These Are My JOTtings, Part #2

The Road to Emmaus

They started walking down the road
without much hope in sight.
Their saving Lord, and closest Friend
had died, now all was night.

A Stranger came and matched their gait.
So pleasant, seemed they odd.
He asked of life, their sad, low mood,
"unknowing" the fate of their God.

"You're sad on this most pleasant day,"
He spoke in Question's tone.
"You seem as though you've lost a Friend.
Your words in softness moan."

"So, where have you been these past few days?
Do you not know the news?
Did you leave shipping 'round the world,
that the Teacher missed your views?"

"I'd hoped He'd be the new day's dawn,
but now the day is dawned and new.
It's been three days since He was killed.
Our hope is gone since His life's through."

"And now we feel another loss
for women of our group have said,
'We've seen the grave. It's empty, clean,'
and now our loss is weighed with dread."

"O fools, and slow of heart to grasp
all that the prophets spoke so true.
Ought not the Christ to suffer tests,
and enter Glory as His due?"

He spoke to them of Scriptures all
the things, concerning what He did.
The day was long, but still, He walked,
until, "Please, stay the night," they bid.

Then, sitting down to nightly meat,
He took the bread and blest it the same
as when the seder He did lead,
and gave Himself to take our blame.

And when He break and gave to them,
their eyes were opened, and they knew
Messiah stood as risen now,
yet vanished 'fore they aught could do.

O, serious fools, we ought to have known
this One, Who warmed and touched our hearts.
The Scriptures point us to His Throne.
What wisdom through His mouth imparts.

Then waiting not, they braved the dark,
returning to Jerusalem.
They found the eleven huddled, stark.
They told the truth. He'd been with them.

They said, "The Lord is risen, indeed,
and He appeared to Simon's eyes.
He walked along, and kept our speed.
When breaking bread, we saw our prize.

And as they spoke dear Jesus stood
in the midst of them to lift each heart.
He said to them in His tender mood,
"Peace be to you. Let Hope now start."

Affrighted, that He was a ghost,
they shook and trembled in His wake.
"Why are you fearful, all this host?
Your thoughts, that arise, are quite a mistake."

"Behold, my fleshly hands and feet.
Come. Touch and see. I'm flesh and bones.
A spirit cannot do this feat
to be of flesh, and walk through stones."

While showing them it all was true,
He asked for meat, that He could eat.
Consuming food could none dead do.
He ate fish, and honeycomb, a treat.

So many things, He taught them more.
To many more, He showed, alive.
The future's full of His great store,
and with Him, we shall ever thrive.

When walks we take, alert we must
seek hope beyond the daily test.
The Lord will help our wavering trust
by being with us ever blest.

by Jay O’Toole
on April 18th, 2022