The walk to Emmaus

Posted on Apr 24, 2023 by M Emlyn Humphries
Supper at Emmaus (17th century). Oil on canvas, 130 x 164 cm (51.1 x 64.5 in). Grenoble Museum, France

The story is in Luke 24. Three parts of the story stand out to me. In verse 17,

And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.
Luke 24:17 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/luk.24.17.NRSV

“They stood still,..” seems so poignant. It’s a phrase pregnant with sorrow.

And then in verse 19,

Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
Luke 24:18‭-‬19 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/luk.24.18-19.NRSV

“What things?” Is this Jesus being playful? The mood is so sombre, but soon, there will be joy. Jesus wants to hear them, to know their side of the story, maybe.

Finally verse 25,

Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!
Luke 24:25 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/luk.24.25.NRSV

This, for me, is where the passage hits home. How am I hearing this, as a rebuke or an encouragement? Is this angry Jesus, shaming the hapless couple with a rebuke? It doesn’t say rebuke, so could it be friendly Jesus with a big smile on his face, wondering at their demeanour as he himself experiences the joy of resurrection? He really wanted them to see for themselves, to know for themselves… as one of our gathering said: all the authorities had turned on the one they loved, all their religious turned on their precious friend and he had died and not only that his body had gone.

Their hearts warmed at what Jesus showed them, and he walked on, deity in person, but they got him to stay, and the story resolves in bread and wine. A simple meal reveals and replaces all they have lost. The mystery is, it does it again and again; it does it today.

Oh, and what’s that dog doing in the picture?

Image source and permissions https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_Repas_d%27Emma%C3%BCs.jpg#mw-jump-to-license

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Preach it!

Posted on Apr 10, 2023 by M Emlyn Humphries

The simple message preached by the women to the followers, He is risen! Becomes a universal call in the mouth of Peter,

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Acts 10:34‭-‬35 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.10.34-35.NRSV

The whole world is reconciled in the cross. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has brought everyone near: all are acceptable.

You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.
Acts 10:36 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.10.36.NRSV

Peter is taking up his cross. He takes the message to the Roman authorities and boldly denies the Lordship of the pretender, Ceaser.

That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
Acts 10:37‭-‬38 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.10.37-38.NRSV

Peter takes up his cross and exposes the authority of Herod, who had John slaughtered and handed Jesus over to the capricious, hate-fuelled bully Pilot, the Roman authority, as having no power, faced with the power of Jesus.

We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
Acts 10:39‭-‬41 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.10.39-41.NRSV

The simple fisherman, Peter, takes up his cross and speaks truth to the gatekeepers of the faith. Those chosen as priests to the nations failed their calling and used violence to protect their power.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Acts 10:42‭-‬43 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.10.42-43.NRSV

Peter takes up his cross to declare the universal, ever-present, eternal, everflowing mystery of the reconciling forgiveness of God which is, and always has been, now and forever, found in Jesus.

The Crucifixion of Saint Peter (1601). Oil on canvas, 230 x 175 cm (90.5 x 68.8 in). Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crucifixion_of_Saint_Peter-Caravaggio_(c.1600).jpg#mw-jump-to-license

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The stone the builders rejected

Posted on Apr 2, 2023 by M Emlyn Humphries
Spring flowers RHS Hyde Hall

I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvellous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!
Psalms 118:21‭-‬25 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/psa.118.21-25.NRSV

So often, we feel we are the stone the builders rejected. But in God, there is a promise. The rejected stone is the chief cornerstone.

For those who seek to build the church, in Christ, the Samaritan woman and the demoniac become the messengers, and the women bring the good news of resurrection. Paul commends the slave. We need to look to those who we exclude in expectation that they will be chief in our institutions.

Wherever we stand in relation to the edifice of the church, being rejected is an exaulted position. Jesus promises,

Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Matthew 20:15‭-‬16 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/mat.20.15-16.NRSV

Matthew 27: 11-54 (2023)

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Integrity

Posted on Mar 5, 2023 by M Emlyn Humphries

Romans 4:1‭-‬5‭, ‬13‭-‬17 NRSV
What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness…

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation. For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.


https://bible.com/bible/2016/rom.4.1-17.NRSV

I was challenged recently to read Romans through the eyes of a Gentile woman in Rome, newly become a Christian and trying to serve her family under the scrutiny of women brought up under the law. Her heart would be to uphold the integrity of her faith, but in the preparation of foods and maintaining of the law, she would we be faced with a huge task.

… Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.
Acts 18:2 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.18.2.NRSV

And so could non Jewish Christian households have functioned without the influence of the law and maybe grown separate from the law? Was the return of the Jewish households a locus of division with easy answers and power forcing the argument?

Read Romans 16, and note the prominence of Phoebe and also that Prisca and Aquila were back in Rome. Also, note how many of the people Paul greets personally are women. What if this whole letter was written with women in mind? My friend Amy Farrer thinks so. What would this piece of the letter then mean, and for who’s benefit might it be if that were so?

For his detractors, Paul writes,

For such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the simple-minded.
Romans 16:18 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/rom.16.18.NRSV

Note the use of the word, appetites, or in some translations, belly. Yes, there is some profound theology in Romans, but maybe the integrity of the gentile households is what it’s about, and Paul has chosen this word carefully. I am sure Amy will let us know what she finds.

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Lamb of God

Posted on Jan 8, 2023 by M Emlyn Humphries

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
Isaiah 42:1‭-‬9 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/isa.42.1-9.NRSV

The servant here can be seen as the nation Israel. As Christians, we believe the promises to Israel are fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus himself claims the fulfilment of this scripture in himself, opening the eyes of the blind and setting the prisoner free.

In saying, He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice, the prophet sets out the way of being for the nation. The power in Israel is found elsewhere; this is a new way.

Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.
Acts 10:34‭-‬36 NRSV

https://bible.com/bible/2016/act.10.34-36.NRSV

Jesus’s is a way of peace, a way that loves the neighbour and loves the enemy.

Matthew 3: 13-17 (2023)

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