This passage from Luke teaches us a lot about truth and faith. It is, in both a literal and a spiritual sense, about journeys. Literally, it is about two disciples (followers of Jesus) walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Spiritually, it is about their and our journey from not knowing Jesus to truly knowing Jesus and sharing our experiences of Jesus. It is about rediscovering Christ’s presence in our lives, gaining a fresher understanding of God’s transforming grace, allowing our hearts to be ignited with the Holy Spirit as we too walk with Christ.
The Bible makes very clear and specific statements about Jesus. As the disciples walked along they were discussing the scriptures and the recent events that had happened. When Jesus appeared to them they were walking the wrong way – away from Jerusalem. They were preoccupied with their own difficulties, overwhelmed with sadness, grief and hopelessness. They were unable to identify God’s purpose in what had happened.
Humans like to know reasons for…well everything. We ask (both aloud and to ourselves) why? We analyse, we interpret, we assume, we conclude. And we use the answers as a Sat Nav! What we decide the answers are determine/direct what and where we do/go next.
The disciples did not fully understand the Scriptures or the meaning of what had happened to Jesus. They had knowledge but it was incomplete and not understood. It was not true knowledge of the right information.
Jesus appeared and started to walk with them. They did not see Jesus. They were kept from recognising him. The Risen Christ walking with them on their journey, but unrecognised, igniting the fire of God’s love in their hearts. Like the Footsteps poem when there is only one set of footprints (because Jesus is carrying us).
But, this enabled Jesus to impart true knowledge. He explains and interprets for them. This teaches us that the key to interpreting the Old Testament is Jesus.
Jesus explained everything from Moses to the prophets, how the Messiah would save God’s people through His death and resurrection, rescuing a sinful, unholy people by reconciling them with The Holy God.
Jesus is the Messiah whose life, death and resurrection grants us salvation. Jesus Himself told us “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me”.
God cannot be near sin. The only way for us sinners to be reconciled to Him was for Jesus to become sin, be punished for our sin, to die and defeat death; so that through His resurrection we could, with faith and repentance, be forgiven and have a relationship with God.
But it is not sufficient to just know the facts. We must also believe in that knowledge, we must truly believe in Jesus and in what He taught. Like the disciples recognising Jesus (when He broke the bread) and rushing back to tell the others, we have to open our eyes in faith. If we believe in Him then we strive to be in His image and this is shown in how we live. We need to believe in God’s word and be motivated by faith. We know God fulfils His promises but we also need to believe this. We know He is always with us, all the time, especially those times when we only see one set of footprints. But, we also need to believe this.
There is a story that gets quoted a lot so apologies if you, like me, have heard it used before:
There was a young boy caught in a house fire and forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you”. He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see was flame, smoke and darkness. The boy was too afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling “Jump! I WILL catch you”. The boy protested “Daddy, I can’t see you” The father replied, “But I CAN see you and that’s all that matters”.
Reece Sherman’s Faith Lessons
Do we understand truly? Or do we rely on our assumptions? Do we truly believe and trust in God? I pray that we do.
God is always there for us and will catch us. He can see us even if we cannot see Him. Do we have enough faith to jump into those life saving arms? I pray that we do.
The other day I read that the public (according to the newspapers) claim the church do not promote Easter as much as Christmas. Easter and Christmas… two very important events for us – Christmas the celebration of the birth of Christ, the incarnation, God becoming man to save us…and Easter where Jesus is sacrificed in our place to defeat death, rise again, and enable us to be forgiven for our sins and reconciled with God.
