The resurrection of Jesus confused just about everybody. The women who came first to the tomb were perplexed, the apostles and the rest of the disciples thought their story was made up, and these two are pondering just what could have happened in Jerusalem over the past three days.
They're on their way home and Jesus meets up with them and teaches them just what they should have understood from Scripture about him and about the last three days. It gets late in the day and they invite Jesus to eat with them, which he does.
When he (why he's taking charge here, we aren't told) breaks the bread, their eyes are opened and they recognize him. Now, "breaking bread" is understood in a number of faith communities to be an allusion to the Lord's Supper, communion, or the Eucharist and this is a shadow of that. When Jesus ate the Passover with the disciples, he explained the imagery - what the elements had represented from the beginning of that feast and what they were that night. They were he said, his body and blood. But more than that, I think. Yes, body and blood but in those elements, in that body and blood are gathered up his entire life of giving, of faithfulness, of sacrifice for them and for the world. It isn't just his coming death they illustrate, but everything they have witnessed of him.
It is this they see when he breaks the bread - the one who gave his whole existence among men for Man. And they recognize him - all of him.
The question now, two thousand years on is simply this: when people see you among them, do they recognize Jesus? Do they see someone who gives themselves for others? This is why we are made and this is our calling - nothing less. We are to be the icon, the image, the likeness of Jesus while we live on this earth. If we are that likeness, people should be able to tell, shouldn't they?
Let's turn the question around a bit though. Can you see Jesus in you? When you reflect at the end of your day, do you think people saw Jesus in you; do you think you embodied Jesus that day?
How we answer that question will tell us whether we have the same insight these two came to have, or whether we are still confused with clouded thinking about just what God has done on the earth.
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