A reflection on the Emmaus Road story in Luke.

This passage of Luke’s gospel is much beloved for many reasons:

          For the way Jesus walks with the disciples.

          How the grief of the passage is so raw and relatable.

How Jesus doesn’t shy away from that grief, but instead leans in.

But what I found myself coming back to this week was how this whole passage can be summarized by one Greek work: koinonia.

          Koinonia both means community and communion.

Community – the bonding and binding together of people from different walks of life. The safety net we cling to in times of trouble. Our rock in the storm, our safe haven.

Communion – the breaking of the bread, the sharing of a holy meal, the grace of God made tangible in simple bread and wine.

This is the whole of this passage, the heart of it. Koinonia.

The two disciples journey with this stranger and form a bond, a community, amongst themselves. They take turns listening to each other and bearing with each other in their grief. Koinonia.

And then Jesus is finally made known to them in the blessing and breaking of the bread, in that sharing of a most holy meal – koinonia.

Koinonia.

This, too, is what we do each week. We re-create, we re-tell, this story.

          We gather as the body of Christ, we greet each other and share the peace, we pray together for each other – over our joys and sorrows.

                   Just as Jesus did with Cleopas and the other disciple.

And we break bread, we share in communion, just as Jesus did with these two men.

We recreate this story each week,

          A story of a God who abides with his children in their grief.

          A story of walking with others in the valleys and the mountains, the lows and the highs.

          A story of sharing a meal, this life-giving meal, so we may know who we are - beloved.

In this weekly re-telling – in this life as Easter people – we live out Koinonia. We connect with each other, we abide with our neighbors, we say yes to all that comes with being a  community.

For the opportunity to live and love and be in koinonia, we can boldlly give thanks to our God, saying Amen.