Scripture Reading Luke 24:13-35
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.
Sermon
We live in extraordinary times. We have been living through a pandemic since March 2020, and it is still with us. In addition to being a source of fear and illness, Covid has also brought social and economic disruption. It has proved to be a source of division, when Covid and politics, unfortunately, became inextricably intermingled. And of course, Covid has been a source of grief for those of us who lost people we love—more than 1,000,000 Americans and nearly 7,000,000 people worldwide.
But Covid also brought with it some gifts. For me, the opportunity to have my adult children nearby was what I’ve been calling my Covid silver-lining. Another unexpected gift was my yoga practice, something I’ve absolutely fallen in love with. If social media was any indication, apparently, everyone but me learned how to make sourdough bread.
And then there was music. In the grim early days of the pandemic my children and I took to making what we called “happiness playlists” of our favorite music, and in the process of doing that, I re-discovered the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s rendition of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” When I learned that Chris was playing it this morning, I went back to those playlists, and there it was.
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
Our gospel story is a strange one, isn’t it? I have so many questions. First of all, what’s the name of the second disciple? Why do we get one, and not the other? And, what’s the deal with the two disciples being “kept from recognizing” Jesus? Is this anything like God hardening the Pharaoh’s heart when Moses was in negotiations with him for the release of the Hebrew slaves (if you can call the plagues a negotiating technique)? Why does God sometimes seem to work against Godself? Doesn’t God want Cleopas and the other disciple to recognize Jesus? To be witnesses to the resurrection? Of course that’s what God wants. But sometimes, you take the scenic path to your destination. And one more question: Why the bread? Why the breaking of the bread as the moment their eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus?
It has been argued that the hinge verse in here is verse 21:
“But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel…”
Let’s start there. Since another gospel tells us that Cleopas’s wife is named Mary, let’s go with that. Cleopas and Mary are walking home from Jerusalem on the day of resurrection, but the narrator tells us that they are sad… they are still grieving. The week that began with such great hopes ended in the worst possible way, with the death of their beloved Rabbi, Lord, friend… Jesus. Yes, they know what the women said. Yes, they know what the other disciples saw, as well as what they didn’t see. But you can’t switch off grief in an instant. They are sad, and they are confused. They must be exhausted, and I’m pretty sure they are traumatized, as most people would be after witnessing the violent death of someone they love. But then, Jesus draws near to them, I’m guessing, having eavesdropped for a bit before speaking up and joining them in their walk.
They do not recognize Jesus. He is a stranger to them. Hardly believing anyone could be ignorant of the things that have happened, the two give the stranger their summary of Jesus of Nazareth: who he was, what he did, what they had hoped.
“We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”
Professor Greg Carey of Lancaster Seminary writes,
A messiah absolutely should redeem Israel. We do not know how many ancient Judeans and Galileans were expecting a messiah… But our ancient Jewish sources, among which stand the Gospels, suggest that any decent messiah would repair the world, starting with Israel.
Carey says that he often tells his students, “If Jesus was the Messiah, he wasn’t very good at it.”[i] We who praise Jesus as Messiah have to come to grips with the reasons why even his closest friends and followers were distressed, even after they began to hear murmurings of resurrection. Wasn’t Rome still in power? Weren’t the poor still in need of Good News? And weren’t their hearts still shattered? What had changed?
After their summary of these last sad and strange days, the stranger chides them. How slow-hearted they are! And Jesus begins to tell them everything in scripture that had pointed the way to him.
Which is, unfortunately, another problem for them. Many of the passages the stranger is pointing to had never been connected with a traditional Jewish understanding of the Messiah. Take Isaiah 53, one of the four Suffering Servant Songs of Isaiah. This is the passage that was read at the end of our Maundy Thursday service, as session members stripped the chancel, readying us for Good Friday.
Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases,
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed. ~Isaiah 53:4-5
This was not the expected role of the Messiah. A great website called “Judaism 101” gives the following summary of what the Mashiach (that’s the Hebrew word meaning “anointed”) will do, according to traditional Jewish expectations.
