There is a true story about a man in the United States, who bought an old, ugly painting at a local flea market. He paid just $5 for it, because he liked the frame, not the painting itself. He placed it on a bookshelf, where it sat untouched for years.
One day, he decided to take the frame apart to reuse it for a family photo. As he dismantled it, a piece of paper fell out from behind the canvas. It wasn’t just any paper; it was one of the 24 surviving original copies of the Declaration of Independence.
It later sold for over $2 million. For years, he had been holding a masterpiece in his hands without recognising its true value. He merely liked the frame that contained it. He valued the frame over the masterpiece.
This story serves as a powerful metaphor for our relationship with Christ. It reminds us that we often follow Christ for external blessings or emotional comforts rather than seeking and treasuring Christ Himself.
This is exactly what we see on the road to Emmaus. Two disciples were walking alongside their Lord Christ, yet they were completely blind to His presence.
They were so focused on the ‘frame’ – the outward circumstances of their grief and their failed expectations – that they failed to recognise the Masterpiece of the whole universe walking right beside them.
We often fall into the same trap, valuing Christ only for the external blessings, comfort, or happiness He might provide. In doing so, we risk missing the true treasure: ‘the profound gift of His company and his presence.
Most of us think we find God when we do more ‘spiritual things’ like praying, singing hymns, or sitting in these pews, which is true. We’re here to worship God and feel His presence collectively.
But notice what the two disciples were doing in the Gospel story today. Notice the direction they were walking. They were walking toward Emmaus. They were walking away from their community of believers in Jerusalem.
Jesus doesn’t wait for them to turn around and head back to Jerusalem before He meets them. Christ joins them even when they are going the “wrong direction.”
Christ is not found only in places of worship. Christ is not present only during our spiritual activities. Whether you are frustrated at your workbench, stuck in heavy traffic, or simply exhausted by the routine of a long day, He is there.
Christ does not wait for us only at the finish line of our successes or achievements; He is everywhere, and He is always with us.
And look at how Christ awakened them. The scripture says that ‘beginning with the books of Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said about Himself in all the Scriptures.
Jesus didn’t use a miracle to get their attention. He didn’t glow or float above the ground. Instead, He did something very “ordinary”. He explained the Bible and took the old stories they had heard a hundred times and showed them how every one of those stories pointed to Himself.
The thing is, we often wait for a “burning bush” or a clear loud sign from God. But Jesus usually speaks through the “manual”—the Scriptures. He takes the familiar words of the Bible and changes how we see it instead of changing our circumstances. And that’s when our hearts truly come alive.
The most famous part of this story is the “Breaking of the Bread.” In the church, we often focus on this as “Holy Communion”—and it is indeed a sacred meal for us. But for the two disciples in the passage today, it started as nothing more than a simple dinner.
Pay close attention to how the scripture describes that moment: “Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them. In that moment, their eyes were opened.”
When we break bread with our loved ones, when we share a meal with a neighbour, or offer a simple cup of coffee to a stranger, our eyes are open. When we engage in the most ordinary, repetitive acts of kindness and service for others, we become spiritual beings.
Friends, we don’t need a grand cathedral to see Christ. We need a humble kitchen table. Christ wants to be recognised in the act of sharing. He is found in the shared meal, in the helping hand extended to a needy friend. He is found when we take on the suffering of others as our own and take an action on it.
If someone asks for your shirt, hand over your coat as well; it is in that moment that Christ is found right beside you. When someone asks you to go one mile, go with them two miles… because that extra mile is exactly where Christ reveals Himself in your life.
The truth is, if we cannot see His presence in the faces of the people we encounter in our ordinary lives, we will have a very difficult time finding Him in our places of worship.
The final lines of the reading tell us that the disciples “got up at once and went back to Jerusalem, and they all said, “The Lord is risen indeed.” They didn’t keep the miracle to themselves; they rushed back to the others to share and confirm the news of Jesus’ resurrection.
On our faith journey in this world, there is no such thing as a “private jet” to heaven. As Jesus’ followers, we are not meant to fly solo. We are not meant to live like castaways on a deserted island.
I recently watched a video by an Iranian Christian woman currently studying in Korea. On her YouTube channel, she shares powerful stories about the secret networks of Christians living in Iranian war now. She explained that these believers gather almost every Sunday in hidden basements to worship together in secret.
When she shares these stories with people in Korea, they often ask her, “Why take the risk of gathering? Why not just worship alone at home? Wouldn’t that be much safer?” Her reply is profound: “Yes, it is far more dangerous when we gather in Iran. But we need each other to follow Christ together.”
Remember that when Jesus called His disciples, He didn’t just call them to follow Him individually. He called them into a community.
We are a community of Jesus. We are a people who live, die, and rise again together because He first did it for us.
Being part of a faith community, we don’t carry the weight of our doubts or the joy of our discoveries alone. When we are discouraged, the community holds onto hope for us. When we see Christ in our ordinary lives, the community gives us a place to celebrate and share it.
Just as the two disciples rushed back to Jerusalem to confirm what they had seen, we need each other to remind us that the Lord is risen indeed.
We need our music team, our technical team, and those who serve on the volunteer rosters. Together, they provide us with a worship space, where we join together to confirm and share the stories of Jesus’ good news for the world.
We need each other to encourage us to share and proclaim the news to the world and our neighbours. Friends in Christ, Jesus is real. The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed.” Amen.
