“But we were hoping that he was the one about to redeem Israel.”
the two disciples on the road to Emmaus
[Luke 24:21]
In Luke 24 the story of the unrecognized Resurrection Jesus walking with Cleopas and his companion home from Jerusalem is a story about discipleship and growing awareness. The Passover Lamb of God, having completed the sacrifice of his life, swallowing up death into unbounded Resurrection Life, now works patiently with these two slow-of-heart disciples revealing to them bit by bit what they can take in until they are ready for a direct, unveiled revelation of the Risen Lord.
The two disciples had one idea in mind of what they expected from the Messiah, an idea of great appeal given their cultural and historical situation. It was the Palm Sunday hope, “Hosanna to the son of David…” (Matthew 21:9) “…Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest.” (Mark 11:10) “Blessed is the King coming in the Name of the Lord.” (Luke 19:38) This is the political messiah, the one who would come in the tradition of the great warrior king who was successful in battle against the giant, a messiah who could stand up to giant Rome, a man of blood, as David was a man of blood, and the blood that would redeem Israel this time was anticipated to be the blood of the Romans. Instead Yeshua came as the Paschal Lamb, and it would be his own blood, like the blood on the doorposts in Egypt, that would deliver not only the Children of Israel from bondage, but would deliver all living beings from death itself into abundant, unbounded Life.
At first the eyes of the two disciples were held, were restrained, in recognizing the Risen Lord. In other Resurrection stories the first encounter with the Resurrection Jesus astounded and frightened the disciples, shocking them out of their usual perception about how reality works, blowing their minds. Here with his identity cloaked Yeshua leads these two into a master teaching session, preparing the soil, and creating readiness for the moment when the cloak over their eyes would be removed. When that moment came in the breaking of the bread, everything came together for them. They could see clearly, even though Jesus had physically disappeared from their sight. “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?” They could recognize the warming of their hearts, the sign of inner responsiveness to the Way, Truth and Life being presented to them in this stranger’s teaching of the scriptures.
The meditational use of the Prayer of the Lamb provides another similar setting for this kind of discipleship in which all those of us who are slow-of-heart can come to growing awareness and experience our hearts burning within us. We sit in silence with this simple prayer of intercession, and through the space of practice we watch an evolving process of inner repentance and responsive gratitude as we come to greater and greater awareness of the abundance of Mercy flowing to our increasingly acute awareness of need. Some will report along the way that they experience a similar warming of the heart, the sensation of energy in the area of the heart, the tug of devotional longing drawing us into deeper commitment to following our Lord.
This is evidence of fruit in the practice, and this is something that comes from a growing consistency and persistence in practice, from faithful engagement with the Prayer in daily sitting meditations and throughout the day and night. And as we can see from the paradigm in Luke 24, this fruit of growing devotion and growing awareness is not what we produce through our own efforts, but is given to us by the Resurrection Spirit of Yeshua. How do I know that? Because the more I sit with the Prayer of the Lamb and do nothing, attempt nothing, during that time of silence, the more I give up trying to make the meditation time go a particular, desired way, then the greater the ease of practice and the smoother the time goes. I get up rested, grateful for the quiet, having accomplished nothing on the long list of tasks yet to do, but without my effort something has happened to me, that has changed significantly how I then set about doing all those tasks. Priorities shifted, worries and concerns withered up, and hot button issues dissipated. It has been the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus at work cleansing, healing, and transforming, all as a part of intervention for the world.
The blessings of the Paschal Lamb be with each of you in your practice of the Prayer of the Lamb.
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