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. [Luke 24:30-31]
Last week
the lesson showed how they recognised the risen Christ by his wounds. Now it is as he breaks bread for them at the
evening meal. Then their eyes were opened, and they
recognized him.
These resurrection narratives, in all four gospels, are
wreathed in mystery. They simply cannot
be read as you might read the official police report of some event. Something about him as he broke the bread at
table at Emmaus seems to have echoed what they remembered from the Upper Room
on the night before he died. It dawns on
them that their stranger-companion is Jesus.
But the very next sentence is… and he vanished from their sight.
He is there, and he is not there.
He is with them, but they can’t manage or control his presence with
them. They can’t hold on to him, parade
him around or place him on show. They
really do now have to begin the serious business of following him by faith and
trust – and finding out in their own lives how to do that.
Jesus’s disciples now have to learn to live with mystery
and unanswered questions. They have now
to grow up in faith, to use St Paul’s words. In a sense, any follower who requires
certainty and clarity, and a church assuming moral and spiritual authority
which has only to be obeyed, is not living in the light of the
resurrection. That is infantile faith,
which invariably shades off into superstition and a hankering after miracles.
St John says, The
light shines in the darkness…
The darkness is real. Human pain
and suffering are real. The calamitous
degradation of the natural environment is real and looming ever more critical. Human injustice and cruelty are real, tyrants
thrive, evil rides abroad. This is the
darkness in which the light may be discerned – in our hearts, in others, in the
truths of faith – in the breaking of the bread.
Resurrection faith is when we know ourselves to be people
of light and hope, whatever others may choose.
We choose the path of kindness, forgiveness, justice and mercy, because
it is the path Jesus chose, to which he still calls us – and we know it in our
hearts to be right. Resurrection faith
is when it dawns on us one day that there’s not much left we are afraid
of. We choose the vulnerability of love,
over fear and defensiveness. The sting
of death is drawn. We are not paralysed
by what people may think of us. Resurrection
faith is freedom to be alive, to carry our wounds humbly, to love and
understand others.
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