Today's Reading: Luke 24:13-35
Daily Lectionary: Exodus 15:1-8, Hebrews 9:1-28
Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing Him. (Luke 24:15b-16)
My mother did not believe the first letter I wrote to her using a word processor and spell check. She knew I had flunked handwriting, spelling, and typing in school and was convinced that the neatly typed letter had been crafted by my wife.
There was something different about our Lord when He joined the unnamed disciples journeying to Emmaus. Perhaps, because it was windy and they all kept their hoods over their mouths to keep from breathing in dust, they did not recognize the voice or the cadence of their teacher. They were so convinced of Jesus’ death and of the impossibility of the rumors that He had risen. But they were moved by His teaching that the Messiah must, like David, like Elijah, like the Suffering Servant, like Abraham, like Job, and like Israel’s remnant, suffer and then be brought into glory. It made their hearts burn within them to recognize this pattern in God’s Word fulfilled by what they had seen in Jesus.
The climax was Jesus breaking bread with them. The meal was a time of refreshment. Sitting rested the body; eating gave the body what it needed to renew cells and replace spent energy. The conversation was to refresh the spirit with talk of encouraging, enriching or edifying things. It was in the breaking of bread that they recognized him. All the hope of Israel, the Christ, risen as He said, was sitting before them! Then He vanished from their sight.
They could not keep this news to themselves. Like Elijah (I Kings 19:8), strengthened by that food, they traveled the whole way back to the Upper Room in Jerusalem to tell the other disciples. There they heard others testify, and soon after were joined by the Risen Christ Himself!
Christians today recognize Jesus through the teaching of His Word, and the celebration of the sacraments. This pattern is the Divine Service (Mass, or Liturgy of Holy Communion) followed by Christians in every century. Here, too, is the risen Christ revealed to us, in the breaking of the bread.
O God, who in the Paschal Feast bestowed restoration upon the world, continue to send Your people Your heavenly gift that they may both walk in perfect freedom and receive eternal life; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (Collect for Easter Monday)