A Tale of Two Meals
So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight. Luke 24:28-31, RSV.
Meals are important in the Bible. The feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000 were memorable events, as was the Last Supper. But here we need to go back to the first meal described in Scripture: "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons" to cover their nakedness (Gen. 3:6, 7, RSV).
I would like to suggest that we can sum up the Bible message as a tale of two eye-opening meals. The first was an earth-shaping event. With it came the entrance of sin, death, and the other miseries that have provided a centerfold for the history of a world that has jumped its track and has been in the process of self-destruction. That meal also led to a long list of human ways to solve the problems caused by sin, the first being a human-generated approach to salvation and redemption. Human beings can solve the problem, runs the subtheme. We can use fig leaves to cover our nakedness. If that doesn't fully do the trick, we can overthrow the powers of darkness through force. And with that came the vision of a very human Messiah.
The second meal put an end to all that human-centered speculation. This time, however, eyes opened more fully to the divine solution to the difficulties that had entered at the first meal.
When the eyes of those two disciples were opened, they truly saw the meaning of Christ's death and his all-important resurrection. They clearly recognized that the cruse of sin had met its defeat, that death itself had suffered a fatal blow, that new possibilities were on the horizon.
Jesus was alive! Not like Jairus' daughter, or the son of the widow of Nain, or the resurrected Lazarus. They would have to face death again. But here is One who has gone through death and come out the other side a victor.
Their eyes were opened. Because of their resurrected Lord everything took on bright new meaning. And those new eyes are also for you and me.
So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; and he vanished out of their sight. Luke 24:28-31, RSV.
Meals are important in the Bible. The feeding of the 4,000 and the 5,000 were memorable events, as was the Last Supper. But here we need to go back to the first meal described in Scripture: "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons" to cover their nakedness (Gen. 3:6, 7, RSV).
I would like to suggest that we can sum up the Bible message as a tale of two eye-opening meals. The first was an earth-shaping event. With it came the entrance of sin, death, and the other miseries that have provided a centerfold for the history of a world that has jumped its track and has been in the process of self-destruction. That meal also led to a long list of human ways to solve the problems caused by sin, the first being a human-generated approach to salvation and redemption. Human beings can solve the problem, runs the subtheme. We can use fig leaves to cover our nakedness. If that doesn't fully do the trick, we can overthrow the powers of darkness through force. And with that came the vision of a very human Messiah.
The second meal put an end to all that human-centered speculation. This time, however, eyes opened more fully to the divine solution to the difficulties that had entered at the first meal.
When the eyes of those two disciples were opened, they truly saw the meaning of Christ's death and his all-important resurrection. They clearly recognized that the cruse of sin had met its defeat, that death itself had suffered a fatal blow, that new possibilities were on the horizon.
Jesus was alive! Not like Jairus' daughter, or the son of the widow of Nain, or the resurrected Lazarus. They would have to face death again. But here is One who has gone through death and come out the other side a victor.
Their eyes were opened. Because of their resurrected Lord everything took on bright new meaning. And those new eyes are also for you and me.
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