Part 4: He Breaks?
He joins us here; He breaks the bread.
The Lord who pours the cup is risen from the dead.
The one we love the most is now our gracious host:
So in doing research about this song, I was confused about these words and how they pertained to the Lord's Supper. I looked up who wrote this song, (and though the author himself doesn't say this in any commentary), I found commentary by others that explain that the song also includes references to the other times where Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection. This part of the song above and other parts are specifically referring to the experience of the two men who walked on the road with Jesus to Emmaus on the day he rose from the dead and then broke bread with Jesus when they arrived there in Emmaus, found in Luke's account.
Luke 24:26-35 So they [the two men and Jesus] drew near to the village to which they were going. He [Jesus] acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.
This was indeed a great experience for the two men who were with Jesus, as he broke the bread and they ate it together. However, this (seems to me) to be different than when Jesus broke the bread and took the cup with his disciples during their Passover meal a few days earlier.
Although historically, both events would have happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they don’t seem to be related - or to be of the same kind of event. I would welcome input from others who have studied this event in relation to the Lord’s Supper. Here are some things that stick out to me:
Jesus gave specific instructions about the bread and cup during the meal of Passover that he ate with his 12 disciples. (Luke 22) He instructed them to do that in remembrance of him - breaking the bread and also drinking the cup, and that the cup represented the new covenant in his blood.
Jesus did not give these two men in Emmaus any instructions when he broke the bread with them - and there is no record that he drank a cup with them or gave them instructions that it represented the new covenant in his blood. (Since they weren’t there with Jesus and his disciples during the Passover meal, I don’t think they would have known yet about his instructions about eating the bread and drinking the cup in remembrance of Jesus and in proclamation of his death, although it is possible, the Scriptures do not say.)
Breaking the bread and saying a blessing over it was a common Jewish practice with every meal - not just the Passover. It seems like Jesus was hungry when he reached Emmaus and he wanted to eat something. The Greek word used when Jesus “blessed” the bread and broke it for the men in Emmaus, is the word “eulogesen” a form of the word “eulogeo” and it means “to speak well of, bless or praise”. (We use the word “eulogy” when saying good things about someone at a funeral). It is also found in other places in Scripture:
“Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing (eulogesen) Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds”. Matthew 14:19
“By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed (eulogesen) each of the sons of Joseph”. Hebrews 11:21
The Greek word “eucharist” is also used interchangeably with “eulogesen” in the New Testament, as both Greek words mean to speak well of or favorably about, and it used when Jesus gave thanks for the cup at the Passover meal in Matthew’s account, and also for the bread and fish when he fed another crowd, and when Paul ate bread with his fellow prisoners on a ship.
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks (eucharistesas) he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:27-28
“He (Jesus) took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks (eucharistesas) he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.” Matthew chapter 15:36
In Acts 27:33-35, Paul urged the people on the ship with him to eat something for their own survival since they had gone 14 days without eating. “He [Paul] took bread, and giving thanks (eucharistesan) to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat.
When the song says “HE joins us here”, HE breaks the bread, HE pours the cup, HE is our host", it seems to imply that Jesus joins us - in the present moment - just like he joined the men in Emmaus in breaking bread (or the disciples or anyone else he appeared to and ate with in the 40 days he was on earth after his resurrection) - but since Jesus is not on earth physically any longer, it seems a far stretch, outside of Scripture, to be able to say that is possible today.
We have no instruction from any of the New Testament writers that Jesus joins us when we take the bread and the cup, or that he is the one breaking the bread or pouring the cup. We physically break the bread ourselves - with our own hands and drink from smaller cups that someone has already poured for us (or that come in small kits containing bread and juice as some churches ordered due to Covid restrictions).
If he did "join us", and do these things for us, that would be an important thing and a miraculous thing - to see bread break itself or juice get poured - either by a by physical Jesus or an invisible Jesus - and surely it would have been included in Paul’s letters about it to the early churches, don’t you think?
So, I don’t feel comfortable singing the underlined words above, given that it seems to teach that what happened in Emmaus is exactly what is happening in our assemblies when we take the bread and drink the cup. We have no indication of such.
Furthermore, scripture can easily get replaced by songs (and some people quote songs with the same authority they give scripture!) We should be careful about what we sing, should we not?
