A lot of Jesus' resurrection appearances have something in common: People don't seem to know who he is. Sometimes they do, but in several of them the people who see him don't recognize him. Christians through history have wondered why that is -- why would these people, who had been traveling with him and listening to him teach for the better part of three years, not know him when they saw him?
I don't know if there's one answer that fits all of them. Today's story, that of the walk to Emmaus Jesus takes with two of his disciples, offers what might be one of the stranger versions because the two disciples in question spend most of the day with Jesus but don't know him until the very end of their time together. When they later tell the rest of the disciples about it they say that he was made known to them "in the breaking of the bread." Why was that act the one that made the difference?
Let's look first at all the times they didn't recognize him during the day and see if something makes the breaking of the bread different from them.
They don't recognize him when he joins them on the road. We don't know if he caught up to them, they caught up to him, he joined them from a side road or what, but it's clear that just seeing him wasn't enough to truly know him for who he really was. And it also wasn't enough to just hear his voice once they started conversing. Here we see one answer people give as to why Jesus wasn't known to these disciples. Their eyes, it says, were kept from recognizing him. But really all that does is push the question back one layer. What's the point of keeping him from being recognized? We're still left with not knowing why they don't know him.
After the pair explain their situation to Jesus, he comments that they've missed the boat on things, and then begins to explain how the words of Moses -- the Law or Torah -- and the prophets point to him. If these two disciples had followed Jesus any length of time, they must have heard things they had heard before -- maybe even in the same exact words! But those aren't enough to clue them in on who they're talking with, even though both of them later note they were singularly affected by the experience. So far, neither the evidence of the senses, direct interaction through conversation or gaining wisdom and knowledge from Jesus' words and teaching have been enough to make it plain who Jesus is.
When they all get to Emmaus, Jesus makes as if he's heading on down the road but the two disciples invite him to stay with them. This may sound strange to us but would have been perfectly understandable to the people of the time. Even though Jesus was a stranger to the disciples -- or so they thought -- the hospitality culture of that part of the world made it clear that decent people would invite the stranger as a guest. In chapter 14, Luke records Jesus telling his listeners to invite the poor and the strangers to their table. The pair are obeying Jesus' own words and commands -- but this is not enough for them to identify him as Jesus. Seeing and hearing Jesus, listening to his teaching, even following his teaching have not been enough to help the disciples know who their roadside companion has been.
As the guest, Jesus is given the place of honor as the host of the meal, so he begins by blessing the bread and distributing it to those at the table. And then they know him. The breaking of the bread breaks the veil of perception and they know him, which they then run back to tell the others. Then they also learn that Jesus had appeared to some of them as well, including Simon Peter.
Why does the bread-breaking do it? We could say the familiarity of the act jogs their memory, but remember they've been walking and talking with him for a good chunk of the day. It stretches things to think this is the first familiar act or word Jesus does during that time.
Here's what I think. The bread-breaking is the first thing that Jesus has done all day that is completely and only him. When they see and hear them they're using their senses. When they listen to his teaching they're using their intellect to comprehend them. When they obey his teaching they've decided they will do so.
But when he breaks the bread Jesus does something that only he can do. He has been made the honored guest and the meal and it will not begin until he takes action. Only he can do this, and it is when the disciples no longer participate that Jesus can be seen for who he really is.
I really like thinking this way about this story. I like it because it shows us that while perceiving Jesus and learning about Jesus and even obeying Jesus are all important and vital parts of following him, we do not see the real Jesus until he performs the act only he can perform.
Methodist founder John Wesley called communion a "means of grace," or a way by which God communicates the grace of his love to human beings. That God communicates with us at all is an act of grace, because he's surely not required to do it. He chose to. Today we do not have the experience of seeing and hearing Jesus in the flesh the way the disciples of his time did. We can of course learn of him from the scriptures and we can obey what he teaches us to do, but just like then those things by themselves are not enough to know him for who he is. Only he can show us that, and he has chosen the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup as special representations of his acts to help us truly see and know him. His messiah-ship was made real when he offered himself on the cross and in his own words the bread is his body, broken for us. He was made known in his breaking.
It's not automatic. We can go through these motions just as easily as we can any others with which we become familiar. But if we will let him, he will make himself known to us in his breaking.
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