A5- PART W

PART W: Final instructions
PART W: FINAL INSTRUCTIONS
Jesus catches up with Cleopas on the Emmaus Road and later appears on several
occasions to the eleven remaining disciples. They are told to spread his message
and his promise of eternal life throughout the world.
His name was Cleopas, and with a friend
he left Jerusalem dispirited
after the crucifixion of the Lord.
Just so, the man who stayed in step with him.
Perhaps it was towards their homes they trudged:
perhaps they’d been among the seventy
whom Jesus had sent travelling in pairs
because “the harvest was so plentiful
and labourers so few”. At any rate
their discourse, as they trudged along the road
Emmaus-wards, was all about events
to do with the sad end of one they’d loved –
a man on whom they had pinned all their hopes.
Another traveller caught up with them.
‘My friends,’ he said, ‘is something troubling you
that you’re so earnestly engaged in talk?’
The stranger seemed so ill-informed about
the crucifixion and the death of one
whose fame had spread sufficiently for some
to hope that he would set Israel free
and make the land a land of righteousness,
that they felt bound to tell him all they knew.
Particularly they could make no sense
of rumours they had heard that friends of his –
some womenfolk from Galilee – had had
a vision of bright angels who had said
that Jesus was alive and would be seen
on earth by his disciples very soon.
Some half-remembered that he’d prophesied
how he would die and come alive again
just three days after he had been entombed.
This day, they told the stranger, was the third.
But how surprised they were at his response!
How roundly he rebuked them for their doubts!
Hadn’t Moses and the prophets made it clear?
q

A gospel in blank verse with rhymed parables
The road that must be travelled by the Christ
had been foretold. His was the only way –
the way of suffering – by which His goal,
His glorious resurrection – could be reached.
Then, step by step, he demonstrated how
a line of prophets had foretold that this
was how the Holy One of God would be
revealed. So when they reached their journey’s end,
with light already fading, he was urged
to stay the night with them. Reluctantly,
it seemed, he was persuaded and agreed.
Later, relaxed, they sat down to a meal.
The stranger took a loaf and with a prayer
he broke the bread and gave it to them both.
That was the moment when quite suddenly
each of them recognised the man who’d sat
at table with them many times before –
Jesus, of Nazareth, the carpenter,
the crucified, whom Magdalena had
already seen, the Promised One, the Christ!
They stared in open-mouthed astonishment
and were about to speak, when suddenly
and wordlessly, he disappeared… was gone!
Ignoring, then, the lateness of the hour
their tiredness, and danger on the roads
they headed straight back to Jerusalem.
They recollected how impressed they’d been
when he’d explained the scriptures to them both.
Had they not had some premonition then
that they were in the presence of the Lord?
They must report these happenings at once.
The stories would be given credence now.
Were they not witnesses, first hand… and men?
Thus Cleopas and his companion
rejoined the friends of Jesus in the house
where they were sheltering. When evening came
they made sure all the doors were shut and barred.
Their whereabouts might be observed and they
themselves might be arrested and condemned.
w

PART W: Final instructions
The Upper Room was hushed as Cleopas
and his companion recounted what
had happened along the Emmaus Road.
As Cleopas talked on, they realised
quite suddenly that Christ was in the room.
The resurrected Jesus greeted them
as friends. ‘Peace be to all of you,’ he said.
But they were shocked and terrified and thought
what they were seeing was a ghost. ‘Look here!’
he said, ‘What is the matter with you all?
Do ghosts have flesh and bones? Come, touch my hands
and feet.’ But still that could not trust their eyes.
And so he offered them yet further proof.
‘Do you have something I could eat?’ he asked.
So they produced a piece of cold broiled fish
which he picked up and ate for all to see.
Then, as he left, he breathed on each of them.
‘Here is the Holy Spirit’, he explained.
‘Receive it and receive the power to free
a soul from sin… or not, as you see fit.’
The twin named Thomas was the only one
not to have seen the Lord when he appeared
to the disciples in the Upper Room.
He could not be convinced that it was true.
The man they saw had not been crucified,
perhaps. He needed evidence. ‘Unless
I see the marks of the huge nails that pierced
his hands. Unless I can explore the wound
the Roman spear has made, I’ll not believe -
whatever you may say.’
Then later on,
Some eight days afterwards, the Lord appeared
again. Once more the doors were firmly shut
as they were hiding in the Upper Room.
‘Friends, peace with you,’ Jesus said, and called
the sceptic, Thomas to his side. ‘Look here!
Here are the hands they pierced, and here’s the wound.
Explore them! You will find that I am he:
the one they crucified. Will you believe?’
Then, thoroughly convinced, the Twin exclaimed,
‘My Lord and God!’ ‘So you believe because
you’ve seen the evidence. But think how blessed
are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
e

