Sunday, April 19, 2026: "Holy Heartburn"
The First United Presbyterian Church
“Holy Heartburn”
Rev. Amy Morgan
April 19, 2026
Luke 24:13-35
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Jesus could have shown up anywhere, anytime, that day of the resurrection. In some of the gospels, he appears to the women at the tomb. In John’s gospel, as we read last week, Jesus shows up on the evening of resurrection day in the midst of the disciples sitting together in a room.
So Luke’s account of Jesus strolling along the road to Emmaus is a stark contrast to the confinement of that upper room. Jesus might have appeared to Cleopas and the other disciple before they left Jerusalem, saving them the 14-mile round-trip journey they took in a single day. He could have appeared to them at the place they were staying in Emmaus, performing the same trick of walking through locked doors as he did for the disciples in Jerusalem.
But instead, he chose to have a walk and talk with disciples who were NOT hiding out in Jerusalem but had instead decided to flee the city entirely. I think we overlook that aspect of the story. These are the disciples who are running away, who have left the rest of the group, who have given up any hope for a future Jesus movement, any hope for the restoration of Israel, as they confess to Jesus. They heard the report of the women about the empty tomb and angelic visit, and they didn’t wait around to see if there was any truth in it. They took off, putting as much distance as they could between themselves and the chaos, danger, confusion, and disappointment they’d experienced in the last few days.
And these are the disciples Jesus pursues. These are the ones he comes to walk alongside. He doesn’t chase them down. He doesn’t try to convince them to turn around. He doesn’t even reveal that he is the risen Christ.
He listens. He chastises them a little. He teaches. He is present to them in such a way that they get holy heartburn.
What Jesus is doing in this story is more than a “surprise! I’m really not dead!” moment. He is holistically healing his friends who are weary in body, troubled in mind, and broken in spirit.
For several decades now, the medical establishment has recognized the healing connections between body, mind, and spirit. Physicians and hospitals have grown more sensitive to the spiritual care of their patients, and there is an acknowledgement that patients desire a fuller understanding of their condition and treatment options instead of just going with whatever the doctor recommends. To make the body well, the mind needs to be enlightened, and the soul needs to be tended.
Churches, however, have not been so attuned to this mind-body-spirit connection. Early Christian ascetics sought distance from bodily needs and desires in deserted places. The influence of Greek Gnosticisms on Christian thought in the 2nd-century created a division between the evil, material world of human bodies and the blessed, spiritual world which one could access through knowledge. While this has been declared a heresy, this dualism has managed to cling to the Christian ethos through the millennia. In more recent decades, the church’s emphasis on physical, especially sexual, purity, and a theology of the afterlife that emphasizes leaving the created world for some better, place has deepened the disconnect between body and spirit. As the church has resisted the authority of scientific and academic claims that seem to threaten biblical authority, we’ve rejected a holistic understanding of human flourishing that recognizes the intimate connections between body, mind, and spirit.
So it’s really critical for us to recognize what Jesus is doing on this walk to Emmaus. First of all, he’s walking. He’s participating in an embodied, physical activity. Seven miles, the distance between Jerusalem and Emmaus, is no marathon, but it’s not a quick jaunt, either. Jesus starts with the body, he starts with physical movement, he walks along with the disciples. They don’t have to stop and sit down and listen. They walk and talk.
There’s a whole “walk and talk” movement in the UK that claims “The benefits of walking and talking together are backed up by a wealth of research and evidence that shows that something so simple and fun can create such a positive impact.” These positive impacts include: reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, improving cognition and mood, reducing stress and anxiety, lowering blood pressure, increased energy levels, help with sleep, and fighting loneliness and isolation, which can be worse for health than smoking.
So the first thing we need to recognize in this scripture is that Jesus cares for the disciples’ bodies, which means he cares for our bodies as well. Jesus is God incarnate, God in a body. There is not clearer declaration that our embodied health and wholeness matter to God.
And if this was all that Jesus did for his disciples, walk with them for 14,000 steps, he’d have done a good thing for them. But he starts with the body and then tends to their minds. They are perplexed and upset and fearful because of everything they don’t know and understand.
