Sermon for St Edward’s, 19 April 2026. Readings: Luke 24:13-35, Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Last week we were in the Peak District for a post-Easter break. The weather was glorious, and we did a lot of hiking. One of our walks took us from Snake Pass over Shelf Moor, up to Higher Shelf Stones, then down into the valley towards Glossop and back along the clough. If you’ve ever been, you’ll know it’s a beautiful route, especially in the sunshine.
From the top, the views are 360 degrees: across the peaks towards Sheffield in the east and Manchester in the west. In fact, the outskirts of Manchester are only about seven miles away. So I was struck by the line at the start of our Gospel reading: that these followers of Jesus were walking a seven-mile route from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus.
Their journey may not have been all that different from ours, heading from the heights of Jerusalem down through rocky terrain, valleys, farmland, and villages. On that kind of ground, you’re looking at at least a two-and-a-half to three-hour walk. Longer, if you’re anything like me, stopping for photos, examining an interesting bit of moss, or insect or pausing for a tea break.
And they weren’t in hiking boots, but sandals.
The point is this: in three hours, you can do a lot of talking with your companions. On a good walk, you cover all sorts of ground, not just physically, but in conversation too. You get to know people, you share stories, you wrestle with things together.
The story of the road to Emmaus is well known. We know that Jesus appears to his followers. But I want us to slow down and imagine it a little more deeply.
These followers were probably quite fit, walking was the normal mode of travel, seven miles wouldn’t normally have been a challenge. But think about what they had just been through. In the space of a few days, they had seen their beloved teacher arrested and brutally murdered. The emotional weight of that must have been huge.
And then, that very morning, this is the 3rd day, some of the women came back with extraordinary news: Jesus is alive.
And what was the response? Well we’re told they did not believe them. Their words were dismissed as ‘an idle tale’… or, as the NIV says, ‘nonsense.’
*sigh*
The women weren’t believed… how shocking (in sarcasm)
We don’t know everything else that was said, but we do know that Peter ran to the tomb and found it empty.
And we read that two of that group set out for Emmaus. One is named: Cleopas. But the other? We’re not told. And I wonder how often we simply assume it was another man. I did, for years. But just a few verses earlier, we’re told who the women were: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others with them.
Tradition suggests that this Mary, the mother of James, was the wife of Cleopas. So who is Cleopas most likely to be walking home with? Perhaps… his wife.
So let’s reimagine the scene.
Mary has been to the tomb. She has seen the angels. She has heard the message: he is risen. She has come back and told the others, and not been believed. Now she and Cleopas are walking home.
Can you imagine the conversation? My guess is it was frosty.
“Cleopas, I know what I saw.”
“But Mary… are you sure? You’re grieving. Maybe it was the light, or the guards…”
“No. Cleopas. We all saw them. Angels. And they reminded us of what Jesus said, that he would rise on the third day. How would they know that?”
I imagine they went back and forth. Questions, doubts, frustration. Grief and hope all tangled together.
At some point, perhaps, the conversation ran dry. A stony silence falling between them. I’d love to have been a fly on the wall, or on the road…
And then someone joined them on the road.
This would have been a busy route out of Jerusalem. Travellers passing by, greetings exchanged. But this man lingered. He asked them, ‘why are you downcast’ (understatement I’d say) “What are you discussing?”
Their response was almost incredulous: “Are you the only one who doesn’t know what’s happened?” have you been under a rock this weekend?
And then Cleopas explained about Jesus, about his death. And then, perhaps with a sideways glance at Mary: “Some of our women claim he is alive… but…”
It’s all too much. Too confusing.
And then this stranger began to speak. And remember they had a long walk, it was 7 miles, perhaps Jesus spoke to them for 2 or 3 hours, perhaps they stopped for a water and a snack break.
And he drew them back to Scripture, to the story they already know, to the promises they had perhaps forgotten. As they walk, he opened it up to them. For miles, he walked with them. Talked with them. Taught them.
Something was happening, but they didn’t quite recognise it yet. or him.
They must have had many questions and they were drawn to him: because they urged him, stay, come back to ours for some food, perhaps Jesus has even brought their argument to a close!
And then there is the moment, the big reveal. He broke bread and their eyes were opened, of course it’s true, of course he’s alive, he’s right in front of them, and they ask each other:
‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?’
It’s a line that echoes down through history, famously in John Wesley’s (founder of the Methodist Church) description of his heart being ‘strangely warmed’ when filled with the HS.
They think back, ask each other, in that way husbands and wives clock things for each other, Wasn’t something stirring in us? Didn’t we sense it, even before we understood? How did we not see him earlier?
and the joy, I can imagine Mary biting her tongue not to say ‘I told you so’!
and then, despite a long day’s walk they ran back to Jerusalem, filled afresh with energy and joy and excitement, desperate to tell the others.
Now Cleopas gets it – it’s true, we’ve seen him too, he broke bread with us… Jesus is alive.
Now yes—there’s a bit of imagination in that retelling. But what I love about this passage is how Jesus is revealed in so many different ways.
He is revealed through the angels at the tomb. in their appearance, in their declaring he is risen, in their truth telling of the Son of Man would be raised…
In the testimony of the women.
In the honest conversation, the arguing, even, of Cleopas and Mary.
In the quiet work of the Spirit, warming their hearts.
In the Scriptures, opened and explained.
In the breaking of bread.
And in the telling of the story to others.
And the same is true for us.
How is Jesus revealed to us I wonder? And what I mean by that is, how do we gain a greater understanding of who Jesus is? or what he means to us? What have been the occasions or times in your life when you have felt a new understanding of Christ? or felt that sense of going deeper in your faith? It’s a phrase I use regularly and I simply mean gaining greater understanding. In my hiking terminology, it’s a bit like coming over the brow of a hill and seeing the next piece of your route, or a new view.
Our faith shouldn’t be static and unchanging, it should be growing and evolving, helping us to connect with God in every day. In the challenges we face, in the world around us.
If Cleopas and Mary had not seen Jesus that day I wonder what their faith would have been like? I wonder if this would have been a long standing argument that ran on and on? Him not quite believing her. Her saying I told you, he’s alive.
Just like on that day there are many ways Jesus is revealed to us, through reading the Bible, through prayer, through answers to prayer, through dreams and visions, personal encounters.
I wonder if anyone would like to share an experience of how Jesus has been revealed to them…? shifting testimony slot today…
Sharing testimony is helpful – it helps us to understand God deeper but also perhaps how Jesus is at work in our own lives…
Asking questions is good, it helps us to go deeper into what we believe, enriches our faith. Home groups are great because they give us the opportunity to ask questions, to discuss together, to try and understand more…
As I said on Tuesday we are in the Easter season until Pentecost, it is a season that is all about focussing on the resurrection of Christ.
Over the coming weeks, in fact to just beyond Pentecost, different people will be leading our services while I’m on study leave. And I want to invite you to see that not as a gap, but as an opportunity.
An opportunity for Jesus to be revealed once again to you,
to see each preacher as a companion on the, Royal George, Rd
to see each priest as breaking the bread afresh before you.
To listen to the words shared, the way the story of Christ is reframed again for you
to seek to see yourselves afresh in the story of God.
And to ask:
Are our hearts burning within us?
Is God at work among us, even now?
Because the risen Jesus is still walking with us.
in every day
if only we have eyes to see him revealed.
Amen.
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