On the Road to Emmaus

Luke 24:13-35

    On the road to…. This past week has seen two momentous “end of the road” events, end of the road meaning both reaching one’s goal and “the end” of your road. Prime Minister Harper had been on the road toward his coveted majority for five years, and he reached his goal Monday night. Many Canadians responded in disbelief while many others celebrated. And Harper’s “end of the road” meant a very different “end of the road” for the Bloc and Liberal Parties. And the day prior, the United States finally reached the end of the road in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in their 10 year mission to assassinate their #1 Enemy. Of course, having the US military special operations unit reach his hideout compound meant a very different end of the road for Osama bin Laden. Response from the USA public ranged from wild celebrations to thoughtful reflections, from fist pumping jingoism to posting on facebook powerful words from Martin Luther King – “I will not rejoice in the death of anyone, not even an enemy” – that quickly went viral, but turned out to be not from King.
    In any case, these road endings had very different meanings for the various people involved, and for the rest of us. However, “end of the road” is getting ahead of our story…. On the Road to…. Today’s lectionary passage is about both being on the road and at the end of the road. Luke 24, last chapter. 13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 
    Thousands of sermons are being preached today about being blind to Jesus, and then seeing him, sermons about recognising the resurrected Christ through a personal encounter with him. The Luke chapter 24 story is beautifully simple and then powerful in its application. Two men are walking home from Jerusalem to Emmaus, Sunday, the day after the Sabbath. They are completely confused. Their lives have just been turned upside down over the death of a dear friend whom they had hoped was the Messiah. In addition, they’ve just that day heard bizarre tales being told about him, that the tomb is empty, that he is alive. They can’t figure it all out. Nothing makes sense. Along the way they meet a stranger who inquires about their conversation and who proceeds to clarify everything – first through his explanation of Scripture, then through his personal way of breaking bread. Suddenly, everything is clear. They see the Risen Christ.
    This morning’s sermon is a bit different. You see, I was on that road last month, the Road to Emmaus. Literally.  13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus … 14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened…. 
    Now on a day last month, 12 of us from Ontario were going to a Jewish park, in the area of the first century village of Emmaus, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We were talking with each other about all these things that had happened, all the things that we had heard about in Palestine, in Bethlehem, in Hebron. While we were talking and discussing, others came near to us. But we were confused; we had heard so much about the decades-long Israeli Occupation of Palestinian lands and the suffering of the Palestinian people. We couldn’t comprehend all that we were seeing, all that we were hearing. Our eyes were kept from seeing the truth in all its completeness. How much truth could our eyes recognise? On the road to the Jewish Park, were we even aware that we were actually in the Palestinian West Bank, not Israel?
    17And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18Then 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?” 
    We 12 from Ontario arrived at the Park. A beautiful suburban park to spend an outing with family and friends. And cars, vans, and buses were unloading Jewish families who were arriving for precisely that purpose. But our guide came near to us and said to us: “do you not know where you are?” So he led us off the beaten trail, past the signs that said “do not pass”, and showed us the remnants, the rubble, the remains of the three Palestinian villages that had thrived there for a millennium until 1967 when Israel destroyed them in the war to expand their territory. And the fact of their existence has been blotted out – out of Jewish Israeli history books by fiat, off of signs by quasi-sanctioned vandalism. So millions of Israelis and Jews do not know the things that took place there in those days. 
    And many Canadians don’t either. The name of this park in the Occupied West Bank, Palestinian land, built over top of destroyed Palestinian villages, is “Canada Park”. “Canada Park”  – a national park established and maintained by the Jewish National Fund of Canada, with fund-raising here in Canada focusing on planting trees to reforest Israel. Never mind that the Park is in the Palestinian West Bank. No mention of the destroyed Palestinian villages the trees are being planted on top of,  while the former residents are still refugees 35 years later. Never mind that these Palestinian refugees still hold titles to the land. And to culminate the travesty, the road leading to the park is named the John Diefenbaker Parkway, former Prime Minister, who opened the Park in 1975. Indeed, there are many, both in Israel and Canada, “who do not know the things that have taken place there in these days?”
    So too, on the Road to Emmaus that Sunday two millennia ago. Those two disciples couldn’t see the profound truth of “the things that had taken place.” They just couldn’t recognise them or him. 
    On the Road to Emmaus the two disciples were also confused. Luke says that “they stood still, looking sad.” I also stood still, feeling incredibly sad, and troubled. I was in Jerusalem and had just spent two hours in Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial and Museum. The displays are so graphic that children under ten years of age are
