The God Edition | The road to Emmaus and a call for justice – The Mail & Guardian

At the last supper, Jesus commands his friends to follow him by “continuing in perpetuity the sacred rite, the Eucharist”. (File photo)

If you read this article, it will be at the onset of Easter or Paschal Triduum – a three-day period stretching from Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday) through Good Friday and Holy Saturday, culminating with the evening prayers of Easter Sunday.

The Easter Sunday prayer that concludes the Triduum signifies the conclusion of the Paschal Mystery, celebrating Jesus’ resurrection and the promise of eternal life – well beyond the grave. 

This is a three-day period in the liturgical year. It commemorates the passion, death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, beginning with the Mass on Holy Thursday. 

Worldwide, Christendom marks the Easter Triduum as the centrepiece of Christian faith in which liturgies of the Word and Eucharist are celebrated to mark Christ’s victory over death, reminding us that the death of injustice and inequality in the world, if we all work towards seeing each other as our brother’s or sister’s keeper, is possible.

It is the gospel passage of Luke 24.13-35 that is compelling. It spells out the meaning of the Resurrection story.

It spells out the inauguration of Eucharist in a more relatable style, filled with conviction and power.

The long passage, which I will truncate, is about the journey on the road to Emmaus: “Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each about everything that had happened. 

“As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along them; but they were kept from recognising him.

“He asked them, ‘what are you discussing together as you walk along’.”

“They stood still – their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, ‘Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?’

“What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people…

“The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hope that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel…

“In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found just as the women had said, but him they did not see…

“As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over. So, he went to stay with them.

“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.

“Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappear from their sight…

“They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, ‘It is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon…”

This weekend, the Church re-enacts the Lukean story of the Resurrection. In Luke’s account of the Resurrection, we also see women who had prepared spices apparently to keep his body embalmed, because they loved him to bits, a wonder man who in his life-time had been on the side of justice, keeping alive the hope of those who were oppressed by oppressive principalities.       

Luke’s gospel account of the resurrection, early on the first day of the week, the women who had prepared spices, took them to the tomb, but to their dismay found the tomb empty. 

They were confronted by two men in shiningly white garments, announcing that the grave was not able to contain him, and so he had risen, reminding them of his prophecies about his suffering, death, and resurrection. 

Full of disbelief and joy, they rushed back to the apostles to share the good news, but initially, the apostles dismissed their words as doubtful.

Peter went to the tomb, to confirm what the disciples thought to be a manufactured story with no substance to it.

But let us return to Jesus’ appearances to the disciples, including the Emmaus Road journey where he shared a meal with them, and his appearance to the Eleven in Jerusalem.

Luke contrasts the initial disbelief of the apostles with the growing faith of those who witnessed Jesus’ resurrection appearances. 

We are followers of Jesus because of his priesthood, conferred to his apostles, and then to us, his New Testament friends and modern-day apostles, bonded to him through the apostolic succession, and because of our understanding that the permanence of Jesus’ priesthood, and the eucharistic food he shared with his two friends enroute to Emmaus, is a product of Jesus’s resurrection and immortality.

At the last supper, Jesus commands his friends to follow him by “continuing in perpetuity the sacred rite, the Eucharist”.

At the village, presumably Emmaus, we hear the two men enroute to Emmaus say, “stay with us, for it is nearly evening, the day is almost over”.

And so, the risen Jesus acceded to their request, and not only stayed with them, he went to the table with them, taking bread, giving thanks, breaking it, and sharing it with them.

In one spirit, inspired by the resurrection spirit, the two-some, moved together by the spirit of the resurrection, and great hope, return to Jerusalem with lifted spirit of everlasting life, and hope that death, in the words of Saint Paul, can never separate us from the love of Christ.

In Jerusalem they found the Eleven, “assembled together, and all agreeing, “it is true” he is risen.

Then the two friends, in Jerusalem, related their story with the risen Lord to the other friends, and how “Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread” sharing it with them.

Christians throughout the world – and this goes even for marginal Christians – will in their numbers make a beeline to church services attracted to the Easter message of new life and hope.

They will reconnect with the crucified Lord, and yet risen Christ, made present in the life of believers through the Church and the liturgy of the Eucharist and the gospels, and the priests of the Church, all representing the risen Christ.

Might it be that all of this will give not only content but meaning to the Easter Triduum story, especially as it is captured by the gospel writer of Luke.

We will reflect, starting today on Good Friday through Sunday, Easter Sunday, to think of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, knowing that we are, as the Church, Christ’s body in which the Resurrected life of Christ “remains visibly present” 2 000 years after his crucifixion.

Simply put, and in the words of the Matthean gospel (Matthew 28.20), the leadership and apostolic mission of justice and love and commitment to social justice is the mission of the Church. 

“I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

On Sunday, as we end the Paschal Triduum, the Church prayer is that we may find our path back to the ways of egalitarianism and social justice, remembering our ancestors who include Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, Nelson Mandela, Beyers Naude, Steve Bantu Biko, Chief Albert Luthuli, Chris Hani, Strini Moodley, among the political icons who suffered under apartheid.

Let us during these three days seek inspiration to seek justice for all, irrespective of our political affiliation – or whether we are Christians or not, for Jesus the Christ, also sought justice and equity for his community, and for all humanity.

Jo-Mangaliso Mdhlela is an independent journalist, a former trade unionist, an Anglican priest and a social justice activist.