TITLE: CAN’T NOBODY BREAK BREAD LIKE JESUS
SCRIPTURE: ST. LUKE 24:13-32
We will shortly gather around this Communion Table for the final time in the Calendar Year 2016. Few began Year with us have been called from Labor to Reward. I want to spend some time focusing on this table for this final time, this 12th time this year. The text is somewhat different from what is ordinarily used as a Communion Setting, but very Powerful Text indeed.
It must be noted only Luke records this Narrative. Not a word from Matthew, or Mark, or John about this Emmaus Road Experience. And at first reading, the narrative leaves us with more questions than answers. And yet, as I studied the narrative of the Emmaus Road in preparation for today’s message, I sensed I was walking on Holy Ground! I want to lift up as a thought this morning ‘Can’t Nobody Break Bread Like Jesus.’
Have you ever had the opportunity to SIT DOWN AND EAT A MEAL WITH SOMEONE THAT WAS FAMOUS? I have sat down to eat with CEO’s – UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS – NATIONAL BAPTIST LEADERS, people known within their circles, but never with anyone really famous. In our text this morning we are introduced to two men on the Emmaus Road who almost had a meal with someone famous.
Today we have a wonderful narrative about an appearance of Jesus after his resurrection. You know this narrative, the road to Emmaus. It is the evening of Resurrection Sunday. Two followers of Jesus, not members of the disciple band which has now shrunk to eleven with the death of Judas. These additional two followers of Christ are walking back home. They are headed to the little Village of Emmaus, which Luke tells us was about 7 miles from Jerusalem.
• How long would it take three men accustomed to walking everywhere to walk 7 miles?
• Well the average human can walk about 3 miles an hour, so maybe 2 or 3 hours because it sounds like they are walking slowly and sadly
DISAPPOINTMENT - DOUBT – DISILLUSIONMENT – DEFEAT – DISCOURAGEMENT – DESPAIR - DEATH - all of these words sum up how Cleopas and his companion were feeling as they trudged up the road toward Emmaus. They had left the downhearted and confused band of disciples who were afraid and bewildered over what had happened to Jesus on Good Friday. The two men, as they travelled along, were also sad and disillusioned.
The Master they had loved and followed had been horribly put to death – a cruel and degrading death on a cross. Jesus had been made a public spectacle, exposed to the jeers of all who passed by. Only a week before, their hopes had risen to fever pitch when the excited crowds welcomed their Master waving palm branches and shouting ‘HOSANNA’.
• But now Jesus lay dead in a sealed tomb
• Their hopes were dashed
• The dream was over!
As the travelers made their weary way to Emmaus a stranger fell alongside them. It was going to be one of the most wonderful walks in history! We know, of course, that it was the risen Jesus, but somehow they didn’t recognize him. In fact Luke tells us "THEY WERE KEPT FROM RECONIZING HIM."
• It wasn’t an accident they didn’t notice who he is or that they were too preoccupied to look at him in the eye
• No, they weren’t allowed to recognize Jesus for a purpose
• It was so they might be in the same position as ourselves some 2,000 years later
So, Cleopas and another unnamed disciple are heading for home. The text said Jesus “Just showed up.” Don’t know where he came from, but just showed up. Text does not indicate they were startled by any means, but this stranger, just showed up. Undoubtedly Cleopas and his friend had at some point been with the disciples because they are amazed their walking companion who just seemed to have appeared on this dusty road hasn’t heard the news about Jesus.
Even though crucifixions were not rare in the area around Jerusalem — Rome had crucified 2,000 residents of Jerusalem during the uprising when Herod the Great died — the crucifixion of Jesus had gotten everyone’s attention.
• So they ask their companion, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem?”
• So they asked their companion “Man, where have you been”
• So they asked their companion “How could you have missed what has happened during the past three days?”
So, these fellows on this Dusty Road heading to the tiny town of Emmaus begin to tell Jesus about Jesus. Now doesn’t that beat all! First, they back off a little bit when they describe him — “HE WAS A PROPHET” but then they add, “POWERFUL IN THE THINGS HE BOTH SAID AND DID.” But “THEY CRUCIFIED HIM.”
• And, revealing their profound sorrow and disappointment, they add, “We had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel”
• Meaning, of course, to overthrow the Roman rule, restore the sovereignty of the nation, and establish again a King on the throne of David
• “But,” they said, “it’s been three days”
In addition, they added the fact the women had a Crazy Story of Jesus being gone from the Sepulcher, and angels appearing to them who said Jesus was alive. But, of course, the disciples investigated and they found the tomb empty just like the women said, but no angels and no Jesus.
• Then, Jesus, still unknown to them, begins to teach them
• Of course, Jesus Bible was what we call the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets
• So Jesus walks them through the prophecies that tell about the Messiah
Strange it is they would not have recognized him — these two people who walked together on the Road to Emmaus.
