Savor
Dear Friends,
During the season of Easter, our gospel readings tell the stories of Jesus’ first resurrection appearances, as remembered by his earliest followers. This week, we hear how Jesus appears alongside some lesser-known disciples while they are taking the seven mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus. He just shows up by their side, unrecognized, walks alongside them, and talks.
For years, I wondered why it was that of all the awesome actions and activities that Jesus could have chosen to make himself known to people after his amazing victory over death, he chooses instead to do simple things like take a walk, sit around a dining room table, have breakfast on a beach, stroll in a garden. How anticlimactic. How ordinary. And yet, it occurs to me, “how Jesus.”
Writer Kirk Byron Jones puts it this way. “In all the gospel accounts of Jesus’ time on earth, he was as interested in savoring ordinary life as he was in passing out extraordinary life. He is so interested in learning 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.”
In other words, “Jesus’ actions suggest that the saving of life, at least on this side of the grave, is the savoring of life.”
I like that. “The saving of life is the savoring of life.” This is a much-needed message, at least for me, in a world addicted to a fast-paced, overcommitted life, something that we kind of took a break from during COVID, but are at again in full swing. 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 clearer to me; more and more, I am embracing the deep wisdom of savoring, relishing, and finding delight in the simplest things.
So as this Easter season unfolds, let’s remember that on the day of his resurrection, Jesus chooses to take a slow walk with two disciples and simply enjoy the conversation. He is just as happy, it seems, to be breathing and moving about again. Message giving and miracle making are not at the top of his agenda. The sensational gives way to seeing, smelling, hearing, and touching. Doing gives way to being.
Jesus, risen from the dead and returned to the confines of time, takes his time. He encourages us to do the same. As Kirk Byron Jones concludes, “Truly saved lives are worth savoring—each moment, every single day.”
May this be a season of savoring for us all,
Amelie+
