Today the reading in DIL (Disciplines for the Inner Life) was luke 24: 13-35. The scripture was about Jesus meeting some men on the road just after His tomb had been discovered empty. These particular men were discussing the events while they walked home, and Jesus met them en route for a little chat. They didn't recognize Him for whatever reason... was He transformed? Was He cloaked and hooded? Was He blinding them? We dont actually know, we just know that they are unaware that this is Jesus Himself. To them in this moment, He is just another human... a stranger at that!
And they allow Him into their conversation. He even becomes the main speaker... enlightening them and revealing the mysteries of Scripture concerning Him as they walk. They invite Him in. They know He should come with them, and they know that He wont just push himself their direction, but that He must be invited. They urge Him to come stay with them.
And then... after the invitation, sitting at the table, this Stranger takes the bread and He breaks it and He gives thanks to God, and they KNOW it is Him. They know this is their Savior, Jesus Himself!
Always I have seen that scripture and thought, they saw Him do it at supper the night before He went to the cross, and that is why it is in this moment that He gives Himself away... but today I realized, these men are not of the 12 disciples. They will actually be the ones to go and testify to them that Jesus is alive, and back up what the woman have already been saying! It is with these men that have invited Jesus in and allowed Him to break bread with them, that Jesus comes to the 12 disciples later. And these once strangers didn't know He was going to supernaturally show up in their midst either. They went simply to tell of Him, and then, SUPERNATURAL MOMENT, in steps Jesus!
Yesterday I was at church, and I was waiting for communion, a time in Catholic church that is spent on your knees in reverence... a time when the church is still with the weight of the Glory of the breaking of bread and the pouring of wine! In awe I always look up as the bell rings and the priest holds the bread up to the heavens, acknowledging its significance. And today as I read and realized that it was at that moment of clarity in the lives of the men on the road, wandering and wondering what will come of them in this new time, wondering if their Savior lives, if they have one at all, is the moment that Christ breaks bread with them and offers thanks to God and offers again his body and blood to them! I have always hungered for that time in church... it has always been my favorite time, even amidst power ballads, awesome dances and beautiful displays of love and worship... it is at that time, on my knees, staring unwaveringly at the bread and wine, body and blood of Christ, that I know more clearly than any other time, that Christ loves me, I have more to be grateful for that to complain about and that God is real and God WANTS me and I NEED Him.
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