The psychological term for fear of the unknown is “xenophobia.” In modern usage, the word has evolved to mean the fear of strangers or foreigners — but its original meaning is much broader. It includes anything or anyone that’s unfamiliar or unknown. Interestingly, when the disciples ask Jesus, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” the word in Greek for “stranger” means something more akin to foreigner or refugee, giving this encounter a meaningful connection to the modern usage of xenophobia as well as the broader understanding of the term.
Researchers define fear of the unknown as the tendency to be afraid of something you have no information about on any level. The recommendations for overcoming this fear include increasing your knowledge about the subject causing your fear, talking to someone you trust, and increasing physical activity. Already, we’re seeing how the mind and body connect feed back into one another.
When Jesus chastises the disciples as “foolish,” the word in Greek literally means “not thinking.” They aren’t making bad choices or being silly. They are just not thinking things all the way through. Jesus spends time on this walk increasing the disciples’ knowledge, not just about the events of the last few days, but he grounds their knowledge all the way back to God’s promises to Moses and the words of Israel’s ancient prophets. He walks with them from what is known to what is new. He allows their minds to understand and reframe their traumatic experiences while walking off the fear and anxiety they are experiencing.
The disciples recognize something good, something healing, is happening by the time they reach Emmaus. They invite this stranger, this foreign entity, to stay with them. Jesus indicates he is planning to move on. He’s not looking for hospitality or needing a place to stay. But the disciples practically force him to stay.
And then Jesus does this thing that is very spiritual and very embodied. He takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. Perhaps in that blessing, they experienced how blessed they had been to walk with Jesus. Perhaps in that breaking, they remembered his words, “this is my body, broken for you.” Perhaps in that breaking, they recognized that broken body on the cross. Perhaps in that breaking, they felt their own broken hearts. Perhaps in that giving, they received nourishment of their bodies, clearness of mind, and wholeness in their spirits.
Something in that small, insignificant act opened their eyes, and they recognized Jesus – their friend, their hope, their resurrected leader. And they realized that while Jesus had been tending to their bodies and minds, they were having a spiritual experience all along.
Jesus can show up anywhere. We don’t have to be ready for a transcendent, spiritual experience to encounter the resurrected Jesus. We can be disappointed and even despairing. We can run away, hit things, go climb a mountain. We don’t believe our way into believing. In her book, This Here Flesh, theologian Cole Arthur Riley asks, “What does it mean that our knowledge of the spiritual is deeply entwined with the sensory? That it is bodily?” We must attune ourselves to the bodily, she says, in order to have the spiritual knowledge we desire. We might walk or run or bike on the second Sunday. We can do embodied things, and Jesus can show up, incognito, to move alongside us with his healing presence.
There are so many things in our lives and in the world that frighten us, that give us xenophobia, because we don’t know enough, or anything, about them. Jesus doesn’t judge our ignorance, he just acknowledges that we’re not taking the time, the effort, the prayer and discernment, the stillness and deep conversations, that will enable us to learn and grow and know more. Human beings have such a diverse variety of learning methods. Some learn by reading books while others do better watching videos. There are some things we can only learn through vulnerable conversations and others that must be learned in quiet contemplation. Jesus comes alongside us to open up a wider worldview, reframe our traumatic experiences, and give us a more hopeful vision of life through all the resources – in print, media, and other humans – that are made available to us.
And perhaps, eventually, after a lot of walking and talking, a lot of moving and listening and learning, our bodies and our minds will tell us there is something good and healing going on. And we’re going to want more of it. We’re going to want Jesus, or whatever this is, to stick around, to stay with us. We can invite Jesus in, be in Communion with him, abide with him a while. We can stop our frantic movement and busy minds. And perhaps in some small gesture, a memory will be triggered, a sensation might be felt. Jesus might be revealed to us, and we might feel in our spirits that holy heartburn that tells us something mystical and wondrous was happening all along, even if we didn’t know what it was. And we won’t be able to stop ourselves from getting up and going out to share this great good news.
To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.
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