not permitted to enter. The Museum documents the development of hatred toward the Jews in the Christian world, and then the rise of Hitler and Nazism in post-World War One Germany. Anti-Semitism was part of Hitler’s program, culminating in the horrific concentration camps of the 1940s. In the museum I trembled as I gazed upon a very large model of an Auschwitz’s gas chamber with thousands of people lining up to enter, with hundreds already inside. To say that it was emotionally overwhelming is an understatement. How can one comprehend genocide? Six million humans murdered, while the world wrung its hands in inaction, while the Church was essentially silent. Unspeakable horror. The Jews call it their “shoah”, a Hebrew word meaning “catastrophe”. [pause]
    Earlier that day, Ali took us on the road through of the Old City of Jerusalem. He told us about the “Nakba”, the word Palestinians (both Muslim and Christian) use for the invasion and destruction of Palestinian lands and homes along with the murder of thousands and the displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians by Jews setting up the State of Israel. Nakba is Arabic for “Catastrophe”. Ali told us that the removal of Palestinians from their lands and homes continues to this day. He pointed out where Orthodox Jewish settlers are taking over Palestinian homes, at times building an additional floor on top of a centuries old Palestinian home. He spoke clearly of the oppression and humiliation the Palestinians suffer daily at the hands of the Israeli occupation apparatus. At the end of the tour, Ali told us he had been political prisoner, jailed in 1968 until 1985 when Israel released him in a political prisoner exchange. Palestine: an occupied land and people. 
    The Shoah (the Jewish Holocaust or Catastrophe) ended in 1945. The Nakba (the Palestinian Catastrophe) started in 1948. From Shoah to Nakba in three years??!!. How??? How, O God, can a people who suffered so terribly much turn around and immediately begin to inflict suffering on others? Like the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, I simply stood still, paralysed, feeling incredibly sad and deeply troubled.
Two peoples. One land. Two peoples who desperately need peace and security. After the afternoon in the Holocaust Museum, I understood more viscerally the Jewish people’s deep need for security, for a safe place. And no where was their need for security better expressed than in our conversation with Ary’el, a Jewish Zionist settler. 
    First a word about settlements, where the settlers live. These settlements are Jewish invasions of Palestinian land in the West Bank, and have been declared illegal by the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. Yet they continue to increase exponentially, year after year. They’re built strategically on Palestinian land and are provocative, inflammatory reminders of Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian land. The strategic placement of settlements, and their connection by roads Palestinians are not allowed to use, cause them to isolate nearby Palestinian communities from one another, and effectively choke off local Palestinian economies. Palestine is being chopped up into separate islands. 
    Back to Ary’el, the Jewish settler. He’s a friendly hospitable guy. We had coffee together in his living room, his small children scurrying around. He’s also very articulate and passionate about “The Land of Israel” and his people’s deep desire for security. He insisted that this land belonged to Jews, not to Palestinians. Ary’el said that as they occupy the land, they still want peace, but “I don’t know what will bring peace. We have the obligation to protect ourselves, our children. When we know that someone is going to attack us, we need to kill first. This is from the oral Torah.” Umm, I guess we’d have to call that “first strike” theology. Ary’el also blamed the Palestinians for all the violence. “Only a very few Palestinians want peace,” he insisted. “95% of them want all Jews to be killed. I carry a weapon. We have to protect ourselves. We have 2000 years of history of people wanting to kill us. Trust in God? Yes, but we have to act.” [Our MCC colleague Bassem, a Palestinian Christian whose people have called that land “home” since Jesus’ time, was visibly troubled.]
    In some ways, Ary’el is like the followers of Jesus on the Road to Emmaus. They have a problem with seeing, they can’t recognise truth. Ary’el’s eyes were kept from recognizing all these things that were happening. He couldn’t see how his people’s invasion and occupation of Palestinian land was causing such pain, suffering and injustice. He couldn’t see that, in his people’s search for security, they, victims of the most horrific genocide ever, had become the perpetrators. 
    Yet on the Road to Emmaus there were bright glimmers of clarity, clear glimpses of hope. We visited Atuwani, a small Palestinian village near Ary’el’s illegal settlement. Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained a constant presence there since 2004. We spoke with Hafez, a Palestinian shepherd and community leader, who told us of the aggressive and violent settlers who try to drive them from their ancestral lands with beatings, attacks, building and road destruction, and more. Story after story. Then he shared about his and his community’s non-violent responses and nonviolent resistance. He said that “Non-violent resistance is like a tree: it needs to be watered every day. If you don’t, it will die. This is what we are doing. This for all who believe in peace and justice. You can make changes without violence.”
