By J. Davis Creach
On the road to Emmaus, the disciples walk with Jesus and talk with Jesus for many miles, all the while not recognizing that it is the Lord before them. It is only when they break bread together is Jesus revealed to them, and then he is gone—just like that. Blink and you’ll miss it.
But though it was a short encounter, Jesus’ presence on the road and his revelation in the room made a lasting impact, sending the disciples frantically back to Jerusalem to tell the others of what they had witnessed: Jesus Christ was alive. I think we as Christians, especially those of us who worship in a tradition that celebrates the Eucharist in every service, take for granted the words of Christ: “This is my Body, broken for you.” Eucharist is a powerful thing to witness and experience, so much so that we often miss some of the more subtle ways in impacts our lives. Whether you believe in true presence, spiritual presence, or even purely symbolic presence, the Lord’s Supper is an event that changes
us, sanctifies us, renews us in Christ. After all, the feast we share is our Savior. We take God in and we carry our Lord with us wherever we go.
But it is in the breaking of the bread that the true nature of Jesus is revealed. Jesus is our compassionate friend, our journeyman of solidarity; a divine being who chose to obediently take on humanity in order to join us on the journey of life in all its joy and suffering. Christ is our companion and our guide, and the breaking of his body in crucifixion is the pinnacle of Christ’s mercy and solidarity. In giving us this body to eat, Christ welcomes us into Kingdom, into the reality of resurrection, where his Blood washes us clean and our bodies are completely changed in glory like Christ. The breaking of the bread reveals Christ’s willingness to sacrifice himself for us. The sharing of the bread reveals Christ’s desire for all of us to be engrafted to him. To reside in him. For Christ to reside in us.
In training, we are given the opportunity to embody this same truth: that Christ suffered and died for us that we might live with and in him. We are invited to break our bodies alongside the Savior and be built up in glory, recognizing all the while that it is Christ who does the building up. It is also Christ who never leaves or forsakes us, for whenever we are at our limits, and we feel abandoned by God we are assured that Christ journeys with us. Christ is right alongside us, breaking down his body, awaiting the moment we are ready to accept it as a gift that God graciously offers us.
In the same way, when we break our bodies together in training, the light of Christ is revealed to us in one another. Training alongside one another, pushing our limits and praising God, we one another in the image of God. In the joy of a personal best, the struggle of that final rep, in the heavy breathing and the sighs of relief.
Even as we lay broken and beaten down in pools of our own sweat, the suffering and salvific work of Christ shines forth! It is when we are training together, side by side, we are better able to see Christ within and without each other. We are able to see Christ beside us and feel the presence of the Spirit that gathers us to be the body of Christ. It is in this truth that we can more fully enjoin Christ’s suffering and Christ’s resurrection. Gathered by the Spirit, we become the body of Christ, and together in prayer we aim to break down that body so that Christ may be revealed, and God may renew and remake us. As the body of Christ we become companions unto death and new life in Christ. We participate in the sanctifying work of God by encouraging one another, pushing one another, submitting to
suffering with and for one another, praising the Lord as one body with one voice.
Truthfully, even in our solitary training we are never alone: God is with us. But it is better to train together, to see the struggles and the joy of flesh and blood as you feel your own, to praise God with a company of physical voices that mimic the spiritual voices of the heavenly host. It is good to have companions for the journey. It is good to be the body of Christ together.
By Iron, through Iron, to Iron. Amen.
“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 to us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:30-32
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