” (Lk. 24:19-24). Their account and data about Jesus of Nazareth is right, but there is something they did not get right. They know the facts about Jesus but don’t see him yet. It’s like knowing about somebody and knowing somebody. You can google and read facts about somebody, but it is only when you meet that person that you come to know him. The trouble with the disciples on the road to Emmaus is that they know of the facts about Jesus, but don’t him yet. So, beginning from Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what refers to him in all the scriptures (Lk. 24:27). He didn’t just refer to two or three lines in the scripture that refer to him, he refers to ALL THE SCRIPTURES. That means, all the scriptures refer to him. All were pointed toward him. All of it finds their purpose and fulfillment in him. He, Jesus, properly understood is the solution to the problem. Jesus is the Answer! Jesus solves all the problems that started in the garden of Eden. 

Adam and Eve’s problem started with bad eating. On their own, they took of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, assumed to themselves what is the prerogative of God. It was a bad meal that caused the problem. But in the ministry of Jesus, good meals feature prominently. His open table fellowship which reaches its climax at the Last Supper is a good example. In the Emmaus story, Jesus sits down with his wandering disciples and eats with them. Whereas Adam and Eve and by extension all of us sinners aggressively took and ate the forbidden fruit on our own accord and for our self-satisfaction, the two disciples are fed by the Lord’s self-gift. After eating what happened? Their eyes were opened! (Gen. 3:7; Lk. 24:31). After Adam and Eve had eaten the bad meal, their eyes were opened; after the two disciples had eaten the good meal, their eyes were opened as well. So, what is the difference here? While Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened to their shame, to their sense of sin and nakedness, the eyes of the disciples are opened to see their Savior. Right away, the understand that Jesus is in their midst. After that, what did they do? The disciples head back to Jerusalem. As for Adam and Eve, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, from paradise, that’s what sin does to us. The disciples were wandering away from Jerusalem, from the gathering of the Church, from the place of the main event. This is all of us, folks. But glory be to God who always intervenes. He joins them in their journey, uses a conversational approach to connect with them. In the end, he feeds them and finally turns them back away from their wonderland. This story sums up for us the entirety of biblical revelation. It is the story of God who is relentless in his pursuit to find us. It is the story of God who never walks away. It is the story of the transition from sin to grace, from bad eating to the right kind of eating, from wandering away to moving back to Jerusalem, to the Church.