Scripture Daily

Context No. 1043 of 4322 · Luke

Context · Reflection

Luke 24:30-35: in context

30When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave it to them. 31Their eyes were opened and they recognized him; then he vanished out of their sight. 32They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?” 33They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, 34saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

Two disciples walking to Emmaus on Easter, crushed by the crucifixion, have been joined by a stranger who explained the scriptures to them along the road, though they did not recognize him. Now, at the table, when the guest takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them, suddenly their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus, and at that instant he vanishes. They turn to each other: were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures? They get up that very hour, hurry back to Jerusalem, and find the eleven already saying the Lord is risen and has appeared to Simon.

Two moments of recognition sit side by side here. Along the road their hearts burned as the stranger opened the scriptures, but they did not yet know him; the burning was real but incomplete. Then at the table, in the breaking of the bread, their eyes were opened and they saw. Luke seems to be showing us two places where the risen Christ is known: in the opening of the scriptures and in the breaking of the bread, word and meal, the very two things at the center of Christian worship ever since. Notice the pattern. Jesus met them in their grief, walked with them unrecognized, unfolded the scriptures until their hearts burned, and made himself known in the breaking of bread, and the moment they recognized him he was gone from sight, because now they would know him in the word and the bread rather than by his visible presence. And their response is immediate: they run back through the dark to tell the others. Recognizing the risen Christ turns grieving walkers-away into hurrying witnesses.

Do my own hearts burn when the scriptures are opened, and do I recognize the risen Christ in the word and the breaking of bread, enough to hurry and tell others he is alive?

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