Jesus reframed an old story and tradition for a new purpose - to remember him

1 Mar 2023 · 1 min

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The disciples on the road to Emmaus couldn't recognize Jesus until he broke bread with them. The speaker connects this moment to how Jesus repurposed an old tradition into the Eucharist, a new practice centered on communal remembrance that shaped Christian worship for centuries.

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He says, "But didn't the scriptures say this, and didn't the scriptures say that, and didn't—" And he's unpacking it all for them, and they're getting it, but they're not seeing it, because if you look in the story, it actually says they were kept from seeing who Jesus was. God just didn't want, just like with Elisha, didn't want him to recognize him yet, God didn't want Jesus to be recognized by a bunch of information that he gave. He wanted him to be recognized by something, this meal. And so when they come into the house and they beg him to stay, they say, "Please stay." He says, "No, no, I'll keep going." "No, please stay." "Okay, I'll come in." And Jesus comes in and he takes the bread and he says, "Father, for that which we're about to receive, may we be truly grateful." And he breaks the bread, and just then they go, "It's Jesus." And when they look up, open their eyes from prayer, he's gone. Poof. And then they look at each other and they say this beautiful phrase that actually started much of the Protestant Reformation with the Wesley brothers. "Was not our heart strangely warmed at the words that he said?"