As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So, he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:28-32).

The first meal recorded in the Bible is heavy with significance. The woman took some fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened (cf. Genesis 3:6-7).

That meal is the beginning of humanities woes. Death itself is traced to this meal of rebellion. The whole creation subjected to decay, futility, and sorrow. It seems Luke is echoing this story, describing the first meal of God’s new creation. “He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened.”

In the first creation story, their eyes are opened, they realize they are naked. They are ashamed. It is bad. In the new creation, their eyes are opened, they recognize Jesus. Their hearts burn. It is good.

The Emmaus disciples discover that the long curse has been broken. Death itself defeated. God’s new creation, brimming with life and joy and new possibility, has burst in upon the world of decay and sorrow. Jesus himself, risen from the dead, is just the beginning.

He resurrection is not the same as that of Jairus’s daughter or the widow’s son. They had to face death again. Jesus went through death and came out the other side opening a new world, a new deathless creation, still physical only transformed.

Luke invites us to listen to the Biblical story, to have our hearts burning within us as fresh truth comes out of that old story. The careful study of the Bible is meant to bring together head and heart, understanding and excited Christian living. When we see the Old Testament as reaching its natural climax in Jesus, we have understood it. We will only understand Jesus when we see him as the one to whom scripture points, not in isolated prooftexts but in the entire flow of the story. And, when we grasp this, we will find our hearts burning within us.

Also, we are invited to know Jesus in the breaking of the bread. The way Luke has described the simple meal takes our minds back to the upper room, and to other meals that Jesus shared with his followers. This meal, the breaking of bread, quickly became the central symbolic action of Jesus’ people.

Though Jesus is no longer physically present, we discover him living with and in us through this meal. Scripture and sacrament, word and meal, are joined tightly together. Take scripture away, and the sacrament becomes a piece of magic. Take the sacrament away, and scripture becomes an intellectual or emotional exercise, detached from real life. But together, we have the centre of Christian living.

When Jesus’ parents found him in the temple, early in Luke’s gospel, he said to them, ‘Didn’t you know that I would have to be doing my Father’s work?’ Here we are invited to meet the Jesus who has finished his Father’s work, and longs to share it – the gift of his own presence – with us, his followers.

Luke has described for us the new Exodus that Jesus accomplished at Jerusalem (cf. 9:31). The real slave-master keeping us in bondage is death. Earthly tyrants borrow power from death to boost their rule; thus, crucifixion was such a symbol of Roman authority. Victory over death robs these earthly powers of their final threat. Sin, humans rebelling against God and defacing God’s good creation, is likewise defeated.

Jesus has led God’s new people out of slavery, and now invites us to accompany him on the new journey to the promised land. The road to Emmaus is just the beginning. Hearing Jesus’ voice in scripture, knowing him in the breaking of bread, is the way. God’s new world is here. Jesus welcomes us in.