From the Daily Lectionary for Wednesday in Easter Week
Luke 24:13-35
Now on that same day, the first day of the week, two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 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?” 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, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 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. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 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. 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.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 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. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 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?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
We are now in the first week of the fifty days of Easter. Appropriately, all of the Gospel readings this week depict resurrection appearances. So Matthew, Luke, and John all have their say this week. Mark doesn’t, because there is no resurrection appearance in Mark. This particular account of Jesus appearing to his disciples after his resurrection only appears in Luke. It is the story known to us as, ‘the walk to Emmaus.’ Suffice it to say again, this is theology, not history. And in particular this is a story representing Luke’s ecclesiology, his theology of the church.
Luke is the writer of both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. The two together may be read as the blossoming forth of the Church. Luke is intentional about connecting Jesus to the prophets come before him in the tradition, Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah. It is important to Luke that the life and ministry of Jesus is grounded in the tradition, that the Jesus movement is not some new fad, but an orthodox reinterpretation of Judaism. The resurrection of Jesus, for Luke, propels the life of the church, despite the odds against its viability, into the entire eastern region of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome.
The story of the walk to Emmaus is a metaphor for the life of the church… and at the heart of Luke’s concept of the Church is the matter of recognition…. The Church a means of recognizing the Christ among us. At first, according to the narrative, the disciples don’t recognize the stranger (whom we know to be Jesus) in their midst, even after an extended conversation; and then at supper, specifically, at the breaking of the bread, their eyes are opened and they recognize that it was the raised Jesus sharing with them a meal.
There is a pattern here… the pattern of the life of the Church. First is the impassioned engagement of scripture…. “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road?” And then the breaking of bread preceded by invitation and welcome… the sacred welcome of the stranger. This is the pattern in which God is revealed to the faithful, in scripture, in fellowship, and in the breaking of the bread; and perhaps, above all else, in hospitality. It is the pattern of the Church’s liturgical life as well, our liturgical life an outward and visible sign of life itself. The experience of God doesn’t require, necessarily, some magnificent mystical vision, or some esoteric knowledge. The experience of God is found in the simple, the mundane practice of the faith, and taking that faith into the world; and that includes our homes, and our separation.
We are absent now from the fellowship, at least physically, and from the breaking of the bread… but the Spirit, and Word are with us, as ever… and for the time being that is enough. One day soon we will gather again to continue our practice of praise and thanksgiving, of fellowship, of hearing the Word, and the breaking of bread. What a day that will be… a day beyond all recognition.
Collect for the Third Sunday of Easter
Lord of the gathering feast, you walk with us on the shadowed road: burn our hearts with scripture’s open flame; unveil our darkened eyes as bread is torn and shared and from broken fragments bless a people for yourself; through Jesus Christ, the host of the world. Amen.
