Burning Hearts: The Road to Emmaus

Scripture: Luke 24:13-35. Lines marked * are quoted from the King James Version (KJV), some in part. All other dialogue is ours, written to dramatise the passage; it is not scripture.

The message in one sentence: Two tired followers walked away from Jerusalem sad, and the risen Jesus came and walked with them anyway; he still opens the scriptures, sits at our table and makes our hearts burn.

Characters

• NARRATOR - Warm and unhurried. Can read from a lectern. Reads every scripture narration.
• CLEOPAS - Talks a lot, explains everything, waves his walking stick. The big comic part.
• MIRIAM - Cleopas's companion: dry, observant, a step ahead of him. Luke doesn't name the second disciple; some readers think it was Cleopas's wife. We call her Miriam. Rename freely.
• STRANGER - The risen Jesus, not yet recognised. Calm, kind, a small smile. No costume change needed.
• DISCIPLE 1 - One of the eleven in Jerusalem. Excited. (Small cast: cut, and give the line to Disciple 2.)
• DISCIPLE 2 - One of the eleven. (Small cast: the Narrator reads this line.)

Props: a walking stick, a small bag, a round loaf of bread, two chairs (and a lamp, if you have one).

(Two chairs stand at the far side of the stage: that is the village of Emmaus. Cleopas and Miriam walk slowly down the aisle, or on the spot. Cleopas carries a walking stick; Miriam carries a small bag.)

NARRATOR: It is the same Sunday the women found the tomb empty. Late in the afternoon, two of Jesus' followers are walking home from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles away. One of them is called Cleopas.

CLEOPAS: Seven miles. Seven miles, Miriam. I've walked this road a hundred times and it has never been this long.

MIRIAM: It's the same road, Cleopas.

CLEOPAS: It feels uphill. Both ways.

MIRIAM: You've said that four times.

CLEOPAS: Because it's still true. (He sighs.) I keep going over it. The women. The tomb. They said it was empty.

MIRIAM: They said angels told them he was alive.

CLEOPAS: And Peter ran all the way there and found... cloths. Folded cloths! What am I supposed to do with folded cloths?

MIRIAM: (quietly) I don't know. I don't know what any of it means.

(The Stranger enters behind them and falls into step beside them. They glance at him but don't really look.)

NARRATOR: And while they talked, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.*

STRANGER: What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?*

(They stop. Cleopas stares at him.)

CLEOPAS: Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?*

STRANGER: What things?*

MIRIAM: (to the audience) Oh no. Now you've done it.

CLEOPAS: What things? WHAT THINGS? Sit down. No, don't sit down, we're walking. Walk with us. This will take a while.