A man (Cleopas or his companion) tries to tell you his story with a straight face, but with a glint in his eye that betrays a hidden secret which, occasionally, he can’t help slip out:

Do you want a laugh? I mean a real good laugh?

It would be at my expense, mind, and I am almost embarrassed to tell you  – I mean, how could I have been so daft – so slow to get it – so slow to see?

A right ass I proved to be!  It is better than a pantomime, this!  “He’s behind you”

“O no he isn’t!”

“O yes he is!”

Hah! What a dimwit I was!

But I have got to tell you the story, and I know you are going to laugh.  Such a blooming good story it is … a crazy story … and good news to stir your heart!

Now yesterday… honestly … I thought I would never laugh again.  I was so shocked … so disillusioned …

I was dead … Everything in me finished … burnt out … completely numbed by the horror of the events we had seen in Jerusalem.  Like soldiers retreating in defeat we plodded on towards home, my friend and I.  Mostly in silence – a dull, terrible silence, while inside our minds replayed the bloody scenes once again –  sometimes letting out a deep sigh … or a tirade of anger and disbelief before slipping back into the noiseless plod once again.  At the most our conversation was short lived.  “I just can’t believe it!” one of us would say, and the other would reply “ I know!”  Then “How could it happen to him?  How could it?”  And we had no answer to give – so what more could we say?

And who would have thought it would all end up like that?

Not me, I’ll tell you, that’s for sure!

Have you ever felt your heart burn deep inside you? No, not with indigestion, with excitement…energy…with life?    I have.  A good number of times too.  Jesus did that to me.  When I heard him speak about his coming kingdom, my heart warmed.  When I saw the crowds flocking to him, it throbbed with excitement.  And my mind blew and the adrenalin rushed whenever I saw his power demonstrated in countless acts of healing love! Yes, my heart soared!  And I knew, I just knew that he was the one and this was the time. With my own eyes I had seen the King, the Messiah.

And so everything in me began to live, charged with an energy I had never known before.  It’s like Hope began to flow through me like a spring of living water, enlivening every part of me.  I began to dream dreams.  I felt grasped by a great vision and purpose. And I began to believe at last – No, not just began to believe, I believed absolutely.  I left everything to follow him. I was willing to give up everything to fight for him.  This was the time and this was the place and HE was the one who would redeem Israel.  I was utterly convinced of it.  And my heart glowed, my spirit soared – and I felt for the first time ever that I was truly, completely alive!

And its odd that I felt something of that feeling again yesterday when ‘the stranger’ began to speak.  I can’t tell you exactly when he joined us, I just have some vague recollection of him drawing along side and asking if he could walk with us.  I’m not sure that we even answered, but obviously I didn’t lift my head to look at him … just kept plodding on, face to the ground, looking at my feet.

(If only I had, maybe I wouldn’t have ended up looking so foolish?  Who knows!)

Now you can probably see where this story is going now – but I’ll tell you my side of it any way, and perhaps than you will understand – your laughter tamed with at least a little compassion!

Any way, as I said, it was odd that I began to get that same feeling when the stranger began to speak. Odd for two reasons:  firstly, because of the way he spoke to us – calling us numskulls, mocking out dim-wittedness. If I had not been so tired and drained out, I tell you, I would have given him one!  I mean it!  I have only ever let one man speak to me like that… and that brings me to the second reason: He was dead.  His life brutally and decisively cut short. And as they took him and crucified him I reeled in horror. This could not be!  Not him!  Not by them!  He was supposed to be the one overthrowing the impostors, driving them out, leading the uprising and bringing us freedom.  But instead they simply squashed him like a fly.

With not so much as a squeak from him.  And the whole city watched – most of them who had acclaimed him now shouting for his blood, can you believe it? While the rest of us stood by in numb disbelief.

This could not be happening, but there was not a soul in the city who didn’t know that it truly did.

Except this man, it would seem.  “How can he be so ignorant?” I wondered.  “Where can he have been?  What hole had he got his head stuck in, or what adventure or tragedy could have so preoccupied his mind?”

