Resurrection and Revelation I: Bread for Dinner

Now on that same day two of them 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.

 

Luke 24.13-25

I love the stories of the resurrected Jesus.  It's clear that the gospel writers are as confounded by the idea of resurrection as the rest of us, but over and over they come back to the same theme:  the resurrection means bodies doing bodily things.

In this narrative from that first Sunday of the resurrection in the Gospel of Luke, the scene is as ordinary as it can be.  Bodies walking somewhere.  And talking.  And wondering.  And then, the story climaxes in an ordinary supper.  Bread.  This is "how he had been made known to them."  Sitting around a table, reaching for the rolls he passed.

These readings from this Easter season are the source of this writing project of mine and this resurrection faith I walk around with, talk about, sit down to eat with.

The stories of the resurrection are not about ethereal otherworldliness.  This is not the time for abstracted notions of spirituality.  This is not even the time for meditative solitude and prayer.  The stories of the resurrection constantly call people together and often provide snacks.  The stories of the resurrection are about touching and proclaiming and walking and questioning and fishing and eating.

The stories of the resurrection, like the stories of the incarnation, demand that we confront our humanness and, in fact, place that humanness at the center of the story, at the place where the story begins and ends.

The revelation of the resurrection is the revelation of the truest end for human beings realized by the grace of God.  Pass the bread.