3rd Sunday of Easter

The two disciples whom Jesus encountered on the road to Emmaus, after having regained their hope, now have plenty of reasons to return to Jerusalem, so they set out at once. Their hurried journey recalls the haste and excitement of the shepherds to share what they had experienced. In the city, the two find the eleven and all the others with them.

However, before they can communicate their own news, they receive an update on events that have happened there: “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon! This apparition of the risen Jesus to Simon Peter is also attested by Paul: “He appeared to Cephas” (1 Cor. 15:5). Though it is not explicitly narrated in the Gospels, it can be understood as a confirmation following Peter’s visit to the empty tomb (Luke 24:12). It is mentioned here, before the testimony of the two disciples, to indicate that the truth of the resurrection is entrusted above all to Peter and the other apostles, those to whom Jesus has given authority (9:1; 22:28-29) and who will become its chief witnesses (Acts 1:22). Moreover, the name “Simon” (rather than Peter) recalls the first mention of “Simon” early in Jesus’ Galilean ministry. Simon Peter is thus the first disciple of Jesus named in the Gospel as well as the last. This framing device, which Luke may have adapted from Mark, is another indication of the importance of Simon Peter’s authoritative testimony as an eyewitness of the events of the Gospel (Acts 1:21). The name Simon further recalls Jesus’ words at the Last Supper— “Simon, Simon” (Luke 22:31). —where he announces that Peter, once he turned back after denying Jesus, would be the one to strengthen his brothers. Indeed, that time has come, and Peter will thus take up this role in Acts (Acts 1:15; 2:14; 4:8).

Then the two report their own encounter with Jesus and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. The phrase “breaking of the bread” is shorthand for the four-action occurring at the feeding of the five thousand, the Last Supper, and Emmaus—he took bread, blessed, or gave thanks, broke, and gave. In Acts, Luke uses this phrase to refer to the celebration of the Eucharist (Acts 2:42; 20:7, 11); Jesus continues to make himself known to his disciples in the Eucharist, where they can recognize him. As St. Augustine says: “Where did the Lord wish to be recognized? In the breaking of the bread.

It was for our sake that he didn’t want to be recognized…because we weren’t going to see him in the flesh, and yet we were going to eat his flesh. So, if you’re a believer. . . you may take comfort in the breaking of the bread. The Lord’s absence is not an absence. Have faith, and the one you cannot see is with you.

Another appearance of the risen Jesus immediately takes place while they are still speaking. Jesus stands in their midst and greets them with peace, as indeed he had instructed his disciples to do when entering a house. However, it is not merely a greeting, since Jesus is the one who brings universal peace, on earth and in heaven. Through his death and resurrection, “we have peace with God.”

In response, they are terrified, troubled, and filled with questions, recalling the common reaction to an angelic apparition by Zechariah, Mary, the shepherds and the women at the tomb. They think they are seeing a ghost—that is a “spirit” (RSV) separated from the body.

After asking why they doubt, Jesus proceeds in three ways to demonstrate the reality of his bodily resurrection, such a truth was difficult not only for the apostles but also for other early Christians to believe.

First, Jesus invites the eleven and the others to use their sense of sight: Look at my hands and my feet. He then shows them his hands and his feet, so that they are seeing the marks of the nails from his crucifixion. Significantly, this shows the continuity between Jesus’ crucified body and his risen body.

The second proof involves another one of the senses—Touch me and see—so that they can feel that, unlike a ghost, he is made of flesh and bones. This event may stand beyond a phrase in the first letter of John (which uses the same rare Greek verb translated as “touch”): “What we looked upon / and touched with our hands /concerns the Word of life. Moreover, St. Ignatius of Antioch, writing around AD 107, is familiar with this event, which he uses to defend the truth of Jesus’ bodily resurrection: “For I know and believe that he was in the flesh even after the resurrection. And when he came to those with Peter he said to them: “Take, handle me and see that I am not a phantom without a body.’”

Their reaction is one of Joy, yet in a sense they are still incredulous. It all seems too good to be true! Clearly, belief in Jesus’ risen body was not something contrived and then spread among a group of gullible individuals. However, their doubts help the faith of future generations of Christians, as St. Augustine says: “It was incredible, and they had to be persuaded of the truth of it, not only by their eyes but by their hands too, so that through the bodily senses faith might come down into the heart, and faith coming down into the heart might be preached throughout the world, to people who neither saw nor touched, and yet believed’”.

Jesus follows up a with a third demonstration of his bodily resurrection. He asked for something to eat, received from them a piece of baked fish, and ate it in their presence. Later, when witnessing to the resurrection, Peter will similarly say that they “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:41). Moreover, this meal with fish complements the Emmaus meal with bread, the two elements eaten at the feeding of the five thousand (9:13, 16), to which these two meal scenes refer in various ways. Now, however, it is the apostles who are hosts of the meal, a sign of their role in the early Church, when they will be the ones who celebrate the Eucharist, “in memory of” Jesus (22:19).

In the next part of the scene, Jesus instructs his disciples about the fulfillment of Scripture and then announces their future mission. First, he reiterates how it was necessary that everything written about him in the Old Testament came to pass. The two verbs used—must and fulfilled—have been repeated throughout the Gospel and here emphasize God’s plan, especially as revealed in Scriptures. As he did with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he thus opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Whereas there he referred to two parts of the Old Testament “Moses and the prophets,” here he indicates three parts: the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms. He highlights that the Scriptures foretold that the Messiah would both suffer and rise from the dead on the third day (Hosea 6:2).

Second, he explains that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, will be preached in his name. This is the mission now announced to the apostles and the name of Jesus will become the core message of the apostles’ preaching. The beginning of the apostles’ mission in Jerusalem will thus recall the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Nazareth, when he read from Isaiah and announced a jubilee, explaining that he was sent to proclaim liberty. Now this jubilee is being extended in time and space: from Jerusalem the liberty that is forgiveness will be preached to all nations (Acts1:8). The apostles and disciples will be the witnesses of all these things about Jesus: his words and deeds in his life, death and resurrection.

One last instruction is that they should stay in the city until they are clothed from power from on high to enable them to carry out their mission. The power, which Jesus also describes as the promises of his Father, which he is sending upon them is the Holy Spirit, whom the disciples will receive at Pentecost. As Jesus carried out his ministry “in the power of the Spirit”, so too will his followers be filled with the power of the Spirit to carry out their mission of spreading the gospel.

In Jesus name,

Fr. Vincent Clemente

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