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Sunday, April 19, 2009

CHRIST WAS KNOWN TO THEM IN BREAKING BREAD

By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

Scripture: Luke 24; 13-35 in the New Revised Standard Version 13 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad. 18 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?" 19 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, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 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. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 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. 24 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." 25 Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?"

27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 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. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 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?" 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!" 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

In the gospel of Luke, more so than any other gospel, Jesus is seen very often at meal times and at parties with all kinds of people. Those meal times become occasions for very important teachings to occur. To get us ready for that discussion, I want to raise a question for you: what is your most memorable meal? What are one or two meals that you have had with others that just come to mind as very important, either for the joy you felt as you ate together, or perhaps for time together with someone who is no longer part of this life as we know it? Can you think about a memorable meal or two?

Let me tell you about how someone else answered that question. My friend Lucia Guzman is a Methodist pastor in Denver who is now Director of Human Rights for the City and County of Denver. In a previous career she had her own floral shop and, when I came to Denver fifteen years ago, I met her for lunch at the Wilshire Inn restaurant. As we were sitting together she told me that, years earlier, in her previous career, she used to be in charge of decorating the Wilshire every Christmas. She got to know the owner of the restaurant, Leo Goto, and one day when she was there putting up the Christmas decorations, she asked Mr. Goto the same question we began with this morning. She said, “Leo, you are a connoisseur of good food and have traveled the world and eaten in very famous places: what has been your most memorable meal?” Lucia was thinking that he would describe some elegant seven course feast that he had enjoyed with rare delicacies exquisitely prepared and served by servers in formal wear.

He thought for a moment and gave her a surprising answer. He said that a family he was close to had an eight year old daughter who had become ill with leukemia. As her condition declined, he would visit her during the times she was hospitalized at Children’s Hospital. In fact he began to bring books and read to her. He said that one of the times he went to read to her, he brought some cookies and after he read a while, he got out the cookies and one of the nurses brought some milk, and they had cookies and milk together. He said that the child died just two or three weeks later. Mr. Goto said, “Lucia, that was my most memorable meal.”

I think that these first friends of Jesus could talk about how memorable the meal in Emmaus was. When he said the prayer and broke the bread, they saw who the stranger was. We will look at the prayer he said in a moment. It would have been the same prayer that he would have said at all the many other meal times that the gospel of Luke tells us about and there are lots of those.

In this gospel, more than any others, Jesus eats with lots of different people, some quite “respectable,” others just nobodies and sinners. In fact, because Jesus ate with unrespectable people, He got into real trouble. In ancient times and in the Middle East today, if you share a meal with anyone, you are identifying with that person and making a connection. I have a friend who was in Israel several years back on an archeological dig. He needed a translator and guide to be with him for a while, and that person was a young Arab who was trying to, also, learn English. He was very persistent and almost making a nuisance of himself without giving my friend any time for himself. On one occasion they shared a piece of fruit together, and after they had finished, the young man told my friend that now, since they had shared this meal, they were like brothers and that when one of them needed help or needed anything, he could ask the other person and they were obligated to help, because they had eaten together! Jesus is often found at meals and parties in Luke’s gospel! In fact, he loved food and meals so much that he was criticized by the religious folks for being a drunkard and a glutton! (See Luke Chapter 7) Let’s come back to this recognition of the risen Christ at Emmaus. Do you remember any of the other resurrection stories of what Jesus was like after Easter? I encourage you to look at those on your own in each of the four gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They really differ from each other and are not consistent.

Sometimes Jesus’ friends know who He is and sometimes they don’t! When Mary Magdalene went to his grave on Easter morning, she saw Christ but did not recognize him. Who did she think he was? The gardener! She saw him standing outside the tomb but He must have looked so different that she did not know him until he spoke. And then He tells her not to touch him or to hold onto him. Compare that to the story in another gospel where he invites Thomas to touch him and see the wounds. Or look at the story in which he asks his friends for a piece of fish because he is hungry. And to further complicate the picture, look at the stories of the risen Christ where he just shows up like a ghost in a room where the door has been locked!

