In Luke’s Gospel this week we encounter the moving story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Two followers of Jesus are walking away from Jerusalem, weighed down with disappointment and confusion after the events surrounding the Crucifixion of Jesus. Their hopes seem shattered. They had believed that Jesus was the one who would redeem Israel, yet now he has died, and they struggle to understand what it all means.
As they walk, the risen Jesus himself draws near and begins to accompany them, though they do not recognise him. Even when he converses with them, explains the Scriptures to them and, in the light of his teaching, asks the leading question about the true career of the Messiah, they still do not recognise him. Their eyes remain closed, not because Jesus is absent, but because they cannot yet comprehend the deeper meaning of what has taken place. Jesus patiently leads them through the Scriptures, showing that the Messiah had to suffer before entering into glory. Their hearts begin to burn within them as he speaks, yet recognition still eludes them.
It is only later, when they reach Emmaus and invite the stranger to stay with them, that the moment of revelation occurs. During the meal, he takes bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them. Through this action, associated with his words, he reveals himself to them as the suffering Messiah who is now in glory. The simple act of breaking the bread recalls the self-giving love that Jesus showed throughout his ministry and most fully in his death.
It is by their participating in his suffering and death for them, symbolised by his breaking the bread and giving it to them, that their eyes – the eyes of their faith – are opened. In that moment they recognise him, and yet he vanishes from their sight. The disciples then realise that the risen Lord had been with them all along.
The story reminds us that Christ is often recognised not in extraordinary displays of power, but in the breaking of the bread and in the patient unfolding of Scripture. When our eyes are opened by faith, we too discover that the risen Lord walks beside us on the road of life.
Fr Stephen Berecz