    I was deeply moved. But why non-violence?, I asked him. And Hafez told us this story. “My biggest influence is my mother, she is 80. Eight years ago, when she was 72, she was attacked by settlers, they injured her badly. I was busy in a village meeting; she was with the sheep, up the hill. People came toward me screaming. I ran to where three settlers were beating up my mother on the ground. One armed settler yelled at me to go back. He pointed his gun at me and shot at me, at my feet…. For me as a human, seeing my mother being beaten, I couldn’t even think. I was crazy. In five minutes, the security forces came. We took my mother to hospital. I began to think: ‘I have to get revenge.’ Then my mother came back from hospital. She said to me ‘I know what you are thinking. Is it worth it? If you go in this way, you’ll destroy yourself and your family.’ So I thought a lot about this. She made me promise to not go in the way of revenge. My mother’s way is the good way. When my mother talked to me, I realized I want to live in peace. The future is peace. And we have to start to make peace. Like the tree, non-violence is something we have to live and water each day.” 
    Listening to Hafez, my thoughts go to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24, how when their eyes were opened, and they recognized him … and 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?” My heart was burning within me while Hafez was talking to us on the road in Atuwani, while he was opening the truth to us. My heart burned with the truth of his deep commitment to justice and peace through non-violent means. 
    And Hafez’s witness helped us Ontarians as we dea
lt with other burnings within us. Our hearts were, by the end of our time in Palestine/Israel, burning with passion. And even with anger at times. I have just barely begun to share with you about the suffering of the Palestinian people. I haven’t even talked about the infamous Wall, the so-called “Security Wall”; Palestinians call it the “Separation Wall” or even the “Apartheid Wall.” Built ostensibly for security reasons to keep Palestinians out of Israel,built mostly on Palestinian land, its 700+ kilometres effectively isolate Palestinian people from one another, and from such fundamental necessities as water, education, and medical care. For many, it also blocks access to their jobs and to their olive groves. Nor have I shared about the demolition of Palestinian homes that the Israeli government carries out frequently as a means of harassment, intimidation, and ultimately, of land grabs. 
    And so when our hearts burned with righteous rage, we remembered Hafez’s witness to the non-violent, hate-less walk toward justice. At our final debriefing the last night there, the elder statesman of our Team, a gentle Old Colony Mennonite man, said simply: “I do not want to take any hatred home.” Hafez and others gave us powerful invitations to intercept our tendency to hate, with the opportunity to love, to respond to violence, hate and oppression, not in kind, but with the opposite. Hafez – a Palestinian Muslim is deeply committed to walk the same path that Jesus took – the non-violent walk toward justice – and so on the road to Atuwani, our hearts burned within us while Hafez opened the truth to us.
    On the Road to Emmaus…. The Jewish people have very legitimate security concerns. God knows how they as a people are deeply deeply traumatised. Ary’el said it best “We have 2000 years of history of people wanting to kill us.” Still, their prophets – our prophets! – call them to do justice, to love kindness, to walk humbly with our God. And the greatest Jewish prophet of all – Jesus the Christ – refused to resort to violence in order to make things right. On the road to Emmaus, those two disciples didn’t recognise him because – and I know, you’ve heard me say this many times over the past 15 years, and indeed Derek and Christopher cut me off when I begin to remind them, saying “yes Dad, we know” – those two followers didn’t recognise Jesus because Jesus chose to go the cross rather than use violence to force the change he sought. Many of Jesus’ disciples expected a Messiah as a political redeemer who would achieve victory through the use of force and power. So they didn’t / couldn’t see Jesus because he didn’t fit their expectations.  Vs 21 “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” But Jesus refused to achieve victory with shock and awe. Instead, he went and got himself killed. So they didn’t recognise him there on the Road to Emmaus.  
    In the just-released movie about the Norse god “Thor”, the wise old king Odin instructs his sons that a good king never seeks war, but is always ready for war to protect his kingdom, to defend peace. Jesus – the son of man, the son of God – refused to buy into that myth that says violence will make things right, that military force provides security and establishes peace. Ultimately it’s the Way of the Cross that triumphs. The Cross was not and is not the end of the Road. We celebrate that every year at Easter – we are living in the Resurrection. On the Road to Emmaus, we do recognise Jesus! And our hearts burn with the truth he has shown!
    I invite you to walk the Road to Emmaus. To choose love over hate, understanding over stereotypes, friendship over violence. Let’s walk the Road to Emmaus, here next Sunday. Next Sunday our worship service will be in Kew Gardens Park, just down the road to the east. Next Sunday the Road to Emmaus will be Queen Street. There we will gather with our sisters and brothers of Muslim and Jewish faith to worship together. To get to know each other a bit. An interfaith service. Ary’el, the Jewish Zionist settler, was theoretically my enemy, but drinking coffee together we became friends. We parted with the words “brother”. I cannot hate him. May we too have the same experience as Jesus’ followers on the Road to Emmaus: 31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; ….32They 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?”      
    On the Road to Emmaus. Amen!
 

