I suggest that you read both Scripture readings in their entirety.
Job 23:3 If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling!
Luke 24: 13 – 34 The Walk To Emmaus. I am reading from The New Living Translation.
Finally! Someone has gained the courage to verbalize the question that has taken many sincere seekers hostage for generations. How can I find the God of whom some so eloquently speak? A haunting silence pervades the soul’s abode of many who search one chamber after another, seeking some encounter with the eternal! But the silence falls like a ghostly mantle, and sorrowfully the verdict repeats itself: No, He is Not here”!
Be comforted! The query and the search are much older than you are and even predates Job, who expresses the burning thirst of the text with its unspoken intent, ” If only I knew where to find Him,” then might I come to believe.
The British Poet Walter de la Mere creates a haunting image in his poem ” The Listeners.” A lone horseman arrives at a cottage deep in the forest. He dismounts and immediately knocks, with some urgency, upon the moonlit door. Once, twice, and three times he knocks, each knock more insistent than the one before. He calls out into the echoing silence: “Is there anybody there?” But the only sound in the deathly silence is that of his chomping horse. The horseman turns to leave, and looking one last time towards the eerie dwelling; he calls out, “Tell them I came, I kept my word, but no one answered.” (2)
We never learn what urgent mission brings the horseman hither, whether to announce some fortune or offer reparation for some misdeed long passed.
There are many whose search to find God is starkly reminiscent of this. “I came, I knocked, but no one answered!” Silently retreating into the silence, they wait for another occasion to present itself. However, the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to the Emmaus Road disciples provides another poignant fact for consideration.
Cleopas and his wife are returning home to Emmaus, having the images of the horrific crucifixion of Jesus seared into their minds forever. Those two know well the scriptures that inform them of the very things they now experience. It is Sunday morning, and Jerusalem is awakening to the rumours they also hear, that the tomb in the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea is empty, that Jesus has conquered death! They are equally aware of the prophetic pronouncement that on the third day, their Lord and friend would ‘rise from the dead.’ Still, it is with leaden steps and sombre minds that they turn aside from the sound of ” God’s Knocking” upon their grief-filled hearts. Here is the essential fact concerning this occasion: “God comes, He knocks; He keeps His Word, but no one answers.”
One may well rejoice in the full knowledge of Scriptures and be able to recite by rote, high-sounding Creeds and Dogma, and still be deaf to the sound of ” God’s Knocking.”
It is always ” The Presence” that results in certainty. Job, the author of our text, moves from musing about where one might find God to finally admitting, ” I had only heard about You (God) before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” ( Job 42: 5-6) Likewise, It is “The Presence of Jesus” in the home of the Emmaus Road disciples that changes the lives of the two disciples forever. Their feet become equipped with wings as they rush to tell the waiting world,” The Lord Is Risen, He Is Risen Indeed!”
I have always experienced some reluctance to engage in recalling personal experiences to illustrate this truth. I fear that the I’s may come too close together and distract from the ONE who has made all things possible for me. But then, I have nothing else that is authentically mine to offer other than what God has given to me. So, I apologize to any who conclude that what I now relate is altogether too personal.
My dad was lost at sea when I was just ten days old. At the age of thirty-five, my mom became the sole caregiver for her family of seven children. I well remember a day while I was still learning to read. I was thumbing my way through an old Bible, which was a family heirloom. The pages fell open to a marked place. Carefully I opened a neatly folded piece of paper, and I read:
” From The British Foreign Secretary Of War.
To: Mrs. Sarah J. Curtis.
“This document is to confirm that your late husband George A. Curtis, died when his ship, traveling in a convoy in the North Atlantic, came under attack. There are no known survivors”…
I could read no further, but my young eyes fell upon the words where the Bible lay open:
In hushed silence, I begin to read:
“You are My Son; Today I have become your Father!”
PSALM 2: 7.
I can never describe the intense ecstasy of that moment. I could not understand what it all meant, of course, but I knew as I read that somehow this was the most significant happening in my life.
A lifetime is almost complete now, And I will never forget the day He came; He knocked, and when I answered, He was there, and He comes still and will continue to do so to the end of my journey.
A Prayer to Follow This Meditation
Bless, O Lord, all those who earnestly want to find You but can’t seem to do so.
– They feel a stirring within themselves when You paint the evening sky with crimson glory;
– They feel a throbbing in their veins that matches the heaving of the tide against the headlands;
– They whisper Your Name as they feel the tender embrace of the beloved who unfolds the mysteries of human love;
– When they hold in their arms that little bit of two selves and You, they feel they will now be Yours forever!
But, Father, there doesn’t seem to be any ‘Holding Ground’ to secure their anchors and thereby to prevent them from drifting.
Show to all such, O Father; there is but one thing needful. We must all learn to willingly accept the Captain’s offer to fashion our destiny while knowing; He will provide the stronghold for all our noble promises and best intentions. To answer when He calls, that alone is our task! Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, this prayer we make. Amen
EDITORIAL NOTES
1. The quotations from the Holy Bible are from the New Living Translation Unless otherwise noted in the text.
2. The Listeners. Walter de la Mare. https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-listeners
3. The photo ” Cast Your Nets” Is a reference to the words of Jesus to His disappointed friends who ‘sought but could not find.’ John 21:6.
This Photo is of Leading Tickles, Newfoundland.