Fwd: The Road to Independence
don bryant
Luke 24:13-35 TRANSlation A TransPreacher Paraphrase
On that same day, two of them were walking from Cleveland toward Independence, talking with each other about everything that had happened, the heartbreak, the confusion, the rumors spreading through their community. One of them was named Cleo, and the other walked beside them in quiet disbelief. As they talked and questioned, a woman joined up and walked with them, but they did not recognize her. Her body had changed, her presence was both familiar and entirely new, radiant in a way they couldn’t receive. She asked them, “What are you discussing with such intensity?” They stood still, sadness written across their faces. Cleo asked, “Are you the only one around here who doesn’t know what’s been happening in Cleveland these past few days?” “What things?” she asked. They replied, “About Jesse of Newark, who was a civil rights advocate, and how the DHS arrested her, how everything we hoped for is gone. We believed she would bring real change. Now, some in our community are saying wild things, that something new has begun, but it sounds too good to be true.” Then she said to them, “Oh, you don’t get it yet. Did you think resurrection would leave everything the same? Did you imagine that becoming whole would be popular and easy for people to understand?” Beginning with Stonewall, and moving through the lives of those who dared to become who they truly were, she described the necessity of living as ones true self. As they came near Independence, she walked ahead as if she were going on. But they urged her, “Stay with us, it is almost dark and the day is almost over.” So she went in to stay with them. Later, they gathered at a drag show, the room alive with color, music, and chosen family. Plates of food passed from hand to hand, laughter breaking through the heaviness they had carried all day. When she was at the table with them, she took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. In that moment, their eyes were opened. They saw her. Not as she had been, but as she truly was. Alive. Whole. Transitioned. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while she walked with us on the road, while she opened to us the truth about transition, about becoming, about the sacred courage it takes to live in a body that tells the truth?” They returned to chosen family in Cleveland, sharing stories of excitement and hope. They posted on social media what happened on the road, and how she had been made known to them in the breaking of bread, at a drag show, in a body that finally reflected the fullness of who she was. You're currently a free subscriber to TransPreacher. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
© 2026 Joelle Henneman
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