THE ROAD TO EMMAUS - TAKING CARE OF THE STRANGER

By Jim Thompson

I recently viewed an icon by Sister Marie-Paul Farran O.S.B. It captured the Emmaus story from the Gospel of Luke. The three sitting around a table sharing hospitality and food reminded me of Abraham’s story told in the Hebrew Bible (Gen 18). This story in Genesis is portrayed by the Russian artist, Andrei Rublev, in his icon with which most of us are familiar.

In this icon we see Abraham giving hospitality and sharing his food with three strangers. Abraham’s generosity is rewarded when his wife in her old age gives birth to a son, Isaac. Abraham is the father of the three great world religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three religions pray “Our Father Abraham.” Hospitality and sharing of food, especially with the ‘stranger’, is central to all three.

In the Lukan story two disciples, maybe Cleopas and his wife Mary, are walking to their home in Emmaus after the death of Jesus. They are joined by a stranger. Reaching their home the “stranger continues walking”. But the couple “strongly urged him to stay with them since it is late in the evening”. In their home they share their food with him and they finally recognize the Risen Christ during the meal in “the breaking of bread”. Their hospitality and

generosity to a stranger is rewarded.

Sharing food, celebrating with a meal, and taking care of the stranger and outcast, are all at the core of the whole of Luke’s gospel. The Lukan Jesus at the beginning of his public

ministry identifies his vocation with that of the prophet Isaiah. Unfolding the scroll of the prophet in his own town of Nazareth, Jesus reads the verses found in Chapter 61: “The spirit

of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted'.

His mission is to set the oppressed free and to take care of the outcasts. After he rolls up the scroll he gives his friends and neighbours two examples of how the stranger and outsider were

taken care of by their own prophets – those who speak for God. One of them, Elijah, brings back to life the son of a widow at a town in Sidonia. Elijah was a stranger to this foreign woman but she had given him water and some bread. Her generosity is rewarded. The other example that He gives the people of his own town of Nazareth concerns their prophet, Elisha. Elisha cures Naaman of leprosy. Naaman was the army commander of their enemy, the King

of Aram. In these examples the strangers and outcasts help and are helped. The response of his own ‘parishioners’ to his reading from Scripture and the two examples that he gives was

one of rage. They take him to the top of a cliff and attempt to throw him off.

Luke later in his Acts of the Apostles tells how even Peter needed a “change of direction”, a conversion, when he encountered and ate with Cornelius, the Roman Centurion (Acts Chapter

10). His eyes were opened to see that “God has no favourites”. All creation even his enemies are the Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. The Lukan Jesus breaks the Jewish law and heals the broken on the Sabbath. “Do to others what you would want them to do for you” is his summation of all 613 Jewish laws. He cures

the servant of the Roman Centurion, the enemy of the Jewish people. He invites a tax collector, Levi, to become his friend and one of his apostles. Levi’s response is to have a great feast for all including many “sinners”. The Pharisees complain to his disciples: “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”.

“Do to others what you would want them to do for you” is both Luke and Matthew’s summary of all 613 Jewish laws.

Matthew reminds us: “I was hungry and you gave

me to eat”. When Jesus is accused in Luke Chapter 15 of breaking the law by associating and eating with sinners, He tells us the beautiful story of the Prodigal Son. The story ends with a great meal

with the son “who was lost”. In Chapter 16 we read the story of the rich man and Lazarus who craved the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. But the rich man failed to share.

The story of Zacchaeus is told in Chapter 19. Zacchaeus in Jericho comes down from the tree and holds a great meal for all the people and the objection by some is that he had invited all

the sinners. And finally a meal is shared on the Jewish Feast of Unleavened Bread. Jesus celebrates the Last Supper with his friends and shares bread and wine. Lifting the wine he says: “Take this and share it among you”, and breaking the bread says: “Do this in memory of me”. He then asks the question: “Who is the greatest, the one at table or the one who serves?”

Before his Ascension, the last request of the Risen Christ is for something to eat: “Have you anything to eat?” His disciples give him some fish. Whenever we share with those in need He will be there with us and we will experience his presence and recognize him in the breaking and sharing of the bread. Every time we share

bread with someone and show them hospitality, and treat them the way we want them to treat us, we experience the presence of the Risen Christ.

The icon of Abraham and the icon of the disciples on the road to Emmaus give us much to contemplate as our world gets more and more complex. They bring us back to the basis of all

religions and their rituals. It is to share our bread and our hospitality especially with those who need it most: “As long as you did it to one in need you did it to me.” In this way of behaving and acting we encounter the Risen Christ.