“While they were talking about this…” is the opening line of Sunday’s gospel reading. I don’t know about you, but for me it begs the question: talking about what!??!

Well, we are in Luke’s gospel, chapter 24, which is the last chapter of the book. Everything in chapter 24 happens on the same day; the day of the resurrection; Easter Day. It starts “at early dawn” (v1) and by the time of our reading (v36) it is late evening. We know that, because of what was being talked about.

The first thing we read about in chapter 24 are the women at the empty tomb. Then we get the Road to Emmaus story, in which the two friends urge their new companion to stay with them “because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over”. (v29)

So the three of them go in and sit down to eat together. As was the custom, the guest gave thanks for the food: “he took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened; and they recognised him; and he vanished from their sight” (v30/1). In the four-fold action, which we still enact at the Eucharist ever week, of taking, blessing, breaking and sharing, the two friends recognised their companion. The person they knew to have been “condemned to death and crucified” (v20) dashing their hope that “he was the one to redeem Israel” (v21) was with them, broke bread with them, and had now vanished from their sight.

Putting aside the risk of travelling into the night, they head straight back to Jerusalem. I imagine they expected to be the ones to break the news of the resurrection to the others. But it didn’t work out like that! When they found the others, “they were saying ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’” (v34) Only after that did our guys get the chance to share their news, possibly feeling somewhat deflated!

“While they (the two companions on the road to Emmaus) were talking about this (“what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread” v35), Jesus himself stood among them”.

The same Jesus who had appeared to Simon: though there doesn’t appear to be an account of how and when Jesus met Simon Peter since the resurrection; all we know about Simon Peter is that he went to the tomb, looked in, saw the linen cloths and went home (v12).

The same Jesus whose resurrection had been reported by “two men in dazzling clothes” (v4) to Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women and whose disclosure to the apostles “seemed to them an idle tale” (v11) and who don’t get name checked later on.

The same Jesus the walked along the road to Emmaus.

The same Jesus was now in the room with them all, saying "Peace be with you" (v36) "while they were talking".

The way we split up the gospel account into our Sunday readings makes them manageable; but we lose a lot because of it.

Without the context of the opening phrase, we might be left wondering why the idea of Jesus saying ‘Peace be with you’ is so terrifying.

With the context, we begin to understand that, from their perspective, they were just beginning to learn that Jesus had been here, there and everywhere all in one day … but not in the place where he was buried, after being beaten, humiliated  and crucified just a day or so ago. 

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them.

Dan Tyndall

12 April 2024