Breaking the Word

Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have." And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. 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 and in the prophets and 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 would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. (Lk 24:35-48)

 

 

Jesus reveals himself to his disciples. He talks to them as he would do with them while he was on earth doing his ministry. He realizes their incredulity. He gives them physical proofs. He asks them to touch and see and he even asks them give him food to eat. He is only trying to prove that he is the very same person. So the resurrection experiences of the disciples are of the very same Jesus and someone else.

 

Jesus also confirmed their faith in his resurrection by using scriptures. He quotes from Moses and the prophets to prove that his life of suffering and death and resurrection were foretold by the prophets and the law. His life was for the forgiveness of sin and hence he is the messiah for the people of Israel. Jesus after his resurrection uses scriptures as well to make his disciples to realize that he was the same person whom they have lived with earlier.

 

Now they are asked to be his witnesses. Witnesses to the whole world and witnesses of all these things. They are to be witnesses of everything that has taken place for Jesus: his suffering, death and resurrection. They are to bear witness by preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins.  

Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, "What are you discussing as you walk along?" They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?" …

As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning (within us) while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?" So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, "The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!" Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Lk 24:13-35)

 

 

The two disciples were on their way back home. Peter did the very same thing when he said “I am going fishing”. After the death of Jesus the disciples were disillusioned, disappointed, discouraged and some of them were even desperate and they wanted to go back to their old ways of living. As they walked along they were also sharing their disappointments only.

 

Jesus as he walked along with them was trying to enter into their feelings, their mentality and captured their situation fully. Then he also discussed the same topic but with support of the scriptures. He was trying to make them realize that the scriptures were fulfilled in all what they had experienced. Jesus was trying to make them read life in scripture perspective.

 

While they were walking they communicated to each other and to Jesus what the other disciples and the women were saying. Resurrection experiences were narrated from the very beginning. Narration of their experiences was the primary factor to communicate resurrection. Even these two rushed back to Jerusalem to narrate to the others what had happened to them on their way.