Eyes wide open

Luke 24:13-35

          

           In a few days my husband and I will celebrate our second anniversary of being legally wed. Although our commitment to each other goes back a few years before that, this is the anniversary that celebrates our commitment to each other with witnesses and all the legal rights and responsibilities which we joyously embrace. I really don't want to go into all the details of the courtship between my husband and myself. I do want to say this though, what we started with was a friendship and he helped me a great deal (and still does) but specifically at the time, it was about dealing with feelings and eventually coming out. He was the one that urged me into therapy. He is the one that listened to my seemingly psychotic rantings, meanderings and thoughts.  It had been years since he came out but he did not judge and did what a true friend does, he stood by, listened and supported me.  

           Imagine my surprise when I realized I was in love with this man, someone I had known for a while, certainly not my first male friend, certainly not my first love interest.  I think that's where I should leave off with him. Just suffice to say, I began to see him in a different light than I had previously viewed him.

             I can imagine how shocked those disciples were when they realized who they had been walking with and how stunned they were when, in the breaking of the bread, they realized it was Jesus. The disciples were perhaps a bit self absorbed in their own problems and what just happened in Jerusalem. 

           In good times and in bad, we can be so self absorbed we fail to see the sky falling, a truck coming or true love standing at our feet.  You can forgive the Apostles, they lived with this God-man, travelled with him, loved with him, expected so much only to be seemingly let down like a rock. They were let down, fearful they might be next to be dragged off to a waiting cross. They desperately were trying to put all he pieces of the puzzle together, very self absorbed.

            What is it that is so revealing and basic in the breaking of bread? Is this the mere eating of a meal together? Certainly that has a levelling effect and when we take the time to eat a meal or settle in for coffee hour after services, we become bound together, often we get a better glimpse of people we worship next to. What happened at Emmaus though is even more profound. The breaking of the bread was sharing a meal but it was ritual and it was Sacramental in the deepest sense of the word. The Apostles experienced the Sacrament that Jesus instituted at the last supper, that Sacramental Passover meal bringing together not only their Jewish heritage but remembering what would happen and be celebrated. That is, the whole suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus.  The breaking of the bread was gift offered (by Jesus) and gift received (by us). How powerful a moment and it all came rushing back in that breaking of the bread. It brought the disciples right back and opened their eyes wide open.

              So I would ask what opens our eyes?   One might easily jump right to the worldly and say a hunky man, a wonderful delicious model but an object. That tends to open my eyes. But imagine when you find that the object is more than that, a good person, he has intellect, a keen mind and a huge heart. How wide would your eyes be open then? 

               That is the worldly. What happens when we break bread together?  What of the breaking of the bread in a ritual way in church? What kind of re-member-ing do we experience? Are we brought back to the sacrifice offered, given and received by us? Are we keenly aware of what Jesus really offered us and why?  He broke the bread, his own body, for us but most importantly for you. If you were the only person alive, God would gladly offer himself up again for you. He would accept the betrayal, the spitting, the jeering, the nails and the gasping and yes, even death - for you.  What an act of love. Are your eyes open?

          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.

          All for you.

            

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.