3 November LUKE 24

It is in the breaking of the bread they recognised Jesus

Luke 24:28-35(NIV) As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Somehow Jesus was not recognised at first. They finally recognised Jesus and they recognised Him in the action of breaking bread. It was an action they had no doubt seen Him take many times. It was an action they had seen Him take when He fed the crowd of thousands—over and over, breaking those five loaves of bread and somehow the pieces fed the crowd with baskets and baskets left to spare.

That action of breaking bread embodied the goodness of God in Jesus as He, the Shepherd, fed His lambs. And so finally, their eyes were opened; finally, they recognised Him. Luke says: and their eyes were opened.

According to John Freund, they recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread. How often they had seen Him break bread!

• He brought down the wrath of the religious elite upon Himself because of His dietary customs. • He ate food with sinners and tax collectors in violation of the sanctimonious taboos of His day. • When the multitude had heard Him eagerly throughout a long day, He refused to send them away until they had been fed. • His followers had seen Him take a little boy’s lunch of two fishes and five loaves, bless this food, break it, and then distribute it to a throng of people that numbered in thousands. • On the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus had insisted upon eating the Passover meal with His disciples. After supper, in what was to be His last meal with them before His death, He once again broke bread with them saying: This is my body. He shared the cup with them and likened the wine to His blood, soon to be shed. • He had actually taught His disciples that when they fed another who was hungry, it was as though they were doing it to Him.

The two disciples in the story failed to perceive the Jesus who accompanied them on their journey. They failed, that is, until they arrived in Emmaus, invited Jesus into the house, and sit down for a meal. Then Jesus, who was the invited guest, became the host of the meal. (Picked up the bread.) He took a loaf of bread, lifted it up to God, blessed it, broke it, and shared it with His two followers. Then the disciples remembered, this is what Jesus had always done.

Suddenly, their vision cleared up. They remembered their relationship with Jesus. They recognised who it was, sitting at the table with them. The word cognition means to know or understand something through thought, experience, senses, and intuition. So, we can say that to recognise means to perceive or know again. The disciples came to perceive and to know Jesus again in the taking, blessing, breaking, and sharing of the bread and cup.

The word translated as ‘broke’ in this verse is the Greek word klaó. In the New Testament, this verb is solely used to describe the breaking of the bread. Klao means to break, but in the sense of opening up and producing life. It speaks of a breaking, in which the energy is directed to form a bursting of fragments, streams or branches.

So, when we apply this to the bread of communion, we realise that the breaking of His body, the suffering and the pain He endured for us, was necessary to open the way into a newness of life. A life in which He is the source. The same thing happens when the Word of God is broken open before our eyes, which is when we eat, and it leads us into deeper insights of His being.

This is exactly what the men experienced after partaking in the communion meal.

Luke 24:31(NKJV) Then their eyes were opened, and they knew Him;

When we look at the Greek words translated ‘opened’ and ‘knew’ in this verse, we come to see that what these men experienced, was something truly remarkable and powerful. They transitioned from knowing about Jesus, to truly knowing Him, and that is what partaking of communion does.