In recent days I have been looking at a familiar and beloved story that occurred in Luke shortly after the resurrection of Jesus. Join me in the next few days as we consider this text and reflect on it. Here is our text, our story:
The Journey To Emmaeus
“13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread” Luke 24: 13-35.
In this story today consider also how the disciples come to know the presence of God in their lives. The presence of God comes in the form of a simple - but special - meal of bread in a landscape of hospitality and willingness to give generously to the other. The sharing of bread at table, for Luke, is important because it begins in the birth of the Messiah who is laid in a feeding trough, a manger, at His birth, and then leads at the end to the extraordinary possibility of spiritual transformation and a way of believing that requires nearly impossible amounts of courage and heartfelt strength.
It leads to a now familiar memory and experience in the two disciples of Jesus breaking bread. But the sequence that takes place is what reminds them of an old meal, the Seder Supper, the Passover Banquet that Jesus changed. Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them now has a new a different meaning. It instantly reminds them of what Jesus a few nights earlier, on the night before He died. Now, for the first time, after the meal, after the death of Jesus on the Cross, and now after His resurrection, they finally now are pulled from their confusion and disappointment and loss. Jesus to the bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them saying, “Take and eat, this is my body broken and given up for you. Do this is remembrance of Me!” They remember that he took one of the four cups used in the Seder meal, the Cup of Redemption, and Jesus blessed the cup and gave it to them saying, “Take and drink, for this cup is the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. Drink this in remembrance of Me.”
All of what took place on the night before Jesus was crucified came flooding into their memories agin, but this time with understanding, with clarity, that was not present on Maundy Thursday! But today, on the road to Emmaeus, sitting in a small house, they now break out of their sadness and come to know, to understand, to recognize who Jesus truly is! they know that this meal is unlike the passover meal. This is the bread of life and cup of salvation. This is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Today I invite you to reflect on the meaning of the Eucharist, or communion, to you? Put aside what your denomination thinks or practices. Instead, come to reflect on what you would have felt and thought if you were one of those two disciples whom Jesus caught up with on the road to Emmaeus.
Why is it so important - TO YOU - that this sacred meal, this communion with Jesus Christ, is no longer a celebration of God freeing Israel from the slavery of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, but rather God, in Jesus Christ, freeing us from the slavery of sin and death?!
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, 16 for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.’ 17 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, ‘Take this and divide it among yourselves, 18 for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ 19 Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ 20 And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” Luke 22:14-20.
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” 1 Corinthians 11:26.
“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” John 6:35.
“Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” John 6:53.
“The Lord answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations” Joel 2:19.
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