The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
May 8, 2011
Vol. 14 no. 19
The clock is being turned back this Sunday, again. I know turning clocks back is a foreign concept to people in Saskatchewan – they just do it everywhere else! Instead, this third Sunday of Easter we return to the evening of the First Sunday, on the road to and from Emmaus. Last week, the disciples met behind locked doors on that same Sunday evening and Jesus appeared to them. No escaping -- we have to begin from the point we realize there is a resurrection.
Much is made of the fact that the two disciples finally recognized that their companion on the road was indeed Jesus during their meal together, in the breaking of bread. Luke does not report what Jesus said as he was taking, blessing, breaking and giving the bread to Cleopas and friend. Did he say, “This is my body … this is my blood”? Or did he use more general and traditional prayers? I tend to think the latter, and if so this is the only reference to a sacred meal, a holy communion, that does not call to mind the events of the Last Supper, the night on which Jesus was betrayed. The Emmaus meal is the lone example of communion after the resurrection and thus the model of most of our occasions in which we share the bread and the wine. We are, after all, Easter people.
Keep in mind that it wasn’t just bread that opened their eyes and minds. The conversation and debate with the stranger on the road caused their hearts to burn with insight and excitement. It all started to make sense as someone else laid it out for them as they walked, the intellectual basis of the Gospel. Yet, as often happens with our minds, it didn’t quite click. Does bread click?
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan