By the Waters of Babylon – Ps. 137:1
Have you ever sat in church on a Sunday morning (remember when we could do that?) and listening to a familiar Bible story being read, for instance, of Jesus healing the leper? You have heard the story many times before and you believe that it is true. But, while you are in worship, your good friend is hanging by a thread in a local hospital dying of cancer. Fear and anxiety fill your heart and, although your mind believes that Jesus had the power to heal your loved one, your heart is blinded by the seeming reality of impending death.
It is the kind of fear and hopelessness that filled the hearts of the two apostles on their way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). They were on their way away from Jerusalem, away from the horrible death of their Lord and friend. Even though Jesus appears on the road with them, and begins walking them, they recount the whole story of the women at the tomb, and how none of them could find the body. Knowing the story as well as they did (they had lived it!), it was not enough for them to recognize their Lord right there with them.
To believe required something more. To believe required something miraculous in its simplicity. As we continue in our Easter pilgrimage and forced exile, we each need to look at the simplicity. We need to look through the window into God’s wonderful works through which the apostles and we finally know that Our Lord is alive in us.
