All-Age Service: The road to Emmaus

PRAYER / WORSHIP ACTIVITY

OPTION 1

5 minutes Remind people that faith is often described as a journey, like the one in today’s story. Invite people to pray for their own walk with God. Encourage everyone to draw round one foot (with their shoe on or off), cut out their footprint and write or draw their prayer on it. They might like to thank God for always being with them, ask him for courage or ask him a question about which way to go. Place A4 and A5 coloured paper, a pair of scissors and some felt-tip pens in each pew or row of seats. This is a good activity for integrating different generations: young people can draw round older people’s feet for them and elderly folk can help small children with scissors.

OPTION 2

10 minutes

Invite people to take part in the meal in today’s story: can they imagine what it was like to have dinner with Jesus? You will need the food and drink from the story, plus lots of disposable cups and plates. Ask the people sitting at the end of each row to come and collect enough bread, grapes, cups and plates for their row. Ask some volunteers to circulate with the grape juice and fill people’s cups. People could also sit on picnic rugs in the aisle. Encourage everyone to thank God for the food, eat and imagine Jesus sharing this meal with them, as he so often did with his disciples. Does this shared meal remind people of anything we do in church?

STORY

10 minutes

Arrange some bread rolls, grapes and jugs of red grape juice on a table at the front of your meeting space. On a piece of paper (A2 or larger) write, ‘Welcome to EMMAUS village’ and leave a space underneath. At the back of church, place items of Roman armour / weapons and / or a large free-standing cross, plus a sign with the words, ‘Welcome to JERUSALEM, Capital City’. For the road between the two, you could simply use the aisle or, if space allows, you could mark out a more winding route around the church, using a line of masking tape on the floor or road signs pointing to Emmaus and Jerusalem. Use this script to tell the story:

Today’s story begins here in Jerusalem, four days after the Romans killed Jesus on the cross because they thought he was a troublemaker. (Stand in the ‘Jerusalem’ area.) The city is still in lockdown. There are police everywhere, looking for more troublemakers. It’s a dangerous place to be a disciple. This morning, a rumour started that Jesus has come back from the dead! Now Roman soldiers are patrolling the streets in case of crowd trouble. Can I have two volunteers to be Roman soldiers? (Invite your volunteers to dress up or stand fiercely as if holding weapons.) Your job is to keep the peace in Jerusalem. If you see anyone who looks or sounds like a friend of Jesus, arrest them! Got it?

A long day’s walk away from Jerusalem is this place: the village of Emmaus. (Move to the ‘Emmaus’ area.) There’s food on the table and a bed for the night. It’s a place to lie low until all this trouble about Jesus blows over.

Now, can I have two volunteers to be disciples? (Walk back towards Jerusalem.) This story is all about you. (Invite your volunteers to join you in Jerusalem.) You two are very nervous! People saw you with Jesus when he was alive, so you need to watch out for soldiers! You decide to go back to Emmaus. (Lead your disciples away from the clutches of the Roman soldiers and onto the road you have marked out.)

(Walk along with your disciples, telling the story as you go.) You two are scared and sad. Your friend Jesus has died and you don’t know what to do any more. Suddenly you hear footsteps behind you - help! Is someone chasing you? No, it’s just another ordinary traveller like you. Can I have a volunteer to be this stranger? (Invite your new volunteer to walk with the disciples.)

Now you three are walking along together. The stranger asks a strange question, ‘So, guys, what’s the news from Jerusalem?’ You can’t believe your ears. How can anyone come from Jerusalem and not know about Jesus being killed on the cross? So you tell him all about the horrible events of the last few days, and the amazing rumour that Jesus has come back from the dead. The stranger says: ‘Oh, you are daft! Why don’t you believe what the prophets said about the Messiah?’ And he explains the Bible so simply and clearly that you feel as if you understand it for the first time. Your broken hearts feel warm and alive again.

At last! You’ve made it to Emmaus before dark. (Arrive in Emmaus with your volunteers and encourage them to gather round the table of food.) You are tired and starving. There’s a meal waiting for you and you ask the stranger to stay. The stranger takes the bread, (give your volunteer a bread roll and ask him to hold it up) blesses it (your volunteer bows his head) and breaks it (your volunteer breaks the roll gently in two and holds out the pieces). Suddenly everyone knows who the stranger is! Who is it? (Encourage everyone to respond.) Jesus!

He’s alive! (Tell your Jesus volunteer to sit back down in the congregation.) But now he’s disappeared again! Suddenly you’re too excited to eat and you can’t wait to tell your friends what has happened! You’ve got to go back to Jerusalem! (Encourage your volunteers to run back to Jerusalem.)

(Go back to Jerusalem with the two disciples.) You find your friends and shout: ‘Jesus is alive! We’ve seen him!’ and your friends say: ‘We know! So have we!’

REFLECTIVE RESPONSE TO THE STORY

OPTION 1

10 minutes

Invite people to walk the road to Emmaus for themselves, using the locations and the path created for the story. As people follow in the disciples’ footsteps from Jerusalem to Emmaus and back again, pausing along the way and in each location if they wish, they can imagine that they are one of the disciples. What is going through their mind as they run away from the city, and as they return, having met Jesus, back from the dead? People can also ask God what he is saying to them about their own journey of faith.

OPTION 2

10 minutes

Invite people to cover the welcome signs for Emmaus and Jerusalem with words and pictures that show what awaits the disciples there. For example, Emmaus offers safety and refreshment: people could represent this with the word ‘safe’ and the knife and fork symbol which indicates a motorway service station. Jerusalem offers the company of friends (people could draw a picture of the disciples together) but also fear and the real risk of arrest, or worse (people could draw the cross, emojis to show the disciples’ feelings, or warning signs reading, ‘Danger!’)