We continue this spiritual journey…and what we ascertain in the conversation between the two disciples in Luke 24 is a sense of intense grief and loss. Sometimes the narrative can be lost on our focus on the positive aspects that happened to them, the Scriptures being opened to them, the revelation of the Risen Lord, yet we forget what they experienced before Jesus came near. What we can guarantee that as Jesus approaches, even though He approaches He is there to lift them up to places they had only dreamed. This means that even we will experience grief in its various forms, we can guarantee Jesus will come near to us, and even as our grief has obscured our hearts, we may not recognise Him in the midst of the sombre grey skies of our grief.
Today grief came upon me like the “thief in the night” and all over again I was back in Mansfield this last January. Grief acts this way, when we see other bereavements, it sets us off again. We lived through 40 days of suspense, and only now I am entering into the first depths of grief, losing mum so suddenly. Remembering the fleeting words of the consultant that “Joyce was no longer with us,” and the floor seemed to disappear. Many battles and many journeys too. What I know from those times was the sustaining presence of Jesus.
The most deepest encounters with Jesus come from the deepest depths we go to in life.
When I spoke in the Church at Greasley in Nottinghamshire, I sensed the Lord wanted me to address the pain of sudden loss. It seems we do a great disservice to those in grief by offering glib Bible results of faith or hope, when the person’s heart, or family’s heart is taken up with the pain. We must acknowledge the pain and attempt to share with those in grief their pain.
When Jesus approached the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, the road peppered with bewilderment and dismay, and grief and all sorts of emotions, He asks them about what they were speaking and feeling, the sharing being what Jesus needed to interact with them. We must understand the process that Jesus takes them through, this loss, this sadness, this grief has a purpose, and it is not by chance, it is not happening to them, but happening for them. In His exposé of Scripture in the way He did, it is obvious by the end of their encounter they acknowledge the warm glow experienced in them inwardly. They knew His words were given in great power. His explanation was that they were not alone in their grief, but that God was precisely with them. That what had happened was not by accident or by error. The moments where their world seemed to disappear had been foreseen by men over a millennia. They were not living an error, but they were to await for answers that would come.
This neatly brings me to a remembrance when I lost my faither in 1990, I did not understand it, why did God allow him to die. The answer took 9 months to come. The fact is that dad worked extensively with asbestos, the fibres are now known to be cancerous. So his sickness was not a chance thing, there was a clear cause. Yet why was it so sudden? 9 months when I was then living in Brixham in Devon, the answer came in the form of a dream . I saw dad in a hospice, we all went to visit him. He was in a wheelchair with a oxygen tank.
As we approached he asked “Why did you put me here?” with tears in his eyes. It broke me in the dream, and when I woke up God said “Is this what you would have wanted in prolonging his life?” I was settled in my own mind then that I had received an answer that showed God’s own compassion for him and for us.
Jesus knew how to interact with His disciples in their grief, in first reaching out into every emotion and every question. Should we as ministers not seek out that supernatural ability that He has? And walking with this “stranger” we are walking not only into answers but glory itself.
God does not give sudden answers, and maybe for all those hours before arriving in Emmaus Jesus caused them to journey in unknown Scriptures answered all the questions in their hearts. So much so they felt a fire, a warmth, a comfort.
If you are in loss in any way expect Jesus to come in ways you do not know or perceive. He will cause you to journey this awesome journey which will lift us from loss to perceive our Lord, and from despondency to destiny.
Maranatha!
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