April 6, 2008

Easter may have been 2 Sunday’s ago, but the events we have explored since then keep taking us back to that first Easter Sunday. Now on this Sunday after Easter, we are still on Easter evening as two despondent followers of Jesus make their way on a 7 mile walk from Jerusalem to the village of Emmaus. One is named Cleopas, the other is unnamed. For that reason, some suggest the two may have been husband and wife on their way home after days of Passover observance and also observing the crucifixion and death of their beloved Leader, Jesus, whom they had hoped would deliver Israel. A stranger joins them and enters their conversation about the events surrounding Jesus. The fellow traveler is unknown to them, but we are told that stranger on the road is Jesus, risen from the dead. The failure to recognize him is never explained, but there they were, as Eugene Peterson says, “in the presence of resurrection, walking `in the land of the living,’ and they don’t know it.”[1]

And right here we are given good news! We are being told the living Christ journeys with us in life, whether we recognize that or not, whether we know that or not. He joins us on our journey as his followers. He comes to us as a traveling companion, to walk with us and talk with us, even when we fail to recognize him. Again and again in the form of a stranger, the risen Lord comes alongside us as a living spiritual reality without our knowing who we are walking and talking with! The 2 disciples spend their time with the stranger on the road talking about Jesus and never realize they are talking to Jesus!

And this happens to us probably more than we realize. It’s easier to think of the two unrecognizing disciples as different from us when the hard truth is to see ourselves in them. Who knows how many times, like the two disciples, we are in the presence of resurrection, walking “in the land of the living,” and we don’t know it. Jesus is walking with us and we see only a stranger. So, obviously, we best be careful what we think of and how we look at and the way we respond to strangers who enter our lives. The strange one, the unknown one, the unrecognized one, the unfamiliar one in our midst may well be the living Christ who comes to us with life-changing things to tell us and teach us about himself.

The good news from this Easter evening event is that we do not travel alone as followers of Jesus with him being nothing more than a memory from the past. Whether we realize it or not, he comes to us to companion us on our Emmaus road journey. His living presence with us is not dependent on our recognizing him. He travels with us even when we fail to know we are in his holy presence in the form of a stranger. We are in the presence of resurrection and walking in the land of the living even if we don’t know it.

While there are moments on the road when we do not recognize him, there are also moments of grace when we do. The two disciples reach Emmaus and the stranger with whom they have talked for two, maybe three hours, on their way home, is about to leave them. Then they offer words of invitation to him not to leave, but to stay and eat. “Stay with us,” they say, “for it is evening, and the day is far spent.” They show some grace to the stranger. “Stay with us.” Their words of invitation gave rise to the beloved hymn, “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.”

Again, in the words of Eugene Peterson when he writes about living the resurrection, he asks us to put ourselves in the place of that unnamed man or woman--the companion of Cleopas--as they reach Emmaus. “It’s late in the day and time for supper. You’ve been away from home for a week, maybe over a week. There is nothing there to eat. Passing a bakery stall you buy a loaf of bread and invite the stranger in for supper. After some coaxing, he comes in. You get out a bottle of wine. The three of you sit down to a simple supper of bread and wine. Cleopas pours the wine. The stranger then makes a move that takes you aback momentarily. He takes up the loaf and blesses it. The guest you invited to supper becomes the host offering you supper. After blessing the bread, he breaks it and give it to you and to Cleopas. Then, and only then, you recognize him. It’s Jesus, alive. It’s resurrection.”[2]

And this is the same resurrection meal. Jesus is more than a memory conjured up out of the past. He is a personal, real, living, spiritual presence in our midst, in our lives, and in our world. He is a living reality who feeds and sustains and walks with us as we follow day by day. And in this resurrection meal, Easter keeps happening over and over in the breaking of the bread when we recognize he is alive.

Our understanding of this table of the Lord tends to be dominated by one perspective as often as we approach it. We come to it and partake of it as “The Lord’s Supper” of which Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11. We recall the night of his betrayal and the bread as sign of his broken body and the cup as his blood shed for us. It is our table worship in which we remember the death of Christ.

But when we allow this biblical understanding of the table to be our only understanding, we depriving ourselves of the full richness and spiritual benefit of this table. The New Testament has wide vision of what goes on here than our limited focus. There are more New Testament words beside “Lord’s Supper” to describe the spiritual meaning of being at the Lord’s table.

The word “Communion” is used about the table to express the fellowship we have with Christ and one another through eating bread and drinking wine together. As communion, we celebrate the new covenant, the new relationship God has established with us through the sacrificial death of Christ. As we share the meal together with Christ and one another, we show and signify our communion, our relationship with God and our oneness with each other.

More than that, the biblical understanding of being at the Lord’s table is not only to remember the Lord’s death and signify our communion and oneness with God and one another. This meal is also our celebration of the Lord’s resurrection. We call it not only “The Lord’s Supper” or “The Last Supper” or “Communion.” It is also known in our scripture as “Breaking of the bread” as a resurrection meal.

Remembering Jesus’ death is shrouded in solemnity and sorrow and self-examination. The mood and music is more funereal. Celebrating his resurrection, however, is filled with joy and hope and gladness. We don’t come to the table mourning his death. We come rejoicing in his presence.

The spiritual meaning of what goes on here is rooted in the words of those two disciples to the other disciples. They hurried back to Jerusalem down that 7 mile road from Emmaus and found the disciples together. And they told them what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread (24:35).

Breaking of the bread is the resurrection meal where we meet together and are met by the resurrected Christ. With joy, we celebrate in the blessing and breaking of the bread the living presence of the risen Christ and his victory over evil and death. This is not only a remembrance meal about the death of Jesus. It is also a resurrection meal in the presence of the living, risen Christ.

[1] Eugene Peterson, Living the Resurrection, 61.

[2] Living the Resurrection, 65.

[3] “Come, Share the Lord,” words by Bryan Jeffery Leech, The Worshiping Church: A Hymnal, 782.