not by their muscles but by their scars

Barbara Brown Taylor’s "Blessed Brokenness" in her book "Gospel Medicine"  writes: "the Christ is not the one who wins the power struggle; he is the one who loses it. The Christ is not the undefeated champion; he is the suffering servant, the broken one, who comes into his glory with his wounds still visible. Those hurt places are the proof that he is who he says he is, because the way you recognize the Christ - and his followers - is not by their muscles but by their scars." "The blindness of the two disciples does not keep their Christ from coming to them. He does not limit his post-resurrection appearances to those with full confidence in him. He comes to the disappointed, the doubtful, the disconsolate. He come to those who do not know their Bibles, who do not recognize him even when they are walking right beside him. He comes to those who have given up and are headed back home, which makes this whole story a story about the blessedness of brokenness." "Jesus seems to prefer working with broken people, with broken dreams in a broken world. If someone hands him a whole loaf, he will take it, bless it, break it, and give it, and he will do the same thing with his own flesh and blood, because that is the way of life God has shown him to show the rest of us: to take what we have been given, whether we like it or not, and to bless it - to say thank you for it - whether it is the sweet, satisfying bread of success or the tear-soaked bread of sorrow. To say thank you and to break it because that is the only way it can be shared, and to hand it around, not to eat it all by ourselves but to find someone to eat it with, so that the broken loaf may bring all of us broken ones together into one body, where we may recognize the risen Lord in our midst."

A theory

The servant girl at Emmaus

The Servant-Girl at Emmaus (A Painting by Velazquez) She listens, listens, holdingher breath.  Surely that voice is his—the one who had looked at her, once,  across the crowd,as no one ever had looked? Had seen her?  Had spoken as if to her? Surely those hands were his, taking the platter of bread from hers just now? Hands he’d laid on the dying and made them well? Surely that face—? The man they’d crucified for sedition and blasphemy. The man whose body disappeared from its tomb. The man it was rumored now some women had seen this morning,  alive? Those who had brought this stranger home to their table don’t recognize yet with whom they sit. But she in the kitchen,  absently touching the wine jug she’s to take in, a young Black servant intently listening, swings round and sees the light around him and is sure. -Denise Levertov

supper at Emmaus

I love this painting by Caravaggio of the moment when Jesus was recognised by the disciples in breaking bread. It captures a moment of surprise really well. It paints Jesus in a manner which is unfamiliar to us (what! no beard?) and so emphasises that the disciples were not stupid or blind when they were walking with him.

The Road to Emmaus

http://bearhollowcreations.blogspot.com.au/2010/04/road-to-emmaus.html

The disappearance

...Then there is the disappearance. Yet in the disappearance the disciples still know him fully with them. They now know a fuller meaning that the Christ travels with them in hope even in his absence. That though Christ is at God’s right hand, God’s right hand is with them.

          Arguably this is something that, if acknowledged, could transform our society into a more just and compassionate one. John Taylor has said ‘I believe, there is nothing more needed by humanity today ... than the recovery of a sense of beyond-ness in the whole of life to revive the springs of wonder and adoration.’

                 It is for us to treasure these encounters, but do not hoard them. We are very inclined to want to control God, to make God appear, as we want when we want. To feel the presence of God as and when we wish. But it seems that the nature of God is to be spontaneous. I know for myself that in the times of deepest despair is not necessarily when God breaks in. For me they can be the greatest times of the absence of God, though I long for it. If there is anything to be learned it is that it is just not possible to pin God down. Be grateful that you have been touched by the living God, and be open to the possibility of further encounters.

          Cs Lewis said that we have, ‘so to speak, a root in the Absolute, which is the utter reality. ... these experiences ... were the pointer to something outer and other. This is what the disciples were left with when Jesus left them. they were left with a profound sense of the fact that they had a root in the absolute. They knew that their lives had ultimate meaning, and therefore even in the absence of the Christ, they could go on in faith.

We also, are called to go on in faith, in all our faith or doubt, we are called to be sensitive to the times when our hearts burn within us and the transforming power of Christ in those times to give us strength to go into the future with hope.