Their eyes were prevented from recognizing Jesus for they were to recognize him in the breaking of bread. The post-resurrection drama continues and today it involves two of Jesus’ disciples who are yet to make sense of the recent “events that had taken place in Judea.” Cleopas and his unnamed companion were yet to make sense of how him upon whom their hopes for a redeemer rested could be killed in such away as it happened. They were yet to make sense of how he through whom God worked mighty deeds could himself suffer such an undignified end. Wasn’t his good works a guarantee that only good could come his way? (cf. Proverbs 19:17) Were not the mighty deeds he performed a pointer that light had finally overcome darkness? Distraught and confused, the two begin their journey away from Jerusalem. Their sole intention is to move away from anything that would remind them of their disappointments. They are moving away from where their hopes were crushed. Their faces were cast down because they were yet to understand the unfolding of the scriptures. Since they were yet to understand what Jesus had done in the upper room a few days earlier, they could not understand Jesus’ resurrection. For the key to understanding the resurrection is the breaking of the bread.
“ Even as you drink of this cup and break the bread, remember me,” Jesus had told his disciples. Committing to memory everything that Jesus did was the key to unlocking the Scriptures. Associating the life of Jesus with the simple act of breaking the bread was the key to understanding what had happened on the cross. It was the key to understanding the Messiahship of Jesus. For while it seemed that all had come to naught on the cross, Jesus had already made himself eternally alive in the memories of his followers. On that evening while in the upper room, Jesus had foretold what would become of him: that he would be “broken” for them. Jesus’ Messiahship consists in the breaking of the bread. This is where Jesus was to be found, not in the tomb as some of them had thought. The unfolding of what the Scripture says about Jesus must lead to the breaking of the bread. For it is not until we break the bread that we come to a full understanding of Jesus and what he requires of us. Until we break the bread, we will always want to move away from Jerusalem for we will not be having the capacity to comprehend the events that take place therein.