 

Addendum to 8 May 2011 sermon “On the Road to Emmaus”.

Tim Schmucker, 11 May 2011 

 

Due to the flow and nature of last Sunday’s sermon, I was unable to offer many “response possibilities.” Here are a few more in addition to participating in the interfaith service this coming Sunday. 

 

  1. Develop friendships with Palestinians (both Muslim and Christian) and with Jews living in Ontario.  Listen to their stories and ask them what they think are the most important components for building a just and sustainable peace in the Middle East.
  2. Consider forming a small group or Sunday School class around the topic of Christian contributions toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The church’s long history of Anti-Semitism along with support for Christian Zionism have contributed to the insecurity of both Israelis and Palestinians today. What steps can the church take today to make amends?
  3. Communicate with your MP (especially if Conservative), cc-ing PM Harper, encouraging them to take a balanced view, and to include the perspective of Palestinian Christians. 
  4. Travel to the Holy Lands, especially Palestine, and spend time with Palestinian Christians. Make inquiries at Mennonite (or other) travel companies, asking how much Palestinian perspective (especially Palestinian Christian) is included in itinerary.
  5. Keep informed: MCC Palestine blog, http://mccpalestine.wordpress.com/ and CPT’s work, http://www.cpt.org/work/palestine 
  6. Reading materials: 
    • Sonia Weaver’s book, “What is Palestine-Israel?: Answers to Common Questions.” Herald Press, 2007. I have several copies. It has an excellen
      t resource list.  
    • A statement adopted by the MCC Peace Committee in 2007 (pasted here immediately below): 

 

Mennonite Central Committee Discussion Paper on Palestine-Israel

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has worked alongside Palestinians for nearly six decades and with Israelis for nearly forty years. After the horrors of the Holocaust, many Jews welcomed the creation of the State of Israel, viewing it as a potential safe haven. The establishment of Israel in 1948, however, went hand in hand with the massive dispossession and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians. MCC responded in 1949 to this newly created refugee crisis with material assistance and in numerous other ways. Over the ensuing years MCC developed bonds of friendship and partnership with the Palestinian churches, joining them in their ministry. Finally, since Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, MCC has supported the dedicated work of both Palestinians and Israelis committed to non-violence and to a future of peace, justice, and reconciliation for both peoples.

Given MCC’s long history with Palestinians and Israelis, MCC is often asked about its position regarding a future resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Does MCC support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel?  Does MCC support the eventual emergence of one state in which Palestinians and Israelis would live together in equality? This statement outlines positions and principles that MCC believes must be considered in any future resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and which guide MCC’s advocacy efforts.

First, any resolution of the conflict should be judged according to a biblical theology of land and relationships. MCC believes that ultimately land and other natural resources belong to God. “The land is mine,” says the Lord. “With me you are but aliens and tenants.” (Lev. 25:23). Biblical promises of land to Abraham and his descendants and narratives of the conquest of the land must understood in light of: God’s admonition to the people to treat “alien” others justly, remembering that they had been aliens (e.g. Ex. 22:21; 23:9; Lev. 19:34); the prophetic injunctions to practice justice and righteousness in the land (e.g. Deut. 16:20; Micah 6:8; Zeph. 2:3); and God’s normative self-revelation in Jesus Christ.

