As He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight

 But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.

Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem.  And they talked together of all these things which had happened.  So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.  But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.  And He said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?"  Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, "Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in those days?"  And He said to them, "What things?"  So they said to Him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.  But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.  Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.  Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us.  When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive.  And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women has said; but Him they did not see."  Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!  Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"  And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. 

Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther.  But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent."  And He went in to stay with them.  Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.  And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"  So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"  And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.

- Luke 24:12-35

Yesterday we read that on the day of Preparation, after Jesus was laid in the new tomb, the women returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils.  And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.  Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.  But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.  Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen!  Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.'"  And they remembered His words.  Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.  It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles.  And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. 

  But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.  In yesterday's reading, we're told that the women's story of what happened at the tomb was greeted by the apostles as if they were simply idle tales, and they did not believe them.  But we see this immediate response by Peter, who is spurred to run to the tomb.  The reading seems to indicate that he does believe the women, as he is marveling to himself at what had happened.  Peter has his own reasons for wanted to see for himself, after his repentance for denying Christ as Jesus foretold he would.   See this reading, and story of Jesus' last personal glimpse at Peter.  Further down in today's reading (verse 34), the disciples declare that Christ has appeared to Simon [Peter], but we don't know exactly when or where this even occurred as it is not recorded in Scripture; perhaps it happened at the tomb.  St. Paul refers to it in 1 Corinthians 15:5.

Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem.  And they talked together of all these things which had happened. These two are Cleopas (mentioned in verse 18), and by tradition, Luke the Evangelist himself.  It was a common literary device for a writer not to give his own name, and one which other Evangelists follow also (see Mark 14:51; John 21:24).

So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.  But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.  My study bible tells us that the nature of the resurrected body is so different from its previous state that it is not immediately recognizable (John 20:14; 21:4, 12; see 1 Corinthians 15:35-44).   The resurrected body is also able to take different forms, which is what occurs here (see Mark 16:12).  To say that their eyes were restrained means that Christ intentionally prevents them from recognizing Him.  This is in order to expose their doubting thoughts and then cure them by means of the Old Testament Scriptures (verse 27).

And He said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?"  Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, "Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in those days?"  And He said to them, "What things?"  So they said to Him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him.  But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel."  We see the focus of the disciples; it is still on the hope of the Messiah as a political redeemer or deliverer of Israel.  With His death, this earthly hope is finished. 

"Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.  Yes, and certain women of our company who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us.  When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive.  And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women has said; but Him they did not see."  Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!  Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"  And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.   My study bible here indicates that it is partial faith to believe either in a Messiah who only suffered or one that would only reign in His glory.  Complete faith sees the Messiah encompassing both.  As Jesus indicates here, all of this was foretold in the law and the Prophets. 

Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther.  But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent."  And He went in to stay with them.  Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.  And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"  So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"  And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.    Here Christ breaks bread in the same manner as He did at the Last Supper (22:19).  It gives us (and the disciples) an image of the Eucharist of the New Testament Church, my study bible notes.   It tells us that all who commune with the Lord in His risen Body in faith have their eyes opened (verse 31) to know Him.   Christ the Lord is known most perfectly in the breaking of bread (verse 35).  The disciples say to one another,  "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"   My study bible calls this the inescapable effect of hearing the Holy Scriptures taught correctly and with faith (see 2 Timothy 2:15).  It is the conviction that the words and promises are true.

It's very intriguing that the Scriptures give us this taste of the resurrected life in the image of Christ's body and appearance.  It tells us that the very nature of the resurrected body is so different from the earthly that here and in other encounters with those who were close to Him, Christ was not recognized by His own followers.  Moreover, as my study bible points out, the resurrected body is able to take different forms.  A further intriguing fact is the idea that the eyes of these disciples were restrained; that is, they were prohibited from recognizing Him.  All of this adds to the sense that the things of the resurrection may be here among us, and even interacting with us, and yet their very nature is quite "other" than the earthly.  That is, the things of God don't necessarily correspond to the same "rules" as our daily earthly life would have us believe are absolute.  Faith itself works like this; it's not defined by "earthly" rules.  It does things that are not predictable based on previous experience.  It gives us things that by "logic" we shouldn't have -- like, for instance, an experience of tremendous love that doesn't belong in our previously known vocabulary of personal experience.  Faith can help us with sudden insights we didn't think ourselves capable of -- or wisdom we didn't learn from a book.  The experience of the holy does not comply with the limitations we normally assign to our lives or to the worldly rules we think everything must obey.  And so it is in these encounters with Christ.  Furthermore, that they know Christ in the breaking of the bread teaches us truly about communion -- not only the Communion of the Eucharist, but the communion of the holy with all things.  In the Book of Acts, St. Paul addresses the Athenians at the Areopagus, at the shrine to the unknown God, teaching them something akin to what we learn in today's passage.  He says that God has made all people in such a way "that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring'" (Acts 17:27-28).  This divine nature, in which all is encompassed and held, permeates all things.  As St. Paul says, and as today's encounter teaches us, He is not far from each one of us.  In the breaking of the bread, however, we are told an even deeper story:  that in the Eucharist He makes Himself present, that as we do this "work" of the liturgy, we are to understand His presence even in the elements of the world, and with us, and within us, and among us.  For this is the reality of the divine nature, which, in St. Paul's words, is "not like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising" (Acts 17:29).  This presence connects to us through faith, and may be made present to us in any form and even through the elements of life in our world.  In short, there really are no limitations to what the holy can do or be, for, as Luke reminds us, "with God nothing will be impossible" and "the things which are impossible with man are possible with God"  (1:37, 18:37).   Jesus' appearance to the apostles reminds us that we can take nothing for granted where faith is concerned, and put no limit on existence itself.  Furthermore, God's presence is possible anywhere, in any form.  But, as with His ministry, the connection we make with the holy is through faith.