A gospel in blank verse with rhymed parables
As they were sitting eating at their rest
the Lord appeared again to all Eleven.
It was quite clear that he was displeased
particularly since they’d been so slow
in giving credit to the ones who’d seen
him first – the women of the company.
Why did they not believe at once that he
had risen from the dead? They’d been forewarned.
He’d told them many times how it would be!
Yet these were men in whom he had to trust.
Peter announced that he’d fish overnight
and try his luck to make a decent catch.
Then James and John said they would come along
with Thomas, called ‘The Twin’ as extra crew.
Nathaniel and two others stepped aboard.
They fished all night, but, come the break of dawn
they’d not a single fish caught in their net.
Disconsolate, they headed straight for home.
A hundred yards or so from land they saw
a figure whom they did not recognise.
He hailed them from the shore. ‘Hi lads!’ he called.
You didn’t do so well last night, did you?’
‘A lot of trouble! Not a single bite!’
‘I tell you what, ’the stranger called, ‘Throw out
your net upon the starboard side. I’m sure
you’ll find there what you‘re looking for.’
With some reluctance that is what they did.
But by this time hadn’t memories been jogged?
Hadn’t something like this happened once before –
when some of them first met the man who’d changed
their lives forever? How could they forget?
Could this be their leader?… Their prophet-king?
The man whom Roman hands had crucified?
At this point, John, if John it was – perhaps
one of the un-named pair who’d joined the crew –
whispered to Peter ‘Look. It is the Lord’.
The boat was edging closer to the shore
as Peter, who’d been hard at work and stripped,
threw on some clothes and jumped into the sea.
He must be first. Was that not always so?
r

PART W: Final instructions
The stranger who’d first hailed them, called again.
Would they bring with them some of what they’d caught?
Then there he was, tending a charcoal fire:
some fish already cooking: and he’d bread.
Dawn broke as Peter stepped upon dry land.
No second look was needed. A new day
confirmed what John, and he alone, had sensed.
It was indeed the resurrected Christ,
Jesus himself, their master and their friend.
When all had left the boat, Jesus himself
served to each one the breakfast he had cooked.
Yet no-one sought to question him at all.
His presence and demeanour were enough.
Meanwhile someone had totted up the score
to see how many fish they had just caught
with not a hint of damage to the net.
Five score and fifty three there were: but what
significance that has, is hard to guess.
Eleven disciples went to Galilee.
They gathered on a hill-top in a place
where Jesus had directed them to meet.
He came to them, and some knelt at his feet,
though others were unsure how to behave.
He told them they must spread out, far and wide,
to take the promise of eternal life
to all they met, to every clan and tribe,
baptising as they went: and they must use
the names of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Those thus baptised would all be saved, but those
who disbelieved would stay in jeopardy.
This course of action could not start at once.
They must await new powers they’d receive.
These would be given in Jerusalem.
His Father had decreed this would be so.
Then, in the name of Jesus, they would speak
in foreign tongues and heal the sick: then too,
they’d cast out devils, master dangerous snakes,
and have their lives protected from attempts
to poison them. As far as Bethany
he stayed with them: then raising high his hands
proclaiming that he’d always be with them,
t

A gospel in blank verse with rhymed parables
he blessed them and was carried up to Heaven.
There He is now, and with the Father-God
and Holy Spirit forms a Trinity.
It all befell as Jesus said it would
and all eleven did as they’d been told
and set about their mission joyfully.
And on this note the Jesus stories end.
The last word is with John, unhappy that
although he had borne witness to the truth
of what he’d written of the Risen Christ
there was much more that could be said about
his life on earth, if only there were books
enough and men enough to write it down.
y