They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within
us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures
to us?” (Luke 24: 32)
When I was in high school my great love of the theater
prompted me to take courses in modern dance. I figured that, if I were to make
a career on the stage, I’d better learn how to move gracefully and not stomp
about running into the furniture. I also figured out that dance class would get
me out of regular boy’s gym class and allow me to spend my phys ed period in a
room full of cute girls in leotards. One other male student caught on to this
benefit, a guy named Dale Cohen. Dale and I got to be pretty good buds as the
only boys in the class. One day he invited me to come home with him and have dinner
with him and his folks.
The Cohens were a conservative Jewish family, and their
mealtime was steeped in a tradition of both religious observance and great
hospitality to the goy guest their son had invited to share their table. I
remember Mr. Cohen instructing me to hold a piece of bread in my hand as he
said the Hebrew blessing. He then told me that it was the Cohen family
tradition to enhance the meal by choosing a current topic for discussion. I
don’t remember what the topic was that night, but I remembered being impressed
by how this family ate and talked and related to each other. The breaking of
the bread at the Cohen house seemed to me to be an occasion of great
significance and intimacy.
The dinner party mentioned in our Gospel lesson for Easter 3,
Year C (Luke 24: 13-35) is also full of intimacy and meaning. Like the Cohen
family, Cleopas and his fellow disciple[i] are more
than happy to welcome a stranger to come and break bread with them. It’s in
this moment of generosity, welcome, and openness that Jesus really becomes
visible to them.
Of course, you have to ask why their eyes were kept from
recognizing Jesus when they met and journeyed on the road. We might think God
was just playing a little game with these two—jerking them around so Jesus could
spring a surprise on them. I like to think their eyes had been kept from
recognizing Jesus for two reasons. The first and most obvious is their grief.
They may have been in so much shock over their friend’s death that they
couldn’t perceive the world outside of their own trauma. I guess it’s hard for
us to recognize that life goes on for others when our own world seems to have
slammed into a noxious, stinking ball of twisted metal, burning rubber, and
spilled gasoline.
The second reason is the fact they never really recognized
Jesus in the first place. “We had hoped,” they said, “that he was the one to
redeem Israel.” Just what did that
mean? Were they looking for a revolutionary? A king? A popular hero who would
get everyone on the same page? If so, they weren’t looking too closely. Jesus
himself said he was more likely to bring discord than agreement.[ii] But
it’s clear that whatever picture they had of Jesus was smashed like an
armadillo on the interstate when Jesus went to the cross.
This begs the question: What is our picture of Jesus? In his wonderful book Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time[iii], Professor of
Religion Marcus Borg talks about knowing only the “Sunday School Jesus.[iv]” That
is, as kids we were all introduced to a lovable blond, blue-eyed Jesus holding
a lamb or blessing children. We were told that this Jesus died to save us from
our sins, and, if we believed in him,
we wouldn’t go to Hell when we died. He also taught us to be good because he’s
always watching us.
As kids we believed in “Sunday School Jesus,” much the same
way we believed in Santa Clause. The problem is, over time we lose our belief
in Santa, and, perhaps, many also lose belief in Jesus. It might be impolite
for some folks to confess this, or it might be seen as some kind of betrayal of
our parents or our culture. We therefore just avoid the subject of faith
altogether.
I would ask today, “How do we get beyond ‘Sunday School
Jesus?’” How do we move beyond mere acceptance of a dogma to an actual relationship with Jesus? How do we find
the Jesus who, as Cleopas and his companion say, makes our hearts burn within
us?
I think the quest has to start with our asking: What was it
about Jesus which so inspired his followers? What was it that gave them the
courage to confront their own culture and change the world? Dr. Borg sees in
Jesus a powerful ethic which spoke to the issues of his day—an ethos which
challenged those who camouflaged themselves behind Jewish purity codes so they
could feel good about committing other sins. This Jesus still speaks powerfully
to us today if we’re willing to listen. Borg also says that the power of Jesus
lay in Jesus’ relationship to God and the Spirit. Jesus’ understanding of the
God he called “Father” influenced everything he did. As followers of Jesus we’re
challenged always to navigate our own relationship to God.
A relationship with Jesus calls us to return to reading the
scriptures with adult eyes. We won’t be reading to find literal history, because
the Gospel writers didn’t write for that purpose. We need to look at these
texts to feel what the writers felt about Jesus.
We teach that Jesus is revealed in the breaking of the bread.
When we get together for this little weekly breakfast club we call the
Christian Church, what are we experiencing in the breaking of the bread? We
say, “As often as we eat of the bread and drink of this cup, we proclaim our
Lord’s death until he comes again.” What does that mean to you? Flesh and blood. A man died a horrible death for the sake of
others. What does that say about the capacity of human beings for cruelty and indifference
and the value Jesus placed on others like you and me?
Perhaps it might not be amiss to have a Cohen-style meal
sometime during which you share the intimacy of dining with a frank discussion
of who Jesus is to you and your companions. Maybe in opening your hearts you
will feel them burn within you. It’s worth a try, don’t you think?
God’s peace be with you, and thanks again for coming by.
[i] Because
this disciple is not named, some scholars suggest this might be a woman.
[ii]
See Matthew 10:34-39
[iii]
Borg, Marcus J. Meeting Jesus Again for
the First Time: The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith (San
Francisco: Harper Collins: 1994). Really a cool book. I bet you can get it from
Amazon.
[iv]
That’s my phrase, not Dr. Borg’s.
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