Transformations on the Road to Emmaus
Embodying Resurrection
In Eastertide
(50-day period from Easter to Pentecost)
During this Eastertide, Beth Biery and Robert Martin will continue WeCreating the offerings each Saturday, which will include two parts:
Beckoning: a reflection on the topic of resurrection in our lives.
Being: a meditation and questions for reflection (examen) that may serve us as a daily devotional practice, to help us dwell deeper in the Divine Story, let go of lesser stories, and live out our mystical vocation in the moment-to-moment as well as in momentous ways.
A new midweek email is coming out, called “Community Connection” with two main sections:
“Becomings of the Christophany Choir” in which community members share stories of living into their resurrections.
Opportunities for Community participation and contribution.
If you haven’t yet read the reflection on Easter Sunday, we invite you to do so. It sets the stage for our subsequent reflections in Eastertide. Its main theme was articulated by pan-Christian theologian Raimon Panikkar:
resurrection is not limited to [Jesus] alone,
it is the vocation of all of us….
Resurrection is ours, it is now.
During Eastertide, we will reflect on the resurrection of Jesus for insight into how we might live into our resurrections (renewals) more fully.
Luke 24:13–33 (NRSV)
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles 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?” He asked them, “What things?”
They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”
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?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem.
Aha!
Of all the post-resurrection appearance stories in scripture, “On the Road to Emmaus” is my favorite. I don’t think I’m alone. It has a good dose of dramatic angst, a humorous repartee between the disciples and unrecognized Jesus. But most of all I think it appeals so much because of the “Aha!” that transforms everything, the recognition of Jesus that literally turns them around and propels them back to Jerusalem.
We’ve all felt that build-up of dramatic conflict: when things simply don’t make sense, and we struggle mightily to put the pieces back together. But nothing works; the mess just gets bigger; our frustration mounts; we fear there is no solution.
Then, out of the blue, completely unexpectedly, something shifts and we feel an almost audible “click” when it all comes together in a new resolution we couldn’t have predicted.
A great relief washes over us;
the weight on our shoulders lifts;
a surge of energy and purpose lifts our spirit.
We envision a better way forward.
Journey of Transformation
An Emmaus type of transformational journey is very different from the death and entombment we reflected on in previous articles. We’re not inert and reduced to “goo”, as if in a chrysalis. Rather, on the road to Emmaus, we’re active and struggling to hold things together because we feel our lives are falling apart. Things don’t make sense anymore.
This kind of existential disequilibrium can involve anything and everything: marriages, religious faith, purpose in life, fractures in relationships, you name it. We struggle desperately to hold the pieces together, but nothing fits anymore. Meaninglessness pervades; hope fades; we despair that this is all there is.
On the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and the other disciple experience this type of transformational journey. They set out for “Emmaus” right after hearing Mary and other women tell of the empty tomb and the angels’ hopeful message. Walking along the dusty road, they talked animatedly about the horrific Passover weekend as well as the crazy possibility that Jesus was somehow alive. How could any of this make sense!
In existentially charged struggles like this, we often long for things to go back to “normal”, back to the way it was. Perhaps that is what the “road to Emmaus” refers to — an escape from Jerusalem chaos and catastrophe to restore normality.
Resurrected Presence
Into this turbulence the resurrected Jesus enters. Not to scold them for leaving, not to change their minds, not to force their recognition. He enters instead with questions: what are you talking about? And he follows up with scriptural teaching that helps them connect the dots without resolving anything for them.
In Jesus, we see that Resurrected Presence does not denigrate, does not force resolution, does not try to change anyone’s mind. Rather, it enters with compassionate curiosity; it is respectful of the world of the other; it responds wisely with clarity.
Resurrected Presence enters the chaos of the moment from the holy kairos of suffering, death, and new life.
Keenly aware of shared vulnerability and suffering, Resurrected Life enacts and expands the Divine Communion in which we already and always live and move and have our being.
No wonder the disciples recognized Jesus when the bread was broken and a prayer of thanksgiving was offered. Their sudden recognition had less to do with recognizing his face as much as encountering the Christ – the eucharist of all things communing in God,
an eternal communion that can never be extinguished,
a living communion right before us,
a creating communion among us,
a transforming communion within us.
Hearts burning as One.
Are our hearts burning?
Dwelling in Our Resurrected Being
Living on the Other Side of the Stone
Eastertide Examen and Meditation
To help us settle into and naturalize our resurrections, we offer a short examen reflection and a recorded guided meditation. We hope that the practice of reflection and meditation will be a daily discipline for you, for it is only through regular repetition that we are spiritually formed by our resurrections. Otherwise, if only episodic, resurrection power fades and we revert to default patterns.
We live out our resurrections through consistent, regular practice.
We invite you to enter into these meditation exercises as regularly as you are able. The questions are modeled after the Ignatian examen. Take a couple minutes to ponder and write your reflections on these questions in a journal or tablet. No need to over-think; all reflections are welcome.
Examen Questions:
When did my heart burn in recognition today?
How was I a Resurrected Presence today?
How is Resurrection changing me?
When ready, start the recorded meditation.
Consider incorporating the Examen and Meditation in your WeSpace groups.
Statement of WeCreating Authorship
This article was WeCreated with authoring by Robert Martin and and light editing by Beth Biery.
All of the wisdom, creativity, and spiritual emergence in ICN comes from the communal field of wisdom and spirit speaking in and through the “We.”
All text in this article is human-authored without the use of AI, according to our AI policy: 0 out of 10
All Images are open-source, used with permission, or created by ICN with the use of AI