The story of "Wrong Way Riegels" is a familiar one, but it bears repeating.
On New Year’s Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. In that game a young man named Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for UCLA. Picking up the loose ball, he lost his direction and ran sixty-five yards toward the wrong goal line. One of his teammates, Benny Lom, ran him down and tackled him just before he reached the end zone. The Bruins were forced to punt. Tech blocked the kick and scored a safety, demoralizing the UCLA team.
The strange play came in the first half. At halftime the UCLA players filed off the field and into the dressing room. They sat around on benches and the floor. But Riegels put a blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a corner, and put his face in his hands.
A football coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during halftime. That day Coach Price was quiet. No doubt he was trying to decide what to do with Riegels.
When the timekeeper came in and announced that there were three minutes before playing time, Coach Price looked at the team and said, "Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second." The players got up and started out, all but Riegels. He didn’t budge. The coach looked back and called to him. Riegels didn’t move. Coach Price went over to where Riegels sat and said, "Roy, didn’t you hear me? The same team that played the first half will start the second."
Roy Riegels looked up, his cheeks wet with tears. "Coach," he said, "I can’t do it. I’ve ruined you. I’ve ruined the university’s reputation. I’ve ruined myself. I can’t face that crowd out there."
Coach Price reached out, put his hands on Riegels'' shoulder, and said, "Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over." (1)
For me, no appearance of Christ after the resurrection is more vivid or beautiful than the episode that takes place on the Road to Emmaus. S. MacLean Gilmore describes it "as a story of singular grace and charm."
As our Gospel Lesson begins we see that Cleopas and another unnamed disciple are leaving behind the bitter memories of Jerusalem and are walking to the Village of Emmaus. As Frederick Buechner notes, they are headed in the wrong direction. In Buechner’s words, "Emmaus was not so much a place--as a state of mind. They could have gone any place--just so long as it was far enough removed from the despair and disillusionment that paralyzed them from making a positive move."
As these two disciples walk, they begin to review the series of events that had taken place on that day we now call Good Friday. At Golgotha their leader and friend had been arrested, tried, and crucified like a common criminal upon a cross. That event shadowed them everywhere they went. They could not get it out of their minds. They were caught in the paralyzing emotions of despair, defeat and death.
The two disciples wanted answers to the deep-seated questions they had about the failure of the movement they had given so much to. As they walk, their talking is woven with moments of awkward silences.
Somewhere along the way a stranger joins their company and politely listens to their conversation. The stranger could see that they are downcast. He asks them why they are so sad. They are somewhat annoyed by the interuption, but they re-tell the tragic turn of events that had happened to their leader--whom they believed to be the Messiah.
Although they do not at first recognize the stranger, there is something about his manner that gives them renewed hope and an inner peace.
Toward evening they near the village of Emmaus and urge the stranger to stay with them. It is in a simple outdoor setting. It is not until after the stranger has taken the bread and blessed it, that they finally recognize him as the Lord Jesus Christ. His presence with them transforms their mood of failure and defeat into renewed hope and a new direction for life.
The two disciples, like Roy Riegels, were traveling in the wrong direction. They had "fumbled" and were running away from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They thought the game of life was over. Imagine their surprise when Jesus tells them that the same team of disciples who had fled from the cross were going to start the second half of the game. The same disciples who had failed and fumbled to this point were going to be the instruments that God had chosen to usher in the kingdom that Christ’s death on the cross had guaranteed. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus took the time to take troubled hearts and transform them into trusting hearts once again.
The Reverend Barbara Brokhoff tells the story of an individual who lived on the Island of Guam. Occasionally this man would call the home office of the company that he worked for in Maryland. There is a significant time difference between the Island of Guam and the State of Maryland. It could be 4:00 p.m. on Thursday in Maryland, but it would be 7:00 a.m. Friday morning in Guam. One day when a series of events happened that made the day one of great aggravation and exasperation for someone in the Maryland office--this man’s phone call came from Guam. The person in the Maryland office said, "I am sure glad you called. It lets me know there will be a tomorrow." When Jesus broke bread with the disciples He was telling them there will be a tomorrow.
