Catching A Glimpse Among Us
Luke 24:13-35
“…how He had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
It happened on the final day, the last place, the climatic event of our journey to the Holy Land. Our group of 31 pilgrims had gotten close on the ten day journey together from…
…the 10 hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Tel Aviv;
…the Sunday morning boat ride on the Sea of Galilee;
…the dip in the Jordan River and then the Dead Sea;
…the windswept climb to the top of Masada;
…the laying of hands on the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem;
…the walking of the Palm Sunday route to Way of the cross;
and now to sharing the bread and the cup in the Garden of the Empty Tomb.
I don’t know from where this stranger came; but suddenly he was walking along side us into the Garden. I noticed him more sitting among us when we were all gazing at what many believe to be Golgotha… the “Place of the Skull” where Jesus had been crucified (indeed it looked like a skull in the rock of the cliff).
Someone leaned over to me as I was staring at the stranger and whispered, “I hear his name is William.”
“Where’s he from?” I asked.
Someone on the other side of me, replied, “ Taiwan, I think.”
Thank goodness, we sat in a spot of the Garden that overlooked not only the cliff but also below us, the Jerusalem version of the Greyhound bus station. So our whispering could not be heard above the roar of buses and city traffic.
“O that’s nice,” I said; meanwhile thinking just the opposite; for this last part of the journey was suppose to be just our group. Maybe the stranger was just hanging around to hear the guide talk about Golgotha but not to go to the empty tomb with us. Surely he would not stay for going to the Empty Tomb and then having the Lord’s Supper. But guess who was first in line with our group to see the Empty Tomb— William the stranger.
“Can you believe it?” I hissed to my husband. “William the stranger is still with us standing here as if he’s one of us!”
Our talk fell silent as we stand in line to go into the Empty Tomb. I held my breath for this moment suspended in all of time…for this space like no other on earth for all pilgrims of the Christian faith to see. I realized I was hoping to see something…or somebody like one of the Easter angels to be perched on the stone rolled away or in the tomb itself. But what did I see—nothing! No angels, no one all dressed in white, and certainly not Jesus Himself! All I saw was William the stranger from Taiwan who does not belong with us.
Nothing on this whole journey had been exactly what I planned or expected… not even the spot we were given in the Garden for our last act together before turning to go home. I guessed it would have been un-Christ like to NOT invite William the stranger to join us for the Lord’s Supper in the Garden of The Empty Tomb.
We huddled close together for warmth as the February sun was dropping, and to hear above the surrounding city noises. A lone Mocking bird kept singing. My husband and I prepared the elements that had been set on a garden table. As the juice was poured, I quickly counted the cups to see if there were enough. We had one more than the number of our group…one for William the stranger to join us at the table.
Silently I took a deep breath as if to try to make this place feel as holy as it should for us all. And with the familiar words from scripture, our last act began in the garden. With the cold of the coming night and the culmination of unmet expectations from journey, I was chilled to the bone and soul.
It was my turn to speak, saying the words of scripture from many times over as I held the communion bread up:
“On the night He was betrayed, our Lord Jesus Christ
took the bread; and after blessing it , He broke it in two
saying, ‘This is my body broken for you.”’
Just as the bread was being broken, I looked up and whom did my eyes see but William the stranger sitting there in the midst of our group with his hands clasped and head bowed. Suddenly my heart burned within me and the eyes of my heart were opened like those two disciples at the table with the stranger who suddenly was a stranger no more. Truly the risen Lord IS HERE among us—including William, a stranger no more.
O Lord, thank You my catching a glimpse of You among us! That really is what the journey is all about! Amen.
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