God’s creative Spirit works within history towards a day in which humanity will sit securely under vine and fig tree without fear (Micah 4:4). In his inaugural sermon in Nazareth, Jesus proclaimed the “year of the Lord’s favor,” the Jubilee year described by the priestly writers of Leviticus in which those dispossessed from the land once more enjoy security in the land (Luke 4:18-19; Lev. 25). In Jesus Christ, dividing walls of hostility are broken down, and enemies are reconciled in one body (Eph. 2:10-20). Christians, therefore, should be concerned about the restoration of the dispossessed, security in the land for all, and conditions which foster and sustain reconciliation.

Second, MCC laments that the current reality in the Holy Land falls far short of this biblical vision, with neither Palestinian nor Israeli enjoying secure dwellings. Too often Israelis and Palestinians turn to violence in attempts to achieve security and freedom.  Israel builds walls and fences on confiscated land and in the process seizes more land and control of water resources, constructs illegal settlements on that land, and confines Palestinians to increasingly smaller parcels of territory with severely restricted movement and bleak economic prospects. These walls and fences might be presented as a security measure, but they create more dispossession and over time increase the insecurity of both peoples. Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, meanwhile, be they in Israel or in refugee camps in the Occupied Territories, Jordan, Syria, or Lebanon, are forgotten in their exile. 

Just as Palestinians face insecurity, so do Israeli Jews. A minority of Palestinians rejects ongoing Jewish communal life in the land and sometimes resorts to violent attacks on Israeli military forces and civilians. Israelis, like Palestinians, have known the suffering and loss of death and injury.

The current reality in the land for Palestinians and Israelis is thus one of dispossession, insecurity, and enmity, rather than landed security and reconciliation. As an organization committed to Christ’s way of peace, MCC deplores all forms of violence, especially attacks against civilians. MCC mourns with all who have lost loved ones in this conflict, and awaits the day when both peoples will live in security in the land.

Third, MCC believes that all are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27).  In the new kingdom inaugurated by God in Jesus Christ, no people are elevated above others or granted privileges at the expense of others (e.g. Gal. 3:28). Therefore, MCC rejects any ideology or political program which seeks the expulsion or subordination of either Palestinians or Israelis.

Fourth, as a Christian organization MCC believes that statehood is not an end in itself. States can sometimes help guarantee basic human rights. Governments, however, are not ultimate authorities, but are judged according to the extent that they deter evil conduct and approve the good (Rom. 13:1-7). Nationalist ideologies which make exclusive connections between particular nations and particular states threaten the rights of those outside the nation, leading to various forms of discrimination and even violence. Statehood is thus not synonymous with justice, nor does it guarantee security and safety for all people. Palestinians have longed for a state in which they might enjoy freedom and security. A Palestinian state in the discontiguous parcels of land demarcated by Israel’s separation wall, however, will not bring either durable justice or security to Palestinians or Israelis.

Fifth, MCC does not take a final position on the question of whether the best solution to the conflict is two states side-by-side, with the Palestinian state based on the 1949 Armistice Line comprising all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, or one state in which Palestinians and Israelis enjoy equal citizenship. MCC works with both Palestinians and Israelis who are committed to nonviolence – whether they believe that peace, justice, and reconciliation are best secured in the co
ntext of a two-state solution, or that this will be best achieved in the framework of one, bi-national state of equal citizenship. MCC is open to participating in coalitions which advocate either for a two-state solution or a one-state solution to the conflict, as long as the proposed solution to the conflict embraces the following principles: 

* A commitment to respect human rights as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international covenants and conventions.

*An end to the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as called for by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338;

*A shared Jerusalem in which the spiritual significance of the city for Christians, Muslims and Jews would be recognized. Jews, Christians, and Muslims should all be able to worship and practice their faiths freely and securely in the land;

*An end to discriminatory confiscation and distribution of land and water resources, including those practices prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention, and, in accordance with the ruling from the International Court of Justice, the dismantling of the illegal separation wall;

*Justice and security for Palestinian refugees, as called for by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.

Any durable resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, MCC believes, must build upon these principles.