"On March 20, 1983, John Sculley, President of Pepsi Cola and one of America’s fastest rising corporate stars, stepped off the elevator and into the penthouse suite of the San Remo apartment building in New York. He was there to give Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, an answer to his offer. For months, Jobs and his staff, badly in need of a brilliant leader to manage their rapid growth, had been trying to lure Sculley away from Pepsi. Sculley had discouraged their efforts. He had no interest in leaving Pepsi and he knew almost nothing about computers. Besides, he was slotted for the top spot at Pepsi and his salary, stock options and perks were beyond anything Jobs could hope to match. Still, Jobs persisted. Their conversation unfolded like this, according to Sculley:
"We were on the balcony’s west side, facing the Hudson River and he finally asked me directly: 'Are you going to come to Apple?''
" 'Steve, I really love what you’re doing. I’m excited by it. How could anyone not be captivated? But it doesn’t make sense. I''d love to be an advisor to you, to help you in any way. Anytime you’re in New York, I''d love to spend time with you. But I don’t think I can come to Apple.'' Steve’s head dropped as he stared at the pavement. After a weighty, uncomfortable pause, he issued a challenge that would haunt me for days: 'Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugar water or do you want a chance to change the world?''" (2)
When the two disciples recognized it was the Lord Jesus who shared dinner with them even though they had failed and forsaken him, "they never felt more loved." Their hearts burned with His love. Jesus declared to them that the game of life was only half over. They were to turn around and get back to Jerusalem and await further instructions and a new assignment. The schedule would go on as planned. Jesus was giving them a chance to change the world. That brings us to a question that we should often ask ourselves as we travel on our own Emmaus road. Are we affecting the world--or is the world infecting us?
Jesus knew there would be no instant disciples or microwave saints--but that we would need His presence forever in our lives. We would need him to guide every step of the journey we take, knowing that he has walked every step before us. Christ came not to remove all suffering from our journey but to let us know there will be a tomorrow.
He has walked the dusty road to Emmaus, to Bethlehem, to Egypt, to Nazareth, to Galilee, to every village, town, city and finally to Jerusalem. But more--he walked to a Hill outside the City. From there he was carried to a borrowed tomb, but then the walk continued again--and it has never stopped since. Knowing that God not only walks the road with us--but actively seeks us, is the greatest joy in life.
Every time Jesus appeared after Easter he initially went unrecognized by those who loved Him most. They were bemoaning the fact that the world was going to hell. All seemed lost. They were searching for something dramatic, earth-shattering to piece together their broken dreams, but he appeared in an ordinary way. It is the spirit of love that transforms the ordinary into the extra-ordinary. No matter how ordinary life is, it becomes "extra-ordinary" when the risen Christ is revealed to us.
Dr. Tony Campolo, in his film series, You Can Make a Difference, tells the story of a Christian colleague with a PhD. in English Literature who quit his job and became a mailman because Christ opened up a new tomorrow in his life. Tony went to the man’s apartment to try to persuade him to change his mind. Here is how Tony describes that encounter:
Tony says, "I couldn’t change his mind, so I came back with the old Protestant work ethic thing. I said, ''Charlie, if you’re gonna be a mailman, be the best mailman you can be.''
"He looked at me with a silly grin and said, 'I’m a lousy mailman.''
"I asked, 'What do you mean, you’re a lousy mailman?''
"He answered, 'Everybody else gets the mail delivered by one o''clock; I never get back until about five thirty or six.''
"'What takes so long?'' I wanted to know.
"He said, 'I visit! That’s why it takes so long. You wouldn’t believe how many people on my route never got visited until I became the mailman. But I’ve got this problem, I can’t sleep at night.''
"I asked, 'Why can’t you sleep?''
"He said, 'Who can sleep after drinking twenty cups of coffee?''
"I began to get the image of this mailman on the job. He was no ordinary mailman. I could picture him going from door to door and at each home giving more than the mail. I could see him visiting solitary widows, counseling troubled teenagers, joking with lonely old men. I could see him delivering the mail in a way that was extra-ordinary for the people on his route. He’s the only mailman I know that on his birthday the people on his route get together, hire out a gym, and throw a party for him. They love him because he’s a mailman who expresses the love of Jesus everywhere he goes. In his own subtle way, my friend Charles is changing his world, changing the lives of people, touching them where they are, making a difference in their lives. It may not sound like much, but that man who is delivering mail, like Jesus would deliver mail, is an agent of God who is changing the world." (3)
Christ is Alive. The Easter Story continues. Let it continue in you.
Half-time is now over. The same team that started the first half will start the second half. Thanks be to God.
Amen and amen.
1. Leadership, Spring 1992, "To Illustrate," page 49.
2. Youthworker, Spring 1993.
3. Tony Campolo, You Can Make a Difference, Word, Inc., 1984, pp 54-55.