Recognising Christ at Emmaus

The Pope’s funeral on Friday was probably seen by millions, if not billions, of people throughout the world. Those who took immediate part in front of St. Peter’s Basilica had the best experience of it because they were caught up in everything that went on. Many others in the crowded city had a limited view but, as some said, it was important to be there to be part of the experience.

Most of us relied on television which, of course, allowed us as full a view as any though without the atmosphere. Others had to rely on extended television news reports backed up by extensive newspaper coverage. After the service there was also eye-witness accounts which, like all eye-witness accounts, varied in their accuracy because  after an event, the human mind has begun to sift through the experience and add its own interpretation. No doubt today’s Sunday papers will be carrying further reports and, by now, analysis of both the event and its aftermath.

Historians of the future will need to examine all of this collective experience if they are to form as complete a picture as possible of what happened last Friday.  It is the same for all who want to understand what happened three days after the Crucifixion of Jesus.

The Easter story is primarily to be found in the Gospel accounts, though with some references from other New Testament writings and a tiny fragment or two from non-Christian, mostly Jewish sources.  Apart from possibly John, the accounts are interpretations of what has been received from eye-witnesses and each of the 4 Gospel writers have already begun to put their own slant on things.  For us, today, to get as complete a picture as possible, we need to take account of everything which is available. Not to do so would be to miss out on important details.

Today’s Gospel, for instance, tells the story of two followers of Jesus walking to a village  called Emmaus (wherever that might be because it has never been accurately identified).  It is a resurrection story found only in Luke.  It is also the longest of all the Resurrection stories and so, Luke is clearly conveying something important to the Christian believers from whom he is writing, and by extension to us. It is regarded by almost everyone as a story connected with the Christian Eucharist which, even by the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles (with its reference to the importance of breaking bread) is the central act of worship of the Christian Church.

The implication is clear – we shall recognise the Risen Christ in the ‘breaking of the bread’ – in the Eucharist.  However, true though that is, there is much in this major resurrection story that we can think about before we come to that recognition.  All Gospel stories are rich in meaning and this one is no exception and this morning, I want to share some thoughts.

The first  concerns Cleopas and his companion who, though not actually disciples are clearly close friends of those who were – they spoke of ‘some women in our group’  meaning Mary Magdalene and Salome who had gone to the tomb, and the use of the word our  suggests a ‘belonging’.  Even so, they failed to realise the significance of what the women told them because they spoke of Jesus as one in whom they had hoped for redemption but also implied that his death had put paid to that hope.  They were not returning to Emmaus joyfully convinced of the resurrection but as those who had seen their cherished desires crushed.

The Risen Christ rebukes them – O how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared.  We who stand on this side of Easter may understand  his rebuke. We could excuse their closed hearts if they were enemies of Christ but these are his followers so why did they not understand?  Before we condemn them out of hand for their faithlessness we might do well to remember that there are many things about the Christian faith and about Jesus that we too do not fully understand.  The Christian who professes to know it all knows nothing. One of the riches of studying the Scripture is that there is always something new to learn, not least in those passages with which we are most familiar.  Christian belief is a lifelong quest and, for me, one of its greatest attractions is that the more I fathom, the more I need to fathom. It is a constant journey of new discoveries and that is why it can never be stale or boring. Much is still mystery but the kind of mystery which draws you deeper into itself.

So though Cleopas was steeped in Scripture it had not at that point given him all the answers.  That was to come and it was supplied by Jesus Himself.  Beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the Scriptures.  We will only understand the Gospel and all Scripture if we are seeking Jesus. No matter how fascinating the history of the Israelite nation might be, or how mystifying the Book of Revelation is – the key is always to interpret everything with reference to Our Lord.  To do this, we have to do far more than read our Bibles or study Scripture – we have to pray it.

