April 26, Easter 3A (Luke 24:13–35)
What does Jesus do after the resurrection? Take a walk.
Super Bowl champions are known for following up their victories with a television commercial announcing that their next stop is Disney World. Amazing experience deserves amazing experience. This is strikingly different from what Jesus does after his victory over death: he takes a walk. How anticlimactic. How mundane. And yet how so like Jesus.
In the Gospels, Jesus is as interested in savoring ordinary life as he is in passing out extraordinary life. He is so interested in knowledge that as a boy he lags behind in Jerusalem to learn more, so interested in socializing that he begins his ministry at a wedding feast, so interested in people who are hurting that he becomes a healer. He is so interested in nature that he uses the ordinary lilies of the field to illuminate the extraordinary inside people, so interested in continuing a friendship that he raises Lazarus from the dead, so interested in keeping in touch after he’s gone that he offers a lasting memorial to his body and blood. He is so taken with being alive that he refuses to remain dead.
Jesus’ actions suggest that the saving of life, at least on this side of the grave, is the savoring of life. This is a much-needed message in a world addicted to a fast-paced, overcommitted life. To savor is to taste or smell with pleasure, to relish, to delight in. The word originates in the Latin verb sapere, which means both “to taste” and “to be wise.” The connection between the two has never been more important. The etymology of relishing offers layered blessings as well. Relax, release, and relish all derive from relaxare, “to loosen.” Our hyper-stressed existence cries out for the healing of savoring and relishing.