To tell you the truth, I was rather disinclined to tell him anything, but when my friend began to speak, I couldn’t help but join in.  And I think I was glad that I did.  It was good to have a listening ear – and a complete stranger who I had never met before and who I probably would never meet again – (!!)  – made for a pretty safe option. We could tell him everything, without him assuming anything or interrupting.  And it helped to get it off our chest.  Helped, but hurt.  We poured out our grief.  We let out our disappointment … our broken dreams and shattered hope.  Yes we had hoped that he was the one who would redeem Israel.  But now he was dead.  It had all come to nothing.  We spoke of a past tense Saviour and a present day hurt.

It was then that he started talking back to us.  he who knew nothing suddenly became the one who knew everything!   We smarted at that, but had little energy to object.  And after the initial hesitation I began to realise that what he was saying made sense.  How I could even begin to take in anything like he was saying, I do not know, but he spoke with such authority, and soon my mind snapped back to attention, and my heart began to warm.

Starting from the prophets he began to explain everything that the scriptures said about Jesus, and how they must come true.  How the suffering – how the dying – was all part of the plan.  In fact, it was the plan. This was the way God would redeem his people – not so much from suffering, but through his suffering.  I had never heard anything like it before, but I was enthralled!  And the dull hopeless drudge became a walk of determination, a real journey of discovery.

And as he explained things to us (this is the funny bit!)  I actually remember thinking that the way he taught and the way he made me feel reminded me of Jesus!  And still I did not recognise him!  Was I so involved in focusing on his words, eyes fixed in mindless concentration on the road, that I never looked up and saw his face?!!  

Hah!

But before we knew it we were almost home, and it was getting towards evening, so we asked “the stranger” to stay the night.  It was the right thing to do in the circumstances. But, what is more, even in our exhaustion, we were beginning to find this mans company a great comfort!

Foot sore and weary we sat at table together – and he took the bread and began to break it … And then I saw it: a flash back moment and we were in the upper room… Those same hands breaking bread for us… and the same voice saying, “ this is my body, broken for you…do this and remember me!”

I cannot believe it… but honestly it was only then that I realised … only then that I saw.  My eyes flashed form his hands to his face, and I haven’t got a clue what expression he read there … what look of shock, or wonder, or sheepish acknowledgement of my own stupidity … but I saw him smile a knowing smile and nod.  And then his grin began to widen and he began to laugh and laugh and laugh.  We all laughed and laughed and laughed.  Rip-roaring laughter!  Side-splitting laughter! Tear-jerking laughter! 

How long it went on for , I just don’t know.  But we just collapsed in fits on the table.  And when we pulled ourselves together and our vision cleared – he was gone!

Not that we were worried – our joy was so complete – and a sense of urgency came with it too.  We had to get back to Jerusalem.  We had to tell the others.  We had to tell the world!

So quick as a flash we headed back to Jerusalem, not in some pathetic plod this time, but running as fast as we could so that not just our hearts, but our lungs too, burnt with every gasping breath! 

Not that we hardly noticed.

Now everything had turned around.

A short while earlier we had walked that way in dejection, now we ran back with good news to tell!

When we left we had thought it was all over: Jesus dead, our dreams dying with him.  But not any more!

We had hoped he would redeem Israel, and that hope we had lost; yet now that hope was, rekindled, re-interpreted, reborn!

Who would have imagined it?

Who could believe?

But we had seen the Lord

And our lives were turned around!

And yes, you can laugh at us!

How can we have been so dim-witted?

How could we not have seen?

Yes, go on and laugh … and we will laugh with you!

Any way, is your story really so different to ours?

Have you never been so foolish as to not recognise him walking beside you?  So blind that that you could not see? So tired of your journey?  So weighed down in your grief? Disappointed, disillusioned, and feeling that he was dead to you… But he was with you all the time!

Yes, let’s laugh!  Laugh together at our folly!

But let us laugh all the more at is love!

We have seen the Lord!

He is alive!

Death and despair are defeated!

Hope is reborn!

He lives and so we live!

Yes, laugh with me.

Laugh with the joy of living!

Laugh with the joy of his life!

Nick Stanyon 07/04/05