April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General U. S. Grant. Essentially now the Civil War was over. The North had prevailed.
April 10 President Abraham Lincoln addressed a huge crowd that gathered around the White House. There was great festivity and celebration both the night before and this day. Normalcy was returning! The Union had been saved! The crowd hung on Lincoln’s every word. What a grand and great day!
April 14, Good Friday, Lincoln was met once more with cheers and adulation. The crowd at Ford’s Theater gave him a standing ovation as he entered his private box to watch the play, “American Cousin.” Moments later John Wilkes Booth, an actor who was also in the crowd at the White House to hear Lincoln speak just four days prior, pulled the trigger of his Deringer pistol to assassinate the president.
The war is over! We love you, Mr. President! The President has died! From the pinnacle of emotion to emotion’s depths in such a short time. Life can come after us that way, can’t it? Multiple emotional rugs will get pulled from under us in a lifetime often without warning.
Imagine those who followed Jesus. A triumphal Jerusalem entry with palms and cloaks paving his way. Then it all turned. I wonder if this was the discussion between the two on the road to Emmaus that Easter day. How to come to grips with all that happened in such a short time punctuated with great joy and turning to grief and hopelessness?
Soon the travelers had a companion. Those of us hearing this story know the outcome and we watch like parents seeing their children opening gifts Christmas morning. We know what they will discover in their packages and watch to see their reactions. We know how the Road to Emmaus story turns out, yet we watch in anticipation of the surprised response of the two grief-stricken travelers.
Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Christ is risen! Jesus lives and is present! In the Emmaus story we see how this risen Jesus often appears: without warning as a surprise and frequently in disguise. We have no idea the risen Christ was at work in and through us or in and through some others until the gift of hindsight makes us aware.
Among many things, resurrection means be prepared for the possibility of being surprised. Difficult moments can become crucibles, turning points of transformation and change. We can be made stronger or more aware or empathetic. We can become at least one tiny step closer to the person God created us to be.
With a Jesus who lives still, we can continue our walk on the roads life puts in front of us. We never know what might lurk just around the next turn in the road. Yet despite the often abrupt turnarounds that can strike us, we can continue to follow, serve, forgive, and love even as we also fail to do these things. We can walk in hope with a faith that trusts Jesus to interrupt us from time to time and never leaves us the same.
Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Lookout!