As You Wish
As I came of age, baseball cards were all the rage. And like many other kids my age, I was a collector and trader. I was always especially attracted to the statistics on the back of the cards and loved simulating games based on those stats, moving my cards around as if they were real players playing a game. Of course on the front of the card was the image of a player — maybe a head shot or an action shot of them crushing a baseball or making a diving catch. There was one type of card — I don’t know if these still exist, that could capture just a bit of live action on a physical card. It had a sort of corrugated texture made of clear plastic that when you moved it slightly, it would give the appearance of movement by showing two different images in quick succession — perfect for the quick action of swinging a bat to hit a baseball. Scene one, then scene two. When you only saw scene one — all you see is a still shot. Perhaps a player in a batting stance. But as you transition to scene two, you see the full story — a bat hitting a ball, energy in motion, stuff happening. And that’s where the excitement is.
Similarly in our Scripture this morning, there are two basic scenes. One in which a couple of men were walking to a town called Emmaus and Jesus comes along side of them and joins the conversation. They are talking about all the dramatic events that had happened — those same ones that we experienced during holy week. Jesus plays dumb. “What things?” Cleopas politely says, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” When you go to seminary, you learn how to discern what Biblical characters were really thinking in their mind. And what Cleopas was really thinking about Jesus was, “You moron — how could you have possibly not heard about this? Let me explain this to you like you’re a 3rd grader.” Cleopas goes on to paint the rest of the first scene for Jesus. And in this scene, we get not just the picture on the front of the card painted for us by Cleopas and his companion, but their understanding of it, which seemed to be one of disappointed hope. He said, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” Based on their own understanding of Scene 1, they thought they knew what Scene 2 should look like. And here they are — Jesus’ body is gone and still there is no redemption of Israel. That wasn’t what they thought Scene 2 should look like.
Without directly revealing his identity, Jesus tries to explain for them the movement from scene 1 to scene 2 so they could see the whole picture of what God was up to. This was a classic case of // information is not transformation. They may have cognitively understood what Jesus told them on that road, but they didn’t get it. They understood his explanation of scene 2. But they couldn’t yet connect the two scenes — either because they had yet to let go of their own picture of Scene 2 or because they could not yet connect Scene 1 — “the things that have taken place in Jerusalem in these days” to scene 2 — the culmination of what God was up to in the world — stated plainly in the books of Moses and the prophets and by Jesus that day. At this point, to Cleopas and his companion, these were still two separate and unrelated stories — distinct from one another. What did one have to do with the other?
Many of us have been watching lots of movies lately, locked down in quarantine. I’ve shared with you before my love for the movie, The Princess Bride. Perhaps you’ve seen it. The movie begins with a woman named Buttercup falling in love with a man named Westley who was a quiet man, but would always say to his beloved Buttercup, “As you wish.” Well, he went away for some time and was assumed to be killed by pirates. Buttercup finds herself kidnapped, but a masked man rescues her from her kidnappers. Buttercup and the masked man don’t seem to get along very well and in a moment of frustration, she pushes him down a hill. As the masked man tumbles down the hill, he screams, “As you wish.” Then of course, her eyes are opened. She realizes that this masked man who rescued her from her kidnappers was in fact her long lost love, Westley. He was alive after all. It was in those familiar words that she had heard time and time again that allowed her to see in a new way. She had in fact been looking and yearning for Westley to come and save her, she said as much to the masked man. But she was unable to see what was right in front of her.
Towards the end of the first scene in our Scripture this morning, Cleopas and pal invite Jesus to stay with them. Jesus does and when they sit down to bless the food something very similar to what happened — they hear something they had heard before that awakened them. He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
~ Wait just a second. We’ve heard that before. ~
Perhaps it was when Jesus blessed the fishes and loaves. Or maybe it was when he was celebrating his final Passover with the disciples.
In our Scripture this morning, Luke 24:30 says, “When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.”
The echoes are there in Luke’s gospel. In the feeding of the 5,000.
Luke 9:16 says, “And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.”
Or at the final Passover, Luke’s gospel says, “Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you.’”
It was something very much like Westley saying, “As you wish.” All of the sudden, they knew. Like Buttercup, they assumed the absence of the one they loved meant that he was dead. But now they know that not only does he live, but he is connected to another, even grander scene — the scene of God working in the world through creation, Moses, and the prophets. They got the connection. No longer were they separate stories, but they were connected. And friends, that is where the excitement is, that is where the action is, that is where the gospel, the Good News, where Easter is.
The connection between the seemingly cosmic events of the life, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is made known in something as simple as an ordinary blessing and the breaking of bread with friends. It was of that simple and ordinary bread that Jesus said, this is my body. And of the wine, this is my blood. That right there is the action, the meaning between the scenes. And friends, it is that that which gives rise to this thing we call life, animating the disparate parts of our lives. God is in all things. And that simple truth connects us — all that we are to God’s story.
Have you ever puchased a photo frame and inside that frame is some kind of holder picture — a stock photograph of some happy child or couple or family. And they all seem wonderful. But we are emotionally unmoved by such a picture. It is just a single scene. Unconnected with the reality of our life. At the same time, when we put a photo of someone we love inside it or even if we see the picture of someone we know — it brings the fullness of life to the surface. That is because this scene is connected with a prior scene — and we instantly know the significance. That’s is what the connection of scenes does. It give us significance. And there’s no bigger scene than that of God’s redemption of the world. And you’re invited to connect your scene to that one. And the significance you’ll find there is unending, can never be exhausted — in a word — eternal.
This is why it is never enough to simply recite Christian truths, mentally assent to Christian doctrines. To know the Bible stone cold. We said the creed earlier in the worship service. But this cannot remain just a scene in our lives. It has to be connected to something personal within and to the larger story of what God is doing in the world. Still more fullness comes into view as we find ourselves and those we’re connected to in that very same story. God’s story. We’re part of the action. God wants it to be so. That’s why the body and blood are broken and given to us. Its why God’s Spirit is given to us. And why the disciples are sent out.
As we take it and connect it to our lives, we begin to see the ordinary things around us being fused with deep meaning. Even in bread and wine, every day things. For in that bread and wine as well as so many other things infused with the presence of God, we hear, “As you wish.” And we know — this is the voice of God. We hear that self-sacrificing love of Jesus Christ, broken for us. Bled for us. We hear the deep love of God — poured forth in creation. Given to Moses at Mt. Sinai. Proclaimed powerfully by the prophets. And all throughout the story of God and God’s people — which is indeed all of us. And Like Cleopas and friend, our eyes our opened, our hearts burn, and we recognize the connection of our lives to the life of God pulsating through all things.
The Good News, the Gospel, Easter, the very source of all love connects us to God and to all people and all things.
Gracious God: Let us listen for those divine words calling out for us, may our eyes be opened to recognize you and in that moment you too will vanish from us for now we will see you in all things.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
