Cyber Gleanings, May, 2006:

We have probably all had it happen to us.  We meet someone on the street and they call our name but we cannot recognize them.  Sometime later, after racking our brains and rearranging some synapses, the light bulb goes on and we realize who it was.  We may say to ourselves, “So, that’s who that was!”  It could be that we had not seen that person for a long time or they had changed their appearance with cosmetics, weight loss (or gain), hair pieces, or surgery.  It could also be true that we fail to recognize the person because seeing them was the last thing about which we were thinking.

The story of the two disciples on the Emmaus road is about that last reason for failing to recognize someone.  They were heading out of town, dejectedly discussing the events of the week, looking over their shoulders to make sure no one was following, and wondering aloud about what to do now.  As they walked and talked with each other, a stranger joined them and inquired about their conversation.  Cleopas was almost indignant in responding, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”  Ah, I suspect the questioner knew very well the events that had happened in Jerusalem.  The point here is that Cleopas and his unnamed traveling companion were the ones who did not know all the events that had happened there in these days.  The one event they had missed was the resurrection.    

New Testament scholars, casual readers, and feeble preachers have offered various explanations about why Cleopas and the other disciple failed to recognize Jesus.  Some maintain that his appearance was so different in the resurrected body; others have suggested that he had deliberately disguised himself, and others claim that Jesus walked with his back to the sun so that Cleopas and the other disciple were looking into the sun for the seven-mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  My own opinion is that those explanations beg the question and miss the point.  Cleopas and the other disciple failed to recognize Jesus precisely because Jesus was the last person in this world they expected to see!  They had watched him die on the cross, had seen Joseph of Arimathea place his body in the tomb, and had watched to stone be rolled across the entrance.  They had seen it or hear from those who had seen it and had no reason to doubt the truth of what they reported.  Jesus was dead!      

Walking and talking with him did not open their eyes, discussing the scriptures did not do the job, nor did teaching them the truth about the Messiah.  What finally removed the scales from their eyes was seeing Jesus do something they had seen him do many times and had participated in with him.  Seeing it again and participating in it again opened their eyes, physically and spiritually.  Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them.  The actions and the words would have been the same ones he had used when he ate supper for that final time with the twelve.  These two were probably not there on that occasion, but would have been with him many other times when eating was involved.  In that culture and in that time, eating was a communal exercise.  Physical food nourished the body; companionship fed the spirit.  Cleopas and the other were familiar with the way this rabbi did things and that familiarity caused the light bulb to turn on.    

There are several lessons in this for us.  At least one of them is that it is in the Eucharist that we experience the risen presence of Jesus.  I am not foolish enough to say that is the only place, but it is certainly one of the places.  And it is the place he himself said, “Do this often in remembrance of me.”  All of us have had or will have our Emmaus journey.  On every one of those journeys Jesus is the companion who wants to carry the grief, the burden, the hurt, and comfort us with his abiding presence.  Something, therefore, is expected of us.  Notice that Cleopas and his friend invite Jesus to stay with them and talk more.  Because the invitation was issued, Jesus stayed with them and broke bread with them and they recognized him.  May it be so with us as well! 

                                                                      Peace,

                                                            Tom