• For two days they had thought of little else
• They spoke painfully of him as they walked
• Their hearts ached for his loss
• Then he joined them on the road
• He conversed with them and they heard his voice
• They saw him as he walked and extended him an invitation to be their guest
• He accepted their hospitality
• And still they did not know him
Isn’t that a great picture – Jesus walking along the road with his despondent and confused disciples sharing their troubles? Suddenly this 2,000-year-old story is brought into the present. When disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, discouragement, despondency, depression, and despair fill our lives, Jesus is the unseen "STRANGER" walking alongside us, listening to us, and if we are willing to hear his voice, revealing himself to us.
Oh, how I would have loved to have listened to that conversation. It went on for quite some time and these two weary walkers on the Road to Emmaus listened attentively to this stranger. They are tired now, and the hour is getting late, and it was the custom of that day to ask a stranger who had nothing to eat to join you for food, and then to offer him shelter.
• So, Cleopas and the other disciple ask Jesus to eat with them
• Preparations are made
• The food is placed on the table, and then Luke says —
• When he was at the table with them, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them
This is where THINGS GET REALLY EXCITING, THE TEXT TAKES AN INTERESTING TURN. Strange it is that they should come to know him in this particular way -- HE BROKE BREAD AND THEY KNEW HIM.
• What an astounding source of revelation!
• More articulate than the words he had spoken was His -- Breaking of Bread
• More vivid than his countenance was His -- Breaking of Bread
• More penetrating than the scriptures He expounded was His -- Breaking of Bread
• Did I tell you Can’t Nobody Break Bread Like Jesus
Perhaps we should not find this so Strange after all. How often they had seen him break bread! Jesus had distinguished himself as a hearty and even controversial eater. HOW MANY TIMES HAD JESUS DONE THAT BEFORE? How many times had they eaten together –
• Either out in the Hills of Galilee
• Or at a friend’s home
• Or with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus
• Or in a room like the upper room where they share their last meal together
JESUS BEGINS HIS MINISTRY WITH EATING AND DRINKING ACTUALLY. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee, he turns water into wine. All the guests are amazed because usually the host serves the best first, but the guests at that wedding thought the host had saved the best for last.
• He feeds 5,000 on one occasion, and 4,000 on another
• Even on the hilllside the ritual is the same – Jesus thanks God, breaks the bread, and the disciples distribute it
• And not only is there enough, there are 12 basketfuls of left over
• One basket for each of the 12 disciples who did not believe there was any way possible to feed 5,000 people
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
• But Jesus is also accused, because it’s true, of eating with tax collectors and sinners
• Apparently, those are two separate categories, because to call a tax collector a sinner in the first century was an insult to sinners!
• When he was hungry on the Sabbath, he proceeded to help himself to the standing but forbidden grain and to lead his disciples to do the same
• Choosing the celebrative feast rather than the somber fast as the hallmark of his ministry, he had actually been accused of being a glutton
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.
• These were among the flood of memories these men brought with them to the table at Emmaus
• Thus it is less mysterious but no less moving that we read - “When he was at the table with them, he took the bread and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him....”
• They came to know Jesus, their risen Lord, in the breaking of bread
• Can’t Nobody Break Bread Like Jesus
It is at the blessing and breaking of the bread these two disciples recognize Jesus.
• Not at Bible Study while they’re walking on the road with him - But at the table where they have shared fellowship together
• It was when the bread was broken that they realized who Jesus really was
• It was when the bread was broken that all the Bible Studies made sense
• It was when the bread was broken and he handed them the pieces he had blessed that they knew the Bread of Life stood before them
Can you imagine the excitement they must have felt? They said to one another, "DID NOT OUR HEARTS BURN WITHIN US WHILE HE WAS SPEAKING TO US ON THE ROAD, WHILE HE WAS EXPLAINING THE SCRIPTURES TO US?"
• Their encounter with Jesus had been emotional
• It had stirred them on the inside
• It had moved their very hearts
• And once moved they could not help but share
As Jesus broke the bread, they recognized Him!
• Was it the way that Jesus broke the bread?
• Or did they see the nail prints in His hands?
• Or was it now God’s appointed time for the veil to be lifted?
• We’re not sure
• But this much is certain
When Jesus took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, they recognized Him! And then something else supernatural happened. JESUS DISAPPEARED FROM THEIR SIGHT. They would see Him again in the upper room after they had hurried all the way back the 7-8 miles to Jerusalem, this time in the dark!
That Very Hour
• Dark as it was
• Late as it was
• Dangerous as the road was
• They left for Jerusalem
• They gave witness that Jesus was risen
• That He had walked with them and talked with them
• That He had Explained the Scriptures to them
• That He had Broke bread at their table
--Finally my Brothers and Sisters, Jesus is known in the Bread at this Communion Table
--“The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks he broke it, and said: ‘This is my body which is broken for you”
--In the very bread itself Jesus is revealed
--When God’s people gather together to share the common loaf and to partake of the common cup, Jesus is present—revealed
--CAN’T NOBODY BREAK BREAD LIKE JESUS
I BELIEVE THIS IS WHY THE SONGWRITER WROTE --
BREAD OF HEAVEN, BREAD OF HEAVEN, FEED ME TILL I WANT NO MORE
