May 2, 2004

 

Luke 24:13-35 (p. 78 NT), Setting = First Easter

Note: Jesus apparently looked different following his Resurrection. They don’t recognize him at first.  Please read the passage.

 

ILL. Yesterday the Women’s Fellowship had a very successful antique appraisal.

People brought their “treasures” and had them looked at by experts to see if their items were of any significant financial value.  I wonder if any of you had the same experience I had?  I hunted through our “stuff” and found a scale that belonged to my father.  My father was a chemist.  He collected scales.  I was all set to bring it in and have it appraised.  “Maybe it’s worth something.”  But then I realized that I would never sell it.  It was my Father’s.  It’s too special to sell.  As the ad says, “Priceless.”  Now, perhaps I should have had it appraised any way to see what it is worth and to support the Women’s Fellowship.  Instead I just stopped by to say “Hi.”  My Father’s scale was too precious to sell.  Things can be like that, can’t they?  Valuable because they connect us to someone.  Priceless in the treasure chest of our hearts.

 

Jesus and his disciples had such a connection.  They had an object and an act that connected them – the breaking of bread.  The two disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognize Jesus until he was seated around the table with them, and he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them – and then they knew it was Jesus.  He was alive!

 

Certainly the breaking of the bread was a reminder of the Last Supper when Jesus did the same thing.  Luke records it in Ch. 22: 19  “Then Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my Body which is broken for you.”

 

Blessed, Broken, Given.

 

This is also how the gospels record the Feeding of the 5000.  Luke 9 – Jesus took 5 loaves of bread and two fish, “He looked up to Heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.”

 

Blessed, Broken, Given.

 

I want to spend a few moments this morning thinking about each of those words.  They seem to be quite important words, words that connect us as well to Jesus.

 

Blessed

 

Jesus blessed the bread.  He gave thanks for it.  At the Last Supper he probably prayed this: “Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth the fruit of the vine, the wheat of the field.” one of the prayers used at Passover.  Jesus said the blessing.  He gave thanks to God for God’s provision.  “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive at this table.”  We, too, say a blessing before meals – “Would someone like to say the blessing, to bless the meal?”  I’ve been so delighted at the response to the collection of Prayers & Graces.  We made 125 copies and they all got taken, so we made more!  It’s important to remember God and give thanks at mealtime.  Of course, there’s another way that Jesus blessed the bread.  He blessed it by making it a sign of God’s Love.  You know when we say to someone, “You have been such a blessing to me.” – what we’re saying is – “You have been for me, a sign of God’s love, of God’s existence, of God’s care.”  In the feeding of the 5000, the fishes and the loaves were signs of God’s love, God’s care, and Christ’s power.  At the Last Supper, the bread and the cup became signs of God’s sacrificial love demonstrated on the Cross.  With the two disciples he met on the road to Emmaus, the bread again became a sign, this time of Christ’s Resurrection!  Jesus took the bread and blessed it.

 

II. Then he broke it.  Jesus broke the loaf. He opened it up to be shared.

 

ILL. I remember a communion service in college and I was responsible for bring the bread.

I didn’t know much about bread back then, especially how hard the crust can be. I just bought the first loaf I saw.  Our college chaplain was not a strong man.  And when it came to the part of the service where he was to break the bread, he couldn’t do it.  He tried and he tried and he tried.  Needless to say, the moment was lost.  But it taught me that bread must be broken to be shared.  You know, there’s something to say for brokenness.  “This is my body broken for you.”

Brokenness is not one of our favorite concepts.  But when it comes to the things of the Spirit, brokenness can be an opportunity for God and for us.

 

Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

 

Brokeness opens us up to God.  Our crust gets broken and there is a spiritual softening for the True Bread from Heaven.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Brokenness often brings God near.

 

ILL. Moses was a broken man, all alone in the wilderness, when God spoke. God could get his attention partly because of his brokenness.

 

ILL. The Apostle Paul was a hard, crusty, and violent man, until God blinded him on the road to Demascus.  Paul was broken.  He learned that brokenness makes room for God.  So much so that when Paul was imprisoned for preaching the Gospel he knew that God’s work could still continue.  Brokenness was an opportunity.  In his case it was an opportunity to write to a few churches while in prison.  Those letters ended up as sacred scripture – Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians.  Brokenness became an opportunity for life to change and for God to work.

 

ILL. Senator John Kerry came back from Vietnam a broken man – broken by what he had seen and taken part in.  His brokenness changed his life and propelled him forward.

 

ILL. George W. Bush was broken one day over his drinking and waywardness.  So he changed his life, made a commitment to God and to more disciplined living.  Both men were shaped by the experience of brokenness (and that seems to be about all they have in common!).  The bread was broken to be a sign of God’s Love.  Jesus was broken for us to be a sign of God’s love.  May the brokenness of Christ open us up to God.  And Jesus took the bread, and he blessed it, and he broke it, and . . .

 

III. He Gave it to them.  Blessed. Broken. And Given.  It is the very nature of God to give.

“For God so loved the world that he gave . . .” God is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17).  Those two disciples on the rode to Emmaus knew they had received a gift – the gift of Christ’s victory, the gift of the knowledge of God in Christ.  And it was a gift that they could not keep to themselves.  “And they got up and returned to Jerusalem” to tell the others that Christ was alive and that he had appeared to them. (Vs. 33)  It was 7 miles back to Jerusalem, and even though it was late, they couldn’t help themselves.  They had to spread the joy.  They couldn’t keep the good new to themselves.  They had been given a gift, Christ had appeared to them, and this gift had to be shared.

 

William Barclay: “The Christian message is never fully ours until we have shared it with someone else.”  The gifts of God are to be shared.  Blessed. Broken. Given.  Communion is so important, isn’t it?  In world that encourages us to be self-centered, self-serving and self-gratifying, we need these three little words – Blessed, Broken, & Given.  So that might seek to live lives that are blessed by God and used by God, that we might be like the Bread and have a special purpose – to be signs of God’s love to a world that is so hungry for it.

 

Let us pray: