Main news for 13 August 2018

King James Version (en)

Luke, Chapter 24, verses 11-12

¹¹And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.

¹²Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.

NOTES

Today's reading gives a detailed account of the disciples' encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus. This story is preceded by mention of the empty tomb discovered by the women, as well as of their encounter with...

Today's reading gives a detailed account of the disciples' encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus (vv. 13–35). This story is preceded by mention of the empty tomb discovered by the women, as well as of their encounter with the angels, which they reported to the apostles (vv. 1–12). It would seem that the women's account should have prepared the disciples for the possibility of seeing the Teacher risen from the dead, especially since Peter, after visiting the tomb, had made certain that it was empty, thus confirming the story which the apostles had at first disbelieved (vv. 11–12). Yet the disciples walking to Emmaus do not recognize Jesus as He walks beside them (vv. 15–16). Only at the meal, when He broke the bread and recited the corresponding Jewish prayer said at the breaking of bread, did the apostles recognize Him (vv. 30–31).

At first glance, the situation seems rather strange: the disciples initially see Jesus quite clearly but cannot understand that it is He; then, once they recognize Him, for some reason they suddenly lose sight of the Teacher. Yet what we may have before us here is a description of the reality of the Kingdom as it is revealed to someone standing at the boundary between it and the world not yet transformed. Since the coming of Christ, the Kingdom is no longer separated from us by a barrier as it was before, and now anyone who lives a spiritual life can at times see those who dwell in the Kingdom, just as the apostles saw the risen Jesus.

But seeing and recognizing are not the same thing. Recognition requires more than seeing the Kingdom from outside: one must enter it. For the apostles, this happens at the breaking of bread. Just as once at the Last Supper, they find themselves in the Kingdom and then recognize Jesus breaking and blessing the bread. Had they been able to retain the fullness of the Kingdom that had opened before them, perhaps they would not have lost sight of the Teacher. But even before the Resurrection, they often saw Him not with spiritual sight but with physical sight alone. So it is now: the spiritual sight so essential for life in the Kingdom opened in them only for a moment and then went dark again. Although they continued to remain physically in the Kingdom, they became as though blind within it: only that in which untransformed nature still remained was left accessible to their perception.

If the former, untransformed humanity had still remained in Jesus, perhaps they would not have lost sight of Him. But after the Resurrection it was no longer present in Him, and therefore the disciples could no longer see Him. It would seem that after Jesus' Resurrection everything in the apostles' lives should have changed. But encounters with the Risen One alone were not enough for such changes to take place. The apostles themselves still had to be transformed, and this required time and a special action of the Spirit of God, which still lay ahead.

God calls each of us to act exactly this way. Go and see for yourself. It looks to you like foolishness and the hysteria of nervous women - go and check. You have complaints against God that the world is arranged unfairly - then go and...

An interesting question: why do the apostles walking on the road to Emmaus not recognize their Teacher? Of course, they were not expecting the Resurrection; it seemed to them that everything was over, and to the One they took for a stranger they bitterly told everything "that had happened in these days in Jerusalem." But how can one fail to recognize the One with whom one has spent several years, speaking with Him every day? A changed humanity, not easily perceived by the eyes and senses of fallen man? Perhaps yes, for the Kingdom reveals itself with difficulty, and only in part, to untransfigured sight. But at the moment of the breaking of the bread they see Him with complete clarity. What happened?

A theologian could perhaps build an entire sacramentology on this one fact. But the matter here may be both simpler and more complex: the disciples simply partook of the Kingdom, entered it, and found themselves right at its center, where He, their Teacher, is. And from within the Kingdom the Kingdom can be seen well, so the apostles, of course, immediately made out Jesus without difficulty. But how and why it turns out that the Kingdom now opens to the disciples, then closes again to them, remains something one can only wonder about.

One thing is clear: now it is truly near, so near that one can cross its boundary without even noticing it. Yet, on the other hand, it turns out that one can cross the boundary of the Kingdom without noticing not only the boundary, but even the Kingdom itself. One can pass through it without seeing or sensing anything, without noticing even the One whom, while He still belonged in His human nature to the untransfigured part of creation, it had been impossible not to notice. Apparently what is needed is a relationship actualized here and now, a bond like the one uniting those gathered around the broken bread, in order to experience the reality of the Kingdom. And it turns out to be infinitely great: as soon as the apostles recognized Jesus and found themselves in the same spiritual dimension with Him, He immediately disappeared from sight, dissolving into the infinite distance, for He is at the center of His Kingdom, and the apostles, it appears, are still very far from the center...

And yet the meeting took place. That is the main thing. The rest will follow, for ahead lies an entire life, a life to be lived in the Kingdom.

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