The mashiach will bring about the political and spiritual redemption of the Jewish people by bringing us back to Israel and restoring Jerusalem. He will establish a government in Israel that will be the center of all world government, both for Jews and gentiles. He will rebuild the Temple and re-establish its worship. He will restore the religious court system of Israel and establish Jewish law as the law of the land.
Olam Ha-Ba (that’s Hebrew for “the World to Come”) will be characterized by the peaceful co-existence of all people. Hatred, intolerance and war will cease to exist…[ii]
Jesus certainly preached love and tolerance. He sought to heal all hurting and marginalized individuals as he encountered them, and his church has been commissioned to the ministry of caring for all God’s children. But to believe that Jesus is Messiah, we have to believe in a different kind of Messiah than the one traditionally anticipated by Judaism. And at the very same time we are called to respect the right of our Jewish siblings to disagree with us. We are also called to condemn anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic speech and violence, which are evil and not the calling of any Christian.
Mary and Cleopas’ continue their closer walk with this curious stranger, who is engaging in a kind of Bible-Study-As-We-Go. The sun traverses the sky, and the seven-mile journey to Emmaus is just about completed. It appears the stranger is about to travel on.
Stay with us, they urge him, for it is evening. The day is almost over. And he responds affirmatively to their offer of hospitality. They put down their belongings. They gather together around a table. And just has he did only three nights ago, just as he did in the wilderness for a gathering of more than 5,000 hungry people, the stranger takes, blesses, breaks, and shares the bread. And that’s when it happens. Their eyes are opened. Their hearts have a burst of understanding. It is Jesus. It is their Rabbi. It is their Lord. It is their friend.
And then he vanishes.
What is it about the bread? Is it because they were at the supper only a few nights ago, and saw and listened and ate and drank, just as he invited them to? Is it because they were on the road with him when the hungry crowds sat down to an impossible banquet born of just a few loaves, and just a few fishes? Or is it something else?
One of the oldest signs of connection we have—older than the church, older than the covenant people of Abraham, maybe going back to before there was even the language to describe it—is the simple matter of who we sit down to share a meal with. Who do we consider kindred? Who do we want to see when we look around a table? I believe Jesus’ disciples learned, over the course of his ministry, that sharing a meal was one of the most powerful and intimate things we can do. One scholar says that, “In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.”[iii] His book is called “Eating Your Way Through Luke’s Gospel,” and his thesis is simple: meals were the foundation of Jesus’ ministry.
It makes sense that Cleopas and Mary should recognize Jesus when they finally experience the fellowship of the table with him. Isn’t it often across a table that we recognize who are our kindred spirits? That we fall in love? That a gathering of unrelated people can suddenly feel like family?
Cleopas and Mary are soon on the road again, seven miles back to Jerusalem, so that they can tell their friends what has happened. So that they can remember how their hearts burned while on that closer walk with the stranger who turned out to be their Rabbi, Lord, and friend. So that they can share that, of course, of course, they understood that it was Jesus when he took, blessed, broke, and shared bread with them.
We live in extraordinary times, and so did anyone who was present in Palestine 2000 years ago. This is not simply the story of something that happened two thousand years ago. It’s a story that is repeated every day, every hour, every minute. We are invited to that closer walk with God—whether that is a literal walk during which our hearts commune with God in prayer, or whether we understand that God is continually present as we journey our whole life long. We are invited to break bread together—whether that is around this table during worship, or pulled up to the tables during our Fellowship Hour, or at a diner with a friend of loved one, or in the places we call “home.” Every minute of every day God is with us on our long walk. Every minute of every day we have another opportunity to pause, to notice, to feel our hearts burning within us, to bless our daily bread, and to open our hearts in hospitality to all God’s people.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[i] Greg Carey, “Commentary on Luke 24:13-35, April 23, 2023,” Working Preacher. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/third-sunday-of-easter/commentary-on-luke-2413-35-9.
[ii] Tracey R. Rich, “Mashiach: The Messiah,” Judaism 101, 2022. https://www.jewfaq.org/mashiach.
[iii] Karis, Robert, Eating Your Way Through Luke’s Gospel (Liturgical Press, 2006).