Luke 24 is one of my favourites. Two disciples set out from Jerusalem, a place of shattered dreams to converse dynamically what they were feeling concerning Jesus of Nazareth.
“We had hoped…”
Their perspectives they had of Jesus was to meet their aspirations politically. They were oppressed by the Romans and they wished for a David kind of warrior to deliver them as in times past. The book cover illustrated above is a culmination of a process I went through when I lost my mother in 2024. It was a spiritual retreat that I undertook that year. It was the way I dealt with bereavement. Here Jesus approached the two disciples to join with them. They did not recognise Him.
The reason for this non recognition was that Jesus Himself was to take them through a process from “personal devastation” to “personal destiny” through knowing the Risen Lord. He had to let them express their version of Jesus to then take them on a journey beyond the one they were on.
“He opened to them the Scriptures “
The first base to seek God is through His Word. He starts in the Law, the Prophets then Psalms. They begin to see that none of the events that had shaken their world were spurious happenings, but were in detail prophesied about, prayed and sung about. There was no denial concerning the precise way they described the death of Jesus.
They marvelled as they perceived that as the Scriptures predicted in detail the happenings they witnessed they also pointed to a greater and higher plan.
“He brought them to His Table“
As the evening drew long shadows the two disciples asked Him to stay the night. As they prepared for the night Jesus brought them to the table. Anyone who is conversant with Biblical customs knows that the table was a covenantal custom. You sat around a table to partake together something significant and covenantal.
The Word, when Jesus opens it to us, prepares us to perceive the Covenant He is bringing us into. Once the Word “burns within us” we know we are transitioning from devastation to destiny. The Table is the point we exchange physical and spiritual food. That is why Jesus instituted the Eucharist/Communion as a focal point being there are vertical and horizontal covenants to be solidified.
“Lifted up the bread, broke it, and blessed it…”
3 actions, lifted, broke, blessed.
That is what Jesus does in this process, He lifts us out of our thinking, breaks our dependence on our senses and blesses us. As He does this here in Luke 24 their eyes are opened. Every time we engage Jesus on this level this is what He does with us at the Table. Its a precious exchange indeed.
“The Bread that is lifted, broken and blessed”
The Bread is symbolic of the Body, the Church. It is here we are lifted out of the world, it’s practices and manners, and it’s eventual destiny. We are broken to be made whole in another form. Its through brokeness we learn all things that Jesus teaches our inner man. The correlation between being broken and blessed is there. Our blessings that come from Him come effectively to the measure of our brokeness. As we are broken and blessed so the world shall have it’s eyes opened to see Him as He is in and through the Church.
This text is fresh here for this series but I deal in greater detail in the book in our Store. Avail yourself of this spiritual retreat.
Maranatha!!!
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