How to see the risen Jesus

The Gospel of Luke chapter 23 ends with a corpse in a grave.

The corpse, of course, is what is left of Jesus of Nazareth.

Chapter 24 starts with the rumor that, after three days in the grave, life came back into the corpse and Jesus came out of the grave alive.

Jesus’s friends did not believe the rumor. About these friends, the storyteller uses words like “perplexed,” “terrified,” and “amazed.”

Who can blame them? In Luke’s version of the story, nobody saw Jesus alive again. It all seemed like “an idle tale” (24:11), as it surely would to us.

Then, in 24:13, we get a story about two people the storyteller never brought up once in the first 23 chapters of his book. They’re on their way to a town that no storyteller ever named before in the entire Bible.

And it is to these strangers on their way to nowhere that Jesus–alive indeed!–appears.

“But their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (24:16).

What does this mean?

It means that we, the audience, now know that Jesus is back from the dead. But the people in the story still don’t know it!

These two people who knew Jesus as well as anyone, walked alongside him for hours and did not see him.

It is only at the end of the journey, when Jesus breaks bread with them, that “their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (24:31).

But as soon as they recognized him, he “vanished from their sight” (24:31)!

Weird.

Two things stand out in Luke’s version of the ‘Jesus Resurrection Story.’

First, in Luke’s version, Jesus does not show himself to any of the main characters that we know (Mary, Peter, etc.). In Luke’s version, Jesus does not show himself at the tomb.

When Jesus finally shows himself, it is to two people that we don’t know. And even though he shows himself to them, “their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (24:16).

The first time they do recognize him is almost at the end of the book, when Jesus breaks bread at their table (24:30-31). No anthem. No crowd. No fireworks. No 21-gun salute. Just three people sitting down to supper.

The storyteller wants you to get this point so he repeats it twice.

“When [Jesus] was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (24:30-31).

Later, when these two go back to tell Jesus’s other friends that they saw him alive, they tell “how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread” (24:35).

If you’re a church lifer, maybe this is the first time for you to notice: In Luke’s version of the resurrection story, people do not see Jesus alive again until he breaks bread with these two.

It is the breaking of bread that reveals Jesus. This is the point!

The second thing to note about Luke’s version of the resurrection story is “seeing/not seeing.”

In the first part of the story, Jesus’s friends saw the empty tomb, but they did not see Jesus.

When Jesus himself joined the two friends on the road, they could see him, but they could not see him.

Later, when the two friends told Jesus about the women who first found the empty tomb, they ended their story with: “they did not see him.”

Again, they see Jesus only when he breaks the bread (24:31, 35).

And just as soon as they see him, he “vanished from their sight” (24:31).

Even so, “they said to each other: ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road…?” (24:32).

When his friends could not see him, they were full of feelings like “perplexed” (24:4), “terrified” (24:5), “amazed” (24:12), and “sad” (24:17).

But even though they were feeling these things while Jesus was out of sight, their hearts were “burning” within them.

A few weeks ago, Christians celebrated Easter. For us, that is the day we remember that we believe Jesus did come back from the dead. On Easter, it is easy to imagine Jesus coming out of the tomb like conquering king.

But reality sets back in fast. Most of all in these days of daily death reports in the morning news.

As the days after Easter pass and our lives and the world do not seem to change so much, it starts to seem like the Resurrection is an “idle tale,” a rumor. To be sure, it is a rumor we hope to be true, but we find it hard or impossible to believe on most days.

We are in good company. Jesus’s own friends didn’t believe it either.

The Gospel of Luke storyteller has good news for us even here and now.

The good news is that being perplexed, terrified, amazed, and sad are all normal feelings…even for people who are suppose to believe.

The good news is that even though we do not see the living Jesus, he might just be walking along beside us. Every once in awhile, we might even get to enjoy the feeling of our “hearts burning within us” to let us know he is there.

The good news is that, every once in awhile, something may open our eyes to see Jesus alive. The way Luke tells it, that “something” will be the “breaking of the bread.”

Don’t get too religious here. The bread Jesus broke with those two strangers was not Holy Communion. It was just an everyday meal, a simple supper. But it takes our minds back to how Jesus taught us to ask God for our “daily bread” and how he broke and gave bread to thousands. In the Bible, bread stands for whatever we need to stay alive.

And if you think about it, bread is a little resurrection. We get hungry. We get weak. We eat. We are revived and strengthened. Bread resurrects us.

So here’s what the Gospel of Luke storyteller wants you to do: Next time you “break bread,” pause and take note.

Take note of the ingredients in the food you are about to eat. Trace those ingredients back to their origins. Trace them back to the person who stocked them on the shelves at your local grocery store. Trace them back to the truck driver who brought them to your town. Trace them back to the place where they were turned into food. Trace them back to the farmers and fishers who planted and harvested them. Trace them back to the rain, soil, and sun. Trace them back to the One who gives rain, soil, and sun freely to everyone without demanding payment in return.

Take note of these things.

Take note of all the hands that brought you a plate of resurrection.

Take note of the hands that first shared the goodness of heaven with all those other hands that brought you your bread.

And in that moment, when you take note, maybe, just maybe, your eyes will be opened and you will see him: The One who rises from the dead. The One who raises from the dead.

Grace and peace.