Today’s story about the mysterious stranger also complicates it for us. What was it like to meet the resurrected Jesus? Was it like seeing the other people in the Bible whom Jesus himself is said to have brought back from death? I don’t believe that. I do not believe that what those first friends saw after Easter was a resuscitated corpse. It was something more profound, more mysterious. I don’t think it was about the physical body of Jesus at all. In fact, the earliest writer in the New Testament, the person who lived closer in time to Jesus’ time, never talks about the physical body of Jesus being resuscitated. That person is Paul. He gives us the longest discussion in the Bible about resurrection in I Corinthians 15. He tells us why he knows that Christ has risen. What is his evidence, do you remember? Does Paul say that he saw an empty tomb? No, he never mentions an empty tomb at all! What he does tell us is that he knows Christ is alive because he has seen Christ, the risen one himself, in a vision that was so real that it knocked him off his horse. It was so real that it blinded him for a few days and then just turned his life completely around so that this movement he had been trying to stomp out became the movement that he was the leader of! That happened not because he saw the physical body of the risen Jesus or, because he could see that the tomb was empty, it happened because he experienced the spirit of Christ and heard the voice of Christ!

Remembering now what turned Paul’s life around, and, remembering some of the stories in the four gospels about a Christ who just shows up behind locked doors, a Christ who tells Mary not to touch him or try to hold him, I am going to ask you what will be a very disturbing question for some; this is your warning.

Remember what we said last week, that we are here today in the church because those first friends of Jesus had the experiences of being with a risen Jesus? This is a real mystery that is not explained logically except that something happened to them or we could not be here. What would it do to your faith if archeologists had somehow discovered what they knew to be the true bones of Jesus of Nazareth? Do you believe the resurrection was about the resuscitation of Jesus’ dead body, or was it something more profound, more mysterious, more earth shaking than resuscitation? The first theologian of the Jesus movement, the apostle Paul says that when Christ was raised, He was not raised in a physical body. This is straining the language because He was raised in a spiritual body, and, Paul says, this will be true for us as well! This is found in I Corinthians 15, which most of us have not read, or really believe yet. That can be your noon time reading. The two friends at Emmaus did not recognize the resurrected Lord because He was not like them anymore, not like you and me.

By the way, we don’t know today where this village of Emmaus was! Archeologists have not been able to identify a place that was, 2000 years ago, called Emmaus, a few miles outside of Jerusalem. For me, that lends even more mystery to Easter! Who knows, Jesus might show up any time people are eating together! Emmaus might be wherever you are having lunch today.

That is one of the learning’s from this wonderful story in Luke. Let’s look at some other learning’s. Jesus is full of surprises. He will come to us unrecognized and in places we don’t expect, sometimes in church, many times not in church. We will see his spirit at work in stories where a character can embody the spirit and the actions of Christ and in literature in characters known as Christ figures. Last week at the Denver Center, Judy and I saw the play, A Prayer for Owen Meany, adapted from John Irving’s deeply spiritual novel by the same name. Young Owen Meany is a Christ figure in his deep sense of right and wrong and in his sacrificial giving of himself for others. If you see it, be prepared for some rough language as well as a moving story.

Do you remember other Christ figures? Aslan the lion in the C. S. Lewis stories of Narnia, the Jim Casey character in Steinbeck’s, “Grapes of Wrath.” But more than that, Jesus tells us, Himself, that we will see him again in the people He talks about in Matthew 25. Jerry Herships has started a sermon series in our 5 PM AfterHours worship time based on Matthew 25.

Jesus says we will see Him. He will come to us again, in the faces of the poor and the lonely, in those who are in prison and who are hungry, and in the faces of the stranger, the alien, and the sojourner.

There is one more thing to learn in the Emmaus story. He was known to them in the breaking of bread. They recognized him when He said the blessing and broke the bread. When we eat together, we can look for Christ to be with us. Eating together and really being with each other is so important. It is a greater and greater challenge for families to get regular meal time together, to hear each other, to learn about the day, to do more than just grab fast food in the car on the way to a practice or on the way to a meeting. When we eat together, we can be on holy ground; we can experience the spirit of Christ with us. And even when enemies are willing to eat together, something changes. We mentioned the times when Jesus eats with all kinds of people in Luke’s gospel. He eats with respectable people, unrespectable people. He shows up at parties and even a wedding party. In another story, He shares some bread and fish with 5000 people. This is one of the few stories that is mentioned in all four gospels. At this party for 5000, Jesus takes the bread and says a prayer. It is a simple prayer. It is the same prayer that he uses at the Passover meal that becomes Holy Communion for us. It is a prayer you can use and which will help you feel closer to Christ because we can know that he prayed it just as truly as he prayed the Lord’s Prayer that he gave us. The simple mealtime prayer is the one Judy and I use when we sit down to dinner together each evening. You can use it, too, and when you do remember the mysterious stranger at the table in Emmaus and the one who is with you at your table as well.

“Blessed are you Lord God, king of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.”