As many of you who read my blog posts know, I do not take the Bible literally. I don't know for sure what is historically accurate, what parts are accurately quoted or indeed what is actually poetic licence. I suspect that a lot more of the Bible than we would like to think is actually not very similar to what actually happened. However, that doesn't mean that I do not believe that there is truth to be found in the pages of that book. In fact, especially in the life and teachings of Jesus, I find a message of truth about God which speaks directly into my life and my ongoing relationship with God. That truth, for me, may be different from the truth that you or anyone else may find in it's pages but it is nevertheless truth as I understand it. So when I speak of the Bible and what it says to me, I am not telling you what to think or feel, but instead I am inviting you to hear what it is that I feel God is saying to me through the words on the page of a book written so many years ago.
So today I have been looking again at the stories following Jesus' resurrection: How he met with so many people who at first had no idea who he was until he did or said something. I love how Jesus, unrecognised in the garden by Mary herself, a woman who had been by his side, followed him, listening to him. After his death she washed his broken body, anointed him with oil and wrapped him lovingly to be put in the tomb. Anyone who has been through grief knows how this feels; doing everything through the haze of tears that seemingly fall uninvited. And still in this state she just sees a man in the garden. Who knows whether she even raised her head, or whether she simply looked at him but could not tell who he was? Either way she did not recognise him. She pleads with him, and yet one word stops her in her tracks, "Mary". For me this is one of the most tender, loving and intimate moments of the Jesus narratives. I can feel the joy that wells up within her and overflows as she realises that the man standing before her is indeed the man she loves so deeply.
And these wonderful moments of recognition happen over and over again throughout the stories in the Gospels. Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room; again they do not know him, do not recognise him. I don't blame Thomas for not believing them when they told him what he missed: the disciples evidently had not believed the witnesses at the tomb either until they saw it with their own eyes. There are other accounts of people 'seeing' the Risen Lord outside of the Gospels but I am only looking at some of the Gospel accounts.
However, there is one more main encounter that I really like and that is the meeting on the road to Emmaus. Two men are walking down the road, only one is actually named, the other is assumed to be a part of his household. Suddenly a stranger joins them from out of nowhere and starts to walk with them. They walk and talk together on the road and when the men arrive at their house they invite the stranger in to eat with them. Just like Mary in the garden, it isn't until Jesus does something that they recognise that they realise who it was that was with them, and then the moment is brief and Jesus is gone. Now to the point of this blog....
I do not know for sure what really happened at the time that Jesus lived. I do not know whether or not everything that is accounted in the Gospels is 100% accurate or not. What I do know is that, in the midst of these stories I find a truth about God. One that has born out again and again throughout my long and varied faith journey. And that is this: I do not know how and when I will see God; I do not know what God looks like but I know that God is revealed to me in the most unexpected of places and ways, and almost never where I expect God to show up. Like Mary who was not expecting to see Jesus in the garden until she heard her name, like Thomas who doubted until he touched the wounds, like the people on the Emmaus road who did not expect the encounter they had: God shows up for me in the most unexpected of places and in the most unusual ways. But more and more I am finding that in order to really encounter God I must stop looking where I think God should be and instead allow God to surprise me again. I must stop restricting God and thinking, "Oh God could not possibly be found there, or in that person" and instead simply be open to The Divine, allowing God to once again jump into my life and show up where I least expect it. Remain open to God and hopefully we too will encounter the God of the Emmaus Road.
Stay Blessed
Rev R xx
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