One of my gurus, Mother Mary Clare, said that Scripture should be read slowly and meditatively. She used the word ruminate and once I asked her what she meant by this. Like a cow chewing its cud was her simple reply. We are to let the words of Scripture become prayer which we chew over until it enters the heart where it meets the Lord of that heart who explains everything to us, if we have the patience and the time to listen.  Later, when the Emmaus disciples thought back to when Jesus was speaking to them, they spoke of  their hearts burning within them and when they realised this it was the moment when everything fell into place. It was their  resurrection moment.

There is something quite significant in this because though the story ends with a recognition of Christ in the breaking of the bread that would not have been possible if their hearts had not been prepared by hearing the word of Scripture about Jesus.  It’s the same for us.

I don’t know how much you realise how carefully constructed the service of the Eucharist is but it is a service of both Word and Sacrament. The one is not more significant than the other. Up to the Peace we are being informed by Scripture – even the Creed and the Prayers are part of this – for the Creed is a concise statement of what we believe drawn entirely from Scriptural sources and our intercessions are inspired by the Biblical theme of the day. It doesn’t end there because if you listen carefully to the Eucharistic Prayer, especially the first part, it is a Gospel meditation.  The point I want to make here is that it is the Word of God which converts hearts. Through our cycle of readings, a careful meditation on Scripture, we are led to a deeper enrichment of the soul. Only when this is so can we appreciate that Christ really does reveal himself in the breaking of bread, the Sacramental act by which the Risen Lord comes afresh into our lives.  At Emmaus this took place when the two companions invited the Lord to eat with them. At table he took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. The same four actions of the Eucharist that we shall shortly share in ourselves.

But what I want to emphasise is what the Emmaus disciples told the others when they rushed back to Jerusalem, no longer as weary and care-worn travellers but as eager witnesses of the Resurrection.  What they told the others was that Christ  had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.  What Luke is getting across is the classical understanding of what the Emmaus story means. We meet the Risen Christ in the sacrament of consecrated bread and wine. We break bread and we share it. This is less obvious because we use individual wafers but at a crucial point in the service, the Priests lifts the larger host and breaks it.

There is an immense significance in this Because it is linked to Christ’s brokenness on the Cross for us and it reminds us that it is in this very brokenness that He is revealed as the God who, to save a broken humanity, endures the suffering and brokenness of the Crucifixion.  Today, and perhaps always, the Church as well as the world is marked by brokenness.  We are painfully aware of the divisions within our own Anglican Church and in the differing denominations of the Christian Church separated from each other.  Disunity is a cause for deep sadness but perhaps we should take some comfort from the Emmaus story.  It is in the midst of brokenness – whether it be broken bread or broken Church or broken lives that the Risen Christ is revealed.

I thought of this particularly yesterday afternoon when I watched the service of blessing for Prince Charles and Camilla. Whatever you may feel personally about them and whatever the press has said, there was no doubt that these two people came before God yesterday for His blessing on what they hope will be a marriage based on love and companionship. There was joy and, I believe there was also repentance. It was difficult not to feel the brokenness of their lives. The Blessing they sought was also about healing and those two broken people, who surely touched many hearts by their vulnerability, sought that healing from the only one who could give it – the wounded, yet Risen Christ who reveals himself to the broken through his own brokenness and in that  holds all our hurt and pain, transforming them by love.

A long time ago, a very wise priest told me that only the broken can heal. For me it is a broken Christ, revealed as the Resurrected Lord, who holds all our vulnerability and pain and heals them from his own wounded heart.  That is what Emmaus says most clearly to me.  We recognise him in the breaking of the bread. We find him in the midst of brokenness. He does not require perfection for him to come to us – quite the reverse. Any perfection we seek can come only from Him as all healing is in his gift and true perfection begins when we recognise our need of Him. For in that need is true recognition that, despite all our imperfections, as individuals, as a Church, as a World, Christ reaches out, breaks the bread of his love with us;  saves us and Rises in our hearts as his Word of life burns within us, transforming everything with Resurrection hope.