Sleepwalking

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Luke 24:13-35

I used to sleepwalk when I was younger. When I was small it would happen only once or twice a year. But, during my teenage years, I would sleepwalk on a regular basis. Like weekly. Or even nightly. It was disorienting to wake up in some random part of the house with no memory of getting there. If I was lucky, my parents would hear me stumbling around in the dark and lead me back to bed. The next morning they would tell me what happened.

As far as I know, its been many years since I last did any real sleepwalking. Of course, when our triplets were infants my wife and I did a lot of walking in our sleep, but that was something different. So, why did it happen so much when I was a teenager? The simple answer is stress. The deeper answer is that I was miserable. I was stressed because I hated everything about my life and couldn’t see any hope that it would ever change.

The interesting thing about sleepwalking is that your eyes are open the entire time. To other people, you appear to be awake. But you’re not, even though you are able to navigate around obstacles (expect that time I fell over the dog at 2 a.m.).

How many of us go through life appearing to be awake, but are really sleepwalking? How many of us just go through the motions of living? How many of us are bored, unchallenged, or uninspired? How many of us feel just plain hopeless?

We would probably be surprised by the answer. Perhaps that’s why this story from Luke’s gospel resonates with so many people.

To set the scene: it is Easter evening and two of Jesus’ disciples are returning to their home in Emmaus, a village near Jerusalem. These are not two of the 12 apostles, but followers of Jesus nonetheless. Perhaps they had come to Jerusalem with the thousands of others to celebrate the Passover. In any event, they are disturbed by all that has occurred.

Their emotions have to be all over the place. There’s the grief they feel at Jesus’ death. The hopelessness that must have accompanied his burial. And now there are strange reports that make them question everything.

As they walk along in deep discussion, they are joined by a third traveler – the risen Jesus. We might expect that they would know that it’s him. But, as Luke writes, “their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” Jesus wants to know what they’ve been talking about and they are surprised that he hasn’t heard about the crucifixion of Jesus, the one they “hoped [would] redeem Israel.”

And then they get to the strange news –

“some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.”

And so Jesus, using scripture, lays it all out for them and finally, when they are sharing a meal, their eyes are opened and they see him for who he really is. You could say that these two disciples, because of their grief, etc. were sleepwalking. Sometimes its easier just to close your eyes rather than confront unpleasant or disturbing events. But, Jesus wouldn’t leave them sleeping. He woke them up!

For those of us who sleepwalk through life, there is something better. Right now, God is calling us to open our eyes and wake up. There is joy and hopefulness all around us; we just have to open our eyes to see. Even in the midst of the Covid-19 outbreak, there are blessings to be discovered if we are fully awake.

What we’re going through right now seems a lot like Good Friday. But, Good Friday didn’t have the last word. As Easter dawned death and hopelessness were defeated. And from that time we have been living in the glorious light of Jesus’ resurrection.

So stop sleeping – it is time to wake up to all the wondrous things God is doing!