So I thought about this and here’s a couple of comparisons:
The Church
At Christmas:
Advent – 4 Sundays
Hope, Prophecy, Patriarchs
Peace, Bethlehem, Prophets
Joy, Shepherds, John the Baptist
Love, Angels, Mary
Carol Service
Christingle Service
Crib Service
Midnight Mass
Christmas Morning Service
Candlemass
At Easter:
Ash Wednesday Ashing Service
Lent – 6 Sundays
Invocabit
Reminiscere
Oculi
Laetare
Judica
Palm Sunday
Maundy Thursday Service
Good Friday Pilgrimage and Gathering at the Cross
Stations of the Cross
Holy Saturday Vigil/Service of Light
Easter Sunday Service
Ascension
Pentecost
Corpus Christi
Versus
What I think is most appropriate to call commercialisation:
Where Christmas is promoted with:
Father Christmas
School Nativity Plays
Carols
Christmas number ones/Christmas songs
Grottos
TV Ads
Work Dos/Christmas parties
Decorations
Cards
Presents
Trees
High Street decorations and lights
Shop displays and more decorations
Christmas dinner menu options at pubs and restaurants for approx. 2 months
Pantomimes
Etc
And where Easter is promoted with:
Chocolate and chocolate eggs
The Easter Bunny
TV Ads but on a smaller scale
Small shop displays normally in seasonal aisles
Small amount of Easter decorations
Small amount of Easter cards
Easter dinner menu options for 1 day
In my opinion, having compared the aforementioned; the media, yet again, is showing a biased and incomplete picture. The evidence suggests that on the contrary the church does more at Easter but the sway of commercialisation makes the commercial version of Christmas more widely known.
This needs to be combated, but how? Simply, we need to follow the instruction and example of Peter in Acts and go out and witness, spreading the good news of the true meaning of both Christmas and Easter, sharing what, through love, Christ did for us and the joy of His resurrection with all it’s connotations of redemption.
Meanwhile, where does Thomas fit into all this?
Personally, I feel sorry for Thomas. I think he got a bit of a rough deal. Thomas the Doubter…in actuality he was a fervent believer yet what do we remember him for – doubting – the one who wouldn’t believe without seeing for himself and touching his beloved Master’s wounds.
Maybe, despite it being unfair, one of the reasons we remember Thomas specifically for this event is because it shows us that doubt is okay!
Doubt is something we all experience at some point and in reality, faith and doubt can and do co-exist side by side.
Thomas was not evicted from the group of disciples for his doubt. He was not condemned by Jesus for his doubt. He continued to be a valued part of the disciples as they stayed together, discussing all that had happened, sharing meals, continuing to accept each other.
Thomas had not been there when Jesus had appeared to the group of disciples initially. What was he doing? Where and why wasn’t he there are interesting questions.
BUT, it occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t there so that God could use him for the benefit of those too scared to admit their doubt both then and now.
Thomas only doubted for one week! He then met the risen Jesus and believed. In fact, he believed so fervently for the rest of his life that he was killed (or martyred) for his belief. Yet, still, he is referred to as “Doubting Thomas”.
One small brief moment of doubt, one incident, one mistake, one failing – and a label is applied – something that is still very much done today. And, whilst that person learns, believes, repents, changes, moves on, that label sticks.
Instead of calling Thomas “Believing Thomas” – a far more accurate name/label; because of that one brief moment of doubt he is known as “The Doubter”.
Through this and through Thomas, maybe God is teaching and reminding us that we should not label people. That we should allow people to change and accept that people do change. That we all make mistakes but when we repent God forgives us; likewise when others make mistakes we should allow them to repent and forgive them.
One more thing: asking questions.
There is a common phrase heard in classrooms and training rooms throughout the land:
“There are no stupid questions” and “if you ask a question most of the people in the room are probably thinking it and are just too scared to ask”.
Children in particular ask a lot of questions and, whilst these are often ‘when or what is for dinner?’, they often ask the really big questions:
What is God’s name?
What does God look like?
What does it mean to be reborn?
How is Jesus alive?
The questions children, and indeed some adults, ask are, in their own way, blessings. They make us think and help us gain deeper understanding and insight together.
The person that both expressed the doubts of everyone and asked the question everyone else was thinking was Thomas. For this we owe him a great deal for if the question had not been asked the answer would not have been given. Thomas the Brave who said to Jesus “Lord we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” To whom we owe thanks for Jesus’s answer “I am the [only] way [to God], the [real] truth and the [real] life, no one comes to the Father but through me”.
Thanks to Thomas we know it is okay to be honest about our doubts as well as our faith, we know that labels do not reflect who people truly are and we can realise how questions can lead us to deeper knowledge and growth. Thanks to Thomas, who believed because he had seen, we can see because we believe.
Just because 