It should be no surprise that, given the current political climate, clips and full episodes of The West Wing are showing up online. Aaron Sorkin’s popular award-winning tv show aired from 1999-2006, highlighting the inner workings of the administration of a fictional two term US president. It’s considered one of the greatest tv shows of all time and it earned bipartisan respect in its day. Not any more, I don’t suppose. The president was a Democrat.
That’s not what I’m interested in here, though. It’s the writing. The West Wing is famous for its “walk and talk” story telling. A dialogue intensive show, Sorkin would have two characters be in conversation walking down a hallway. One might leave and the other is joined by another character as they continue walking and talking. Sometimes multiple characters were involved. It advanced the plot and provided some movement when there otherwise would have been just dialogue. It’s a technique picked up by many since then and even hilariously parodied by others. It always made me wonder, though, just how long are the hallways in the White House? Probably wasn’t nine and a half kilometres.
According to Luke’s gospel, that’s how far it was from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Sixty stadia or about nine and a half kilometres. Sorkin wasn’t the first to do the “walk and talk.” In Luke’s gospel, two of Jesus’ followers are walking the road to Emmaus when they meet the resurrected Jesus “that same day” that the women discovered the tomb was empty (Luke 21:13-35). They’re lost in the events of the last few days and, when Jesus joins them on the road, they don’t recognize him. He asks them about what happened and they talk, the disciples sharing what happened and how they felt, Jesus sharing with them why it was so important that it happened and teaching them “the things about himself in all the scriptures.” When they get to their destination, they invite the stranger to stay with them and they finally recognize him “in the breaking of the bread.” Then he disappears.
So, all this walking and talking and they finally recognize it’s Jesus when he does something - an action - they recognize as “Jesus-y” and then disappears. Well, that’s not surprising really. As far as they knew Jesus was dead, despite the unbelievable stories, and they wouldn’t expect to meet him in person. On the road. Going the same direction they were. We’ve probably all been there, not recognizing someone because they’re completely out of the context of how we know them.
But is that really the moment of recognition? Must we have a physical sign to know when it’s Jesus?
When Jesus is gone, one of them says “were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road?” Yes! Yes, that’s it, that’s the moment.
It’s not just behaviour, recognizing the physical being of the character named Jesus. It’s about recognizing what Jesus is: the living out of the divine spirit of love, grace and compassion that’s in each of us, not just Jesus. That’s The Way of Jesus. We have been so tuned to what we see in order to believe, we missed the true moment of recognition. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, famously wrote about the spiritual experience that led him to know Jesus as his “heart was strangely warmed.” That’s where it begins.
It’s more than walk and talk, it’s heartfelt connection. That’s the new life.
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