Devotional 3-24-10

…in the breaking of the bread

Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him … He had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. That is near the end of the 24th chapter of Luke. The story is from a subsection in the chapter entitled the Walk to Emmaus. The story begins with two travelers; we assume they are not disciples based on the fact that upon their eventual return to Jerusalem they meet up with ‘the eleven’. The travelers are headed to Emmaus. Jesus suddenly joins them but they do not recognize him. He asks what they are discussing as they walk. They respond by asking him if he is the only one who doesn’t know about the things that have happened in the past three days. I find the irony quite delicious considering the actions of the chief priests and rulers, the betrayal by Judas, the scattering of the disciples from the garden and, last but not least, Peter’s denial. He is indeed the only one who DOES know what has happened in the past three days. It’s not until they have persuaded Jesus to stay and share a meal that they are given the opportunity to know who he is.

My dad enjoys meal time with family and friends; holidays, birthdays, special occasions and the like. When the event is closing in he will say, “Are we going to be able to break bread together…?” Now, he isn’t asking if we are going to have communion together, he is talking about dinner. But in that dinner time we do commune. We sit and talk, we listen, we share, we laugh, we care, we offer advice, we take advice, we recognize, a little bit more clearly, the person at the table.

I, along with several friends, just returned from a three day journey, interestingly enough called The Walk to Emmaus. During those three days we enjoyed many meals including communion. Throughout the Walk, each step was an introduction to someone new. As we would break bread together we would recognize each other a little more clearly. Due to the spiritual construction of the weekend ,we did indeed recognize Christ more clearly and to perhaps a small degree, we got a clearer picture of ourselves.

My prayer this Holy season is that eyes will recognize, our hearts will be opened and our hands and feet will be those of our risen Christ.

Steve Matthews