Did Jesus celebrate the Eucharist on the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24?

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Did Jesus celebrate the Eucharist on the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13-35?

Different Christian churches and denominations will certainly answer this question differently.

The Scriptural text contains nothing in it to suggest more than a seemingly usual repast, preceded by blessing or thanksgiving. But Scriptural interpretation can very widely.

St. Augustine of Hippo and even Pope John Paul II suggest that yes the two disciples of Emmaus consumed the Eucharist.

“We,” they said, “had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” O my dear disciples, you had hoped! So now you no longer hope? Look, Christ is alive! Is hope dead in you? Certainly, certainly, Christ is alive! Christ, being alive, found the hearts of his disciples dead, as he appeared and did not appear to their eyes. He was at one and the same time seen and concealed. I mean, if he wasn’t seen, how could they have heard him questioning them and answered his questions? He was walking with them along the road like a companion and was himself the leader. Of course he was seen, but he wasn’t recognized. For their eyes were restrained, as we heard, so that they wouldn’t recognize him. They weren’t restrained so that they wouldn’t see him, but they were held so that they wouldn’t recognize him. Ah yes, brothers and sisters, but where did the Lord wish to be recognized? In the breaking of bread. We’re all right, nothing to worry about—we break bread, and we recognize the Lord. It was for our sake that he didn’t want to be recognized anywhere but there, because we weren’t going to see him in the flesh, and yet we were going to eat his flesh. So if you’re a believer, any of you, if you’re not called a Christian for nothing, if you don’t come to church pointlessly, if you listen to the Word of God in fear and hope, you may take comfort in the breaking of bread. The Lord’s absence is not an absence. Have faith, and the one you cannot see is with you. Those two, even when the Lord was talking to them, did not have faith, because they didn’t believe he had risen. Nor did they have any hope that he could rise again. They had lost faith, lost hope. They were walking along, dead, with Christ alive. They were walking along, dead, with life itself. Life was walking along with them, but in their hearts life had not yet been restored. – Augustine of Hippo

The image of the disciples on the way to Emmaus can serve as a fitting guide for a Year when the Church will be particularly engaged in living out the mystery of the Holy Eucharist. Amid our questions and difficulties, and even our bitter disappointments, the divine Wayfarer continues to walk at our side, opening to us the Scriptures and leading us to a deeper understanding of the mysteries of God. When we meet him fully, we will pass from the light of the Word to the light streaming from the “Bread of life”, the supreme fulfilment of his promise to “be with us always, to the end of the age” (cf. Mt 28:20).

The “breaking of bread”—as the Eucharist was called in earliest times—has always been at the centre of the Church's life. Through it Christ makes present within time the mystery of his death and resurrection. In it he is received in person as the “living bread come down from heaven” (Jn 6:51), and with him we receive the pledge of eternal life and a foretaste of the eternal banquet of the heavenly Jerusalem. Following the teaching of the Fathers, the Ecumenical Councils and my own Predecessors, I have frequently urged the Church to reflect upon the Eucharist, most recently in the Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia. Here I do not intend to repeat this teaching, which I trust will be more deeply studied and understood. At the same time I thought it helpful for this purpose to dedicate an entire Year to this wonderful sacrament. - Mane Nobiscum Domine

Nevertheless I can equally understand how other Christian denominations may wish to interpret it as simply sharing a common meal. After all, is not the phrase breaking bread implying eating together in friendship.

The Bible uses the expression “breaking of bread” in different ways. First, Acts 2:42-46 describes the early church breaking bread as part of their fellowship: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." The early Christians came together regularly for common meals, which included the breaking of bread. Acts 2:44 refers to them having “everything in common,” and this no doubt included sharing meals together, each one receiving from the others what they needed. Verse 46 describes them breaking bread in their homes.

Another type of breaking of bread is that observed at the Lord’s Supper or Christian communion. During the Last Supper, described in 1 Corinthians 11:23-39, Jesus took a loaf of bread and broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” The breaking of bread at that first communion table has been re-enacted down through the centuries as a way of remembering that first celebration of both His sacrifice on the cross and the institution of the New Covenant in His blood (v. 25). Henceforth, each celebration of the Lord’s Supper includes the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup of the fruit of the vine.

Another significance of the broken bread is the symbolism of Christ, the Bread of Life, being broken on the cross for our sin. At the first communion in the upper room, Jesus describes the breaking of the bread in these terms: “This is my body, broken for you” (1 Corinthians 11:24). Although not a bone of Jesus’ body was broken on the cross (John 19:31-33, 36; Psalm 34:20), His skin and flesh were torn and broken by blows with rods and fists, by whippings and scourgings, by thorns, nails, and spears. His body and soul were divided from each other by death, and by that brokenness, we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). As His people, we participate in His sufferings and brokenness, being broken by sin as He was broken by the punishment He willingly received for our redemption. “And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). - What does the Bible mean when it speaks of the breaking of bread?

The following article may be of interest to some:

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While it is nowhere directly stated, I believe more than a hint does come, partly from the breaking and blessing of bread itself and also partly from the opening of the eyes and recognition of the disciples. Surely the breaking and blessing of bread was a rather ubiquitous activity and each instance of such is not a direct line to the Upper Room although it is notable that this blessing was given, not by the host of the meal but by the guest.

Since it is at the moment of blessing, breaking, and giving that the eyes of their recognition were opened (where previously they had been restrained) there is a strong indication that this activity is, for the disciples (now even as then), a clarifier of vision: "Do this in remembrance of me".

Here, in brief, is what Matthew Henry has said about the verses in question:

See how Christ by his Spirit and grace makes himself known to the souls of his people. He opens the Scriptures to them. He meets them at his table, in the ordinance of the Lord's supper; is known to them in breaking of bread. But the work is completed by the opening of the eyes of their mind; yet it is but short views we have of Christ in this world, but when we enter heaven, we shall see him for ever.

Source: Matthew Henry's Commentary on Luke 24:30-31

While John Calvin warns us not to lean too heavily upon what rests, in his view, on no probable ground:

He took bread. Augustine, and the greater part of other commentators along with him, have thought that Christ gave the bread, not as an ordinary meal, but as the sacred symbol of his body. And, indeed, it might be said with some plausibility, that the Lord was at length recognized in the spiritual mirror of the Lord's Supper; for the disciples did not know him, when they beheld him with the bodily eyes. But as this conjecture rests on no probable grounds, I choose rather to view the words of Luke as meaning that Christ, in taking the bread, gave thanks according to his custom. But it appears that he employed his peculiar and ordinary form of prayer, to which he knew that the disciples had been habitually accustomed, that, warned by this sign, they might arouse their senses. In the meantime, let us learn by the example of our Master, whenever we eat bread, to offer thanksgiving to the Author of life, -- an action which will distinguish us from irreligious men.

Source: Calvin's Commentary on Luke 24:30

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