by CCW | 6 April 2026 16:00
This complements the text which has carried us through Holy Week and Easter: “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed”. Luke’s story of ‘The Road to Emmaus’ is the most comprehensive account of the coming to birth in us of the idea of the Resurrection. It shows us its most essential principle: It is the Risen Christ who teaches most clearly the doctrine of the Resurrection and its meaning for us and in us.
This Gospel story read on Easter Monday presents us with the logic of our learning about the Resurrection. Two disciples are fleeing from Jerusalem in fear and uncertainty following the events of the Passion and the first report of the Resurrection via the witness of the empty tomb and the vision of the Angels’ to the women. Jesus comes alongside Cleopas and the other disciple and enters into their conversation. He is not recognised by them because they think he is dead. But he effectively draws out of them exactly what they think has happened about which they are in perplexity.
It is a perfect scene of teaching in its Socratic sense. They are in fear and utter confusion about what has happened. Only then are we capable of learning because we can no longer be “assured of certain certainties” (T.S. Eliot, The Preludes). Jesus draws out of them an account of what has happened – the crucifixion, the finding of the empty tomb by the women, the angelic vision, all which is conveyed to the disciples but all as uncertain and confusing. Only then Jesus says, “Foolish ones and slow of heart to believe”. Only then does he explain the Scriptures from Moses and all the Prophets “the things concerning himself.” In short, he provides them with a way of understanding his Passion and the culmination of its meaning in his Resurrection. All through the opening of the Scriptures, meaning the Old Testament as Christians would later say.
But that isn’t the whole story. They don’t get it all just yet. Only in the last part of the story does the proverbial penny drop. They reach Emmaus and persuade Jesus to stay with them. “And it came to pass,” Luke tells us, that “he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.” This recalls the Last Supper. Luke simply tells us, “their eyes were opened, and they knew him.” The action crystallizes and confirms the teaching; a perfect witness to the complementarity of Word and Sacrament. And it changes them wonderfully, piercing them with a new understanding. “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” They return to Jerusalem no longer in fear and anxiety and tell the other disciples “how he was known of them in the breaking of the bread.”
The moving principle in the making known of the Resurrection is the Risen Christ by the Word audible and visible, his Word spoken in the witness of the Scriptures and his Word enacted in the Sacrament. Their hearts are moved and they are changed. And so may we.
Fr. David Curry
Easter Monday, 2026
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2026/04/06/sermon-for-easter-monday-4/
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