Resurrection and the Triumph of Hope

(Note: I owe my reflections today in part to an Easter blog posted by Crystal St. Marie Lewis: "Resurrrection: A Scandalous Reading of a Scandalous Gospel." )


Luke 24:13-35

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 uswhile 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; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

"But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel." What a plaintive note is sounded in that phrase. Cleopas and his companion - quite possibly his wife - were followers of Jesus, and apparently part of the inner circle of committed disciples who were privy to what had transpired between Jesus and his closest associates. They had placed all their hopes in Jesus' basket. 

Of course, they weren't the only ones. Think of how Jesus inaugurated his ministry there in the synagogue in Nazareth with these words:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

The Gospel writers say that he then proceeded to do just that:

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. (Matthew 4:23-25)

Think of how each person's life was changed who was healed or touched by Jesus' encouragement or released from demon-possession. Think of the man possessed by the demons named "Legion" who was restored to his right mind and could return to his family and home as a normal person. Think of the woman with the twenty or so years of hemorrhage who could not eat or touch her family or loved ones because of her uncleanness, who was healed and no longer had to wander at the edges of her community. Think of the the blind men and women who had their sight restored. Think of all those people who had been declared unclean and sinners because of whatever infirmity beset them, only to hear Jesus proclaim to one man born blind:

‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ (John 9:3-5)

Think of all the people fed by Jesus on various occasions, who broke down all barriers to fellowship between people. Think of Zaccheus who received grace and forgiveness from Jesus and changed his life completely. Think of the Samaritan woman whom Jesus engaged in conversation at the well of Sychar, who received Jesus' message of truth as not being confined to the Jews, but then spread his news to her village, and later to all the Mediterranean world. (She is preserved in Orthodox memory as St. Photina.)


All of these people had been released from some sort of bondage or restriction. They had been given hope by Jesus, and a new future. They began to live in confidence and faced life with renewed vigor and determination. They were touched not only physically but emotionally, psychologically and spiritually as well.

Think what the attempt by the religious and political establishment of their time to silence Jesus and curtail his activities meant to each of these people. And make no mistake about it, Jesus ran afoul of the systems of domination and power of his time precisely because he challenged those systems by bringing hope in an alternative way of thinking and living in the world, in fact, a whole new way of being. The domination systems of his time perceived him to be a religious and political threat. He never had any pretenses of being a political leader or revolutionary. He never espoused a political slogan or platform. He never fomented an uprising. In fact, he avoided all efforts to make him a king, and even rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as a symbolic proclamation  of his gospel of nonviolence. Nonetheless, the power systems of his time perceived that his message of hope and possibility and grace and love and spiritual freedom threatened the very source of their power: fear, hopelessness and a fatalism that said that everything was stacked against them. These were the forces that crucified Jesus. These were the forces that tried to silence him. These were the forces that tried to apply their Final Solution against him.

But to every Final Solution that the world tries to exercise against the power of love and freedom and grace and hope, God supplies a Final Answer: Love will triumph. Life will overcome death. Freedom will overthrow oppression. Hope will rise triumphant. 


The resurrection of Jesus was not just for the first few disciples to witness. It was for every person whose life had been touched, renewed, redeemed and transformed by Jesus. It was for every person set free from the confines of restrictive religious practice or social custom. It was for every person who now moved freely in their homes and villages with whole bodies, restored eyesight and hearing, gentled minds, unlepered skin. It was for every person who now had hope. 


The message is clear: Hope will not die. God will raise it up anywhere and everywhere that the crucifiers of this world try to beat it down, legislate it away, confine it to dungeons and prisons. Jesus said 2000 years ago and still says today:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

(Image sources: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/4301221243_537c07e390.jpg;   http://www.dst-corp.com/james/PaintingsOfJesus/Jesus09.jpg;   http://www.regnumnovum.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Jesus-healing-woman.jpg;