When I was little, I was a…let’s just say creative…child. I was constantly in time-out at daycare because I tried to climb everything, I’d see how long I could hold my breath underwater in the pool, I’d convince the other kids to join in my schemes, etc. And I was lovingly told that I walked for a day before I just started running, much to the horror of the other kids. I couldn’t see then how my actions were dangerous to myself and others, so instead I’d just spend most of my days sitting in timeout with my arms crossed as my poor daycare mom tried not to laugh. (There are some really good pictures of this exact pose!) To this day, one of the stories that gets retold a lot is the time when I took a box of Rice Krispies that was probably about half my size, the largest size they sold, snuck down to the playroom, and dumped them all over the floor. Our daycare mom walked in to see my sidekick and I jumping up and down on them, as I simply wanted them to go “Snap, Crackle, and Pop”…not realizing that adding milk is what got that effect. We thought we could get the expected results anyway, which led to two disappointed kids and our daycare mom who had to try not to laugh while helping us clean-up our mess.
Now you might be wondering what this story has to do with our Gospel today, but I actually see a lot of parallels. In today’s Gospel, we get another story of the Resurrected Jesus interacting with his disciples, trying to see how they are responding to the news of his death and resurrection. Unlike the Gospel from John last week, these disciples are not locked in a room out of fear, but they are still in a place of confusion after the women and men returned to say that they found the tomb empty and they saw the angels, but no one has seen Jesus yet. (Luke 24: 1-12). What does this mean?? This is not the expected results!
So our story today focuses not on the people who went to the tomb, but on the two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus. Jesus appears to them, seemingly saying, “whatcha doing?” Jesus obviously knows what the disciples are talking about, but they don’t know that he knows, because they have been stopped from seeing that this is Jesus. I think this is intentional here, as a way to check what the disciples have learned from his teachings. It reminds me a lot of Seminary, with a lot of checks of our theology along the way to make sure that when we go out into calls we aren’t spreading harmful or incorrect teachings about our Lutheran understanding of faith. So Jesus appears to these two and basically asks them to teach him about what has been going on in Jerusalem, as if Jesus doesn’t know best what he had experienced! Once again, the disciples don’t quite get it.
This is where we start to get some more parallels between the Rice Krispies story and the disciples, because like my determination and disappointment when the Rice Krispies wouldn’t do what I wanted, so too are the disciples disappointed and misunderstanding what it is that Jesus came to do. They are still stuck in their thinking that this one would come as the great military leader who would “set Israel free” (Luke 24: 21). But instead this one was crucified and then his tomb was found empty. They don’t know what to do with this information because it not at all like they expected it would be; it’s like Rice Krispies without the milk!
Having done some teaching in the last few years, I always empathize with Jesus a little bit when he hears their responses and realizes that they still do not understand what he was trying to teach them. This isn’t even just a case of them not recognizing Jesus, but they still haven’t taken to heart what Jesus was actually there to do. “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus interpreted for them every passage of Scripture which referred to the Messiah” (Luke 24: 27). Jesus wasn’t done teaching them yet. He was there to help them clean up their theological mess, especially before it could spread further.
However, while they still have some confusion around what Jesus’ death and resurrection means for them, I think there is some hope in this story for what the disciples have taken to heart. They were taught to love and care for one another, so even though they did not know this man walking with them on the roadway, they invited him in to stay for the evening as an act of hospitality. They didn’t let him continue walking, as evening came and the roads would become even more dangerous in the dark. They opened their doors to him and invited him in for a meal. It was through these acts that their eyes were opened to see who it was that had been walking with them all along. In the breaking of the bread, Christ becomes known to them again (Luke 24: 30-31). And then he vanishes, leaving the disciples with the crumbs trying to figure out what this all means for them. But this time, they immediately began the almost 7-mile journey back from Jerusalem, where they had just come from, to share this good news (Luke 24: 33-35). Like how I was left to think about my actions and how I would change my ways, so too does Jesus leave the disciples to ponder what this all means for their lives.
The disciples learned from Christ about what had happened and why it needed to happen, even though it wasn’t how they wanted or expected it to be. There was some disappointment, but there was also joy in the midst of confusion. There was a gathering over a meal, an act of hospitality and love toward one another that signaled what God’s reign is all about. It isn’t about the armed victories, but it is about the breaking of the bread and the care that we have for one another. There is a realization that there is still so much for the disciples to learn and not so much at the same time because they are walking with a stranger and invited him to a meal instead of hiding out after Jesus’ crucifixion.
While last week in John the disciples needed to be sent out, in today’s story they have already begun the work of God, even if it took them a while to realize it as such. They are reminded that this is their work to do now, not by anything that Jesus said to them, but by the way that he vanished before their eyes as soon as he was made known to them (Luke 24: 31). Despite their misunderstanding of all of his teachings, Jesus seemed to trust that they finally had it figured out because he didn’t stay behind to continue to teach them. Just as I was left behind to clean up all of the cereal we had dumped on the floor, realizing that moving forward we should probably just eat the Rice Krispies instead. Or in more communion language, “taste and see that the Lord is good.”