Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Yet for all their joy they were still disbelieving and wondering, and he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised, so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Luke 24:13-49; NRSVue
Of course, any passage is best read in its entirety. I highlight much of the above passage in keeping with the point I want to make here.
Jesus reveals himself and is revealed in the breaking of the bread, we can say in celebrating Communion and more fundamentally related to what Communion is all about, Christ’s body, the church. When we are gathered, Christ is present with us by the Spirit in a way that occurs nowhere else. I cannot receive from another member of Christ when I’m alone, nor can another member of Christ receive from me. The point here is that the meaning of any passage in Scripture is best discerned together.
We don’t understand Jesus through the Bible, but we understand the Bible in light of what the Bible gives us about Jesus. The Holy Spirit accompanies that, both our work together at interpreting Scripture, as well as our witness from that in Christ.
What too often is more or less the case, the Bible is read as if it’s a flat book. We apply sections of it, and I must point out here that this is quite selective, but there are portions of the Old Testament that we take out of context to justify violence, just for one example. Doing that lends itself to misreading places in the New Testament by importing violence into them. An easy example of this is importing the book of Joshua into the book of Revelation. There’s no doubt that we should learn from every page of the book of Joshua. But we have to read Revelation as it is. And essential to that equation, we have to read Jesus as given to us in the four gospel accounts: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to understand his fulfillment of Scripture, of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, as well as properly understand all the Scripture which follows the gospels. When we do, that will cast into question some of what we read in the Old Testament, especially in its meaning for us today.
In the morning and evening prayers in the back of our hymnal, Voices Together (985, 987), we read a Psalm first and interspersed with songs and hymns we have the Gospel reading followed by the Old Testament or Epistle reading. In liturgies of the church, there’s commonly a different order: the Psalm, the Old Testament reading, the Epistle reading, and then the Gospel reading. It’s like the Gospel is always the climax of the readings, and that’s good. But what’s better, at least for our purposes and the point made here is to start with Jesus, the Gospels, and read the rest of Scripture through that understanding. That will save us from calling fire out of heaven on our enemies and help us to find the great good in all of Scripture, all through the eyes and spirit of Jesus.
Jesus community 