KNOWN IN THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD1
The Rev. Mark D. Wilkinson, Rector
St. Aidan's Episcopal Church
Virginia Beach VA 23452
The Road to Eammaus
EASTER 3A
It seems incredible that it has been two weeks since we met the Risen
Lord on the way to Emmaus. I’m Cleopas and I was on the road with my wife
Mary. We had gone to Jerusalem with Jesus. We had been with him during his
ministry and seen the signs that he had done. We had sat at his feet and listened
as he spoke to us about the Kingdom of God. We were with him as he entered
Jerusalem to cheers and people crying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the
name of the Lord!” We had thought that he was the Messiah, the one to redeem
Israel. We were sure that Jesus was going to bring freedom to Jerusalem. We
thought that our Messiah had come, We thought he would throw off the yoke of
Roman oppression.
But then came that awful night when Judas, one of Jesus own disciples,
one of us betrayed him to the chief priests and leaders of the people. They came
for him as he was praying on the Mount of Olives. They arrested him, while those
of us with him fled. We, his own disciples deserted him. Then he was put to
death on a cross. Our own leaders put him to death. We gathered behind locked
doors fearing that the authorities would come for us as well. Then on the morning
of the third day as the sun was rising some women from our group went to the
tomb to anoint the body. They came back telling us that they had seen a vision of
angels who told them that Jesus was alive! We didn’t know what to think. Jesus
was dead and buried. How could he be alive? But they insisted that the body was
gone and that the angels said he was alive. What nonsense!
So we decided to head back to our home in Emmaus. We both thought it
might be a little safer outside of Jerusalem. As we walked a man joined us. He
asked why we were so sad so we told him about what had happened to Jesus.
He said we didn’t understand and I certainly didn’t understand what he meant.
Then he began to teach us.
He told us how beginning with Moses and the prophets the scripture
pointed to Jesus as the Messiah. We listened attentively to him as he spoke, it
gave us some comfort to hear how Jesus was revealed in scripture.
Finally when we reached our home we asked the man to stay with us. He acted
as if he was going to continue on down the road. He came in and then as we sat
at the table, he took the bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to us. In that
moment we saw the Risen Lord there before us in the breaking of the bread. And
1 Special thanks to the Rev. Wendy Wilkinson who contributed a major portion of
this sermon. suddenly he was gone, vanished from our sight. We were filled with joy and
immediately left to go and tell the others that Jesus was alive. The women were
right, Jesus had risen from the dead.
It was only later as we talked together that we realized that we had been
blind. Even after being with Jesus, seeing him heal people and feed the
multitudes we had not expected to see him rise from the dead, as he had told us
he would. It was beyond our expectations. Jesus was always doing the
unexpected. The time he asked Zacchaeus, the tax collector, to come down from
the tree because Jesus was going to have dinner with him that night at his home.
A tax collector! Someone who stole from the people by charging more then was
needed for the Roman taxes. Someone that none of us would even talk to much
less have dinner with! And Jesus goes to dinner with him, it wasn’t what we
expected! Jesus was always telling us to forgive our enemies and those who
oppressed us.
Jesus let my wife sit at his feet and listen to him as he taught the
scriptures. Rabbis do not have women disciples! Only men are allowed to sit at
the Rabbis feet to learn and discuss the Torah. Those differences didn’t matter to
Jesus. Jesus even talked with a Samaritan woman at the well in her village. He
was always doing the unexpected. I guess showing up on the road was just
typical of him.
I suppose that is one reason that we didn’t recognize him as he walked
beside us, speaking to us. Our eyes were kept from recognizing him because we
knew that he was dead. He couldn’t be with us, no one expected it to happen.
But there he was walking with us on the road to Emmaus. We just didn’t
recognize him.
It was only in the breaking of the bread at table that evening, as he took
the bread, blessed and broke it that we saw him. It was the same as when he fed
the multitude, how he took the bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to the
people. It was the same as the night before his death as he sat at table, took the
bread, blessed and broke it saying, “this is my Body which is given for you.”
It was when Jesus did what he always did, the guest becoming the host, in
the blessing, breaking and giving of the bread that we recognized him. We
recognized him in the familiar words and actions. In his words and actions Jesus
was among us again, as he had always been among us.
It was then that we realized that our hearts had been burning within us as
he walked with us on the road. He had told us that he had come to bring fire to
the earth, but once again it was not what we had expected. It was that fire, the
inner knowledge that Jesus was raised from the dead that caused us to return to
Jerusalem to the other disciples and share with them that we had seen the Lord!
We had to go we had to share the good news. This is what Jesus wants all of his
followers to do, share the good news that he brings to the world.
I know that Jesus is present with us in the breaking of the bread. And so
we come together this morning to hear the scriptures read and to know Jesus
Christ as the Risen Lord as we join around the table in the blessing, breaking and
giving of the bread. So come to the table, then go forth from this place with our
eyes wide open to tell others “Alleluia the Lord is Risen!”