I think we should focus on the instructions given to us by the New Testament writers about what taking the bread and cup means (that this was the new covenant, to be done in remembrance of him, in proclamation of his death). It seems to me that in Emmaus he was breaking bread and eating a regular meal and did not intend for it to be an example of the Lord’s supper for us, otherwise, I believe Luke would have indicated it. Do you have any thoughts?
*this is an addition from the previously published version of this, based on some new information I found that really sheds light on the whole Emmaus account from the Jewish cultural perspective.
So, when Jesus was walking with the men to Emmaus, it was almost certain that they introduced themselves to Jesus and that Jesus told them his name. But that in and of itself wouldn't be anything to cause suspicion.
"From 330 BC to 200 AD, Simon/Simeon was the single most popular name for male Palestinian Jews, with 243 recorded uses. Joseph/Joses is second, Lazarus is third, Judas is fourth, John is fifth, and Jesus is sixth. All are found in the Gospels or Acts. Jonathan, the eight most popular name, is the most popular that may not appear in the Gospels or Acts (appearing only in a variant reading of Acts 4:6). Ishmael, the 13th most popular name with thirty recorded uses, is the most popular to not appear in any version of the Gospels or Acts."
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (2nd. ed. 2017), Tal Ilan, Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity: Part I: Palestine 300 BC-200 CE (2002)
What DID cause suspicion was what Jesus did when the men invited him to stay with them! This is explained more by Julia Blum, who teaches about the Jewish background of the New Testament.
"Sharing meals has always been a very important part of Jewish community life. At the beginning of the meal, the traditional blessing is always said as the bread is broken:
“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth”.
In the Babylonian Talmud, we read: “The host should break bread” (Berakoth 46). In Jewish tradition, the host – the head of the household – is the one who always says the blessing and breaks the bread. Strangers who are invited to the meal usually wait for directions from their host and quietly receive what is set before them.
However, that is not what we see here. Clearly this was not a regular guest! Instead of waiting for his host’s direction, this stranger is taking the host’s place: He is saying the blessing and breaking the bread! We can imagine that this behavior must have caught the attention of everyone in the house. Where did this authority come from?
The Qumran Sectarians seemed to believe in the eternal Savior (they believed it was Melchizedek), who would come as man and was known to them as the Teacher of Righteousness. The Teacher of Righteousness was a priest. Let us have a look on a fragmentary document 1QSa (sometimes called The Messianic Rule) and see what this text says about the Priest; [the Mess]iah of Israel shall [enter] … and [no-one should stretch out ] his hand to the first fruit … before the Priest, for [he is the one who b]lesses the first-fruit of the bread and of the new wine … … (column 2, lines 18-21).
‘No-one should stretch out his hand to bless the bread’: it means that, in the days of Yeshua, there was an understanding that when the Messiah came, no-one should stretch out his hand to bless the bread before Him. The authority to bless the bread first clearly belonged to the host – or to the Messiah. And when, in our story, this stranger acted in the house as one that had authority, we can imagine that, even though the eyes of the disciples were still restrained, their hearts, that had been burning along the way, were now filled with excitement and anticipation. His behavior was a definite sign to them of His messianic dignity."
To expand on what is explained here, there are all kinds of things in our time that it would be rude for a guest in your home to do. Like answering the door, opening your refrigerator, picking up your baby when it was crying, sitting at the head of the table and carving the turkey at thanksgiving or checking your mailbox and bringing in the mail - these are all things that you, the homeowner/host, are supposed to do and it would be offensive for any guest or person you just met that day to do ANY of these things. However, in their shock, these men realized that this rude person named Jesus - this guest in their home that was somehow claiming authority to be the host by saying the prayer and breaking the bread, was not just any regular guy named Jesus! This Jesus was ***THAT*** JESUS!!! The risen Messiah! Then he performed a miracle by going poof (vanishing), confirming that he was in fact the Son of God. (I think he might have been having a little fun there).
So even with the addition of this understanding of the Emmaus account, I still don't feel like this is something that was part of or an extension of the Passover meal he had with his disciples when he gave them future instructions concerning the bread and cup - and don't feel comfortable singing this song in association to such. But that's just my thoughts.
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