Luke 24:30 - Exposition

And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them . There was a deep significance in the concluding act of this memorable appearance of the risen Lord. This taking the bread, and blessing it, and breaking it, and then giving it to them, was no ordinary act of courtesy, or welcome, or friendship, which, from a master or teacher might be shown to his disciples. It resembles too closely the great sacramental act in the upper room, when Jesus was alone with his apostles, for us to mistake its solemn sacramental character. The great teachers of the Church in different ages have generally so understood it. So Chrysostom in the Eastern, and Augustine in the Western Church; so Theophylact, and later Beza the Reformer all affirm that this meal was the sacrament. It taught men generally, even more plainly than did the first sacred institution teach the twelve, that in this solemn breaking of bread the Church would recognize their Master's presence. So generally, in fact, has this Emmaus "breaking of bread" been recognized by the Catholic Church as the sacrament, that later Romanist divines have even pressed it as a scriptural demonstration for the abuse which administered the elements under one form (compare, for instance, the 'Refutation of the Confession of Angsberg,' quoted by Stier, in his comment on this passage of Luke, 'Words of the Lord Jesus'). How unnecessary and forced such a construction is, Bishop Wordsworth points out in his note on Luke 24:30 , "It may be remembered that bread ( ἄρτος )was to the Jews a general name for food , including drink as well as meat Thus bread became spiritually an expressive term for all the blessings received from communion in Christ's body and blood, and the κλάσις ἄρτου , or ' breaking of bread,' was suggestive of the source from which these blessings flow, (viz.) Christ's body ( κλώμενον ) broken ( 1 Corinthians 11:24 ); hence κλάσις ἄρτου in Acts 2:42 is a general term for the Holy Eucharist."