EASTER MESSAGE
March 27, 2005
by
Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan
The Lutheran Bishop in Jerusalem
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On the Road to Resurrection: From Suffering to Hope
Luke 24:13-35
By Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan

Salaam and grace to you from the Holy City of Jerusalem!

The road to Emmaus can be a very long journey, but it is a journey worth taking. In fact, geographically, it is not that far from Jerusalem to Emmaus. For the disciples that day, however, it must have seemed endless. They had just witnessed the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus, their beloved master, and they must have been devastated. Then they met this stranger on the road who didn't even know about these events that had changed their lives. As they walked, the disciples talked with the stranger.

First, they voiced their deep feelings of disappointment, frustration and resignation. They had built their future on Jesus and had "hoped he was the One to redeem Israel." Now their hope was shattered and the future looked bleak. They must have been wondering "was everything we believed in wrong?" "Can the world really kill the truth that easily?"

The road to Emmaus is not just a road in the past. It is the path Palestinian Christians walk every day. Despite a few important changes and some welcome progress, our road continues to be blocked with checkpoints and obstacles and filled with daily frustration.

How can you watch an 8-meter-high wall (almost 30 ft) slowly cut off your access and block your path and not have a profound sense of despair? Every day the Separation Wall being built around Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jerusalem and the whole West Bank continues its relentless, devouring crawl through the land and the lives of our people. On Palm Sunday, about 200 people walked through Bethlehem to the main checkpoint to Jerusalem, protesting for those who were not granted permits to pray in Jerusalem. Even on Palm Sunday, as protestors filed past them, the giant diggers were hard at work, steadily scooping up earth to finish the last sliver of wall that will seal off the old main road for good.

What do I tell our members who are already living behind the wall, now cut off from their land, families, jobs and church? What do I tell families who are losing their Jerusalem residency, health insurance and services? We are asked many questions on the road: Where is the God of justice? Why doesn't God listen to Palestinian Christians? We are supposed to be in a peace process. Will it ever really end, the checkpoints and the soldiers and watching the settlements grow on confiscated land while we Palestinians have a critical housing shortage? Will Paul's promise in Ephesians ever come to pass?

"Jesus is our peace: in His flesh, He has made both groups into One
and has broken the dividing wall, that is the hostility between us!" (Eph 2:14).

As we look at the larger road and see what is happening in the Middle East and a host of other places, it also raises questions. Will this proliferation of militarization around the world really lead to freedom and democracy? Can these guns, gates and guards really bring justice, peace and understanding among the nations?

The world lives in that no-man's-land between truth and illusion, just as the disciples did that day. They must have been wondering what to believe. "Some women in our group astounded us saying they did not find his body but saw a vision of angels saying He was alive, but they did not see Him." Was he alive? Was it just an illusion?
This feeling is also haunting us at the moment in the Middle East. Of course, we are encouraged that there is a breakthrough between the Israelis and Palestinians and that the Arab World is ready for a comprehensive just peace in the whole Middle East. Yet we, like the disciples, don't know yet whether this will turn out to be truth or illusion. We hope, as many politicians say, that this time the world is serious and that the whole atmosphere may change for the better. However, the facts on the ground here don't indicate that at all.

It is especially distressing to watch the increasing emigration of brothers and sisters from Palestine and now Iraq. The uncertainty in Lebanon could also cause Christians to leave from the instability. I have never been as afraid for the future of Arab Christianity as I am now. Many Arab Christian and Muslim intellectuals and leaders are also worried that the continued witness of Arab Christianity in the Middle East will disappear.

So where is the turning point on this long, hard Emmaus road? What happened that day to transform the two disciples from despair to hope again? Obviously, it was the presence of the Risen One, resurrecting truth and hope and faith, but how did it happen with the two disciples?

Jesus challenged them with a new way of thinking. He reminded them that they had been told that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer in order to enter into His glory. This Messiah was not one to watch from a distance, but one who entered into their lives and their journeys as a companion, a friend, a teacher, a wounded healer. He was one to walk the road with them, even the road of sorrow and pain.

It was in the breaking of the bread that they finally recognized him. In a simple, human act like sharing bread with one another, which Jesus transformed into a sacred, healing meal. It was in the walking and talking along the road and in the breaking of bread that healing and transformation took place.

We don't always realize when transformation happens. It happens as we recognize that the others on the road are equal children of God, deserving of the same rights, dignity and respect as we are. It happens as we are willing to open our hearts and our minds to learn about others' roads, to walk with them on their paths in their shoes. It happens when we are as willing to understand as to be understood.

Living the Emmaus walk, we accompany one another on the road, sharing and listening, questioning and challenging. Our hearts burn within us as we realize that when we begin to treat one another as equal children of God, to be equally cherished and valued, we will recognize the Risen Lord healing and transforming in the breaking of the bread.

The road to a just peace will happen when we recognize one another on the same road and see one another as equals, liberated from our roles of the powerful and the victim. What will it take for Palestinians to accompany Israelis on the road to security and peace and out of their tomb of fear and distrust? It will need to take seriously the constant fear the Israelis live under. What will it take for Israelis to accompany Palestinians on the road to freedom and justice and out of their tomb of captivity and powerlessness? It will need to start with basic recognition and acknowledgment of the Palestinian experience of injustice and loss and their everyday reality of oppression. We will gradually learn that we are both buried in the same tomb of darkness and fear together, and the only way to peace and justice is together.

Now is the time. Now is the kairos moment of opportunity. We pray for and urge all world religions to join together to work for common values and confront every kind of extremism, hate and arrogance. It is time that religions stop being part of the problem and begin to become the transforming, life-giving, healing power that will be a driving force for justice, peace, tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, we give thanks for your accompaniment, support, prayer and presence so far on the road, yet the journey is now at a critical point. We need you. Don't leave us alone, for our mission is your mission. Stay with us on this road, so that Palestinian Christians in years to come will remain a living witness of love, hope and forgiveness so needed in this land. Stay with us on this road, that we may continue to proclaim from this Land of the Resurrection:

Christ is Risen! Al Masih qam! He is Risen Indeed! He Haqan qam!