Resurrection is a Ritual
Scripture — Luke 24:29b-31 (NRSV)
So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
Focus
The Son of Mary has traveled from the tree to the tomb and now to the table. The road to the cross and after the cross begins and ends with a table. The table is the ritual and the most ordinary of practices. This is how Jesus shows up in our very ordinary lives. Perhaps Jesus chooses a meal because it’s familiar, ordinary, repetitive and he wants you to find a way to remember the resurrection in your body.
Devotion
Yesterday I shared that resurrection is a road and on it you are not alone. Today I want to posit that resurrection is also a ritual. The cross is perhaps not a culmination but a continuation of setting the Lord’s table. The road to the cross begins and ends with a meal.
The Son of Mary has traveled from the tree to the tomb and now to the table. The road to the cross and after the cross begins and ends with a table. The table is the ritual and the most ordinary of practices. This is how Jesus shows up in our very ordinary lives. Perhaps Jesus chooses a meal because it’s familiar, ordinary, repetitive and he wants you to find a way to remember the resurrection in your body.
The Word embodied in every bite. In broken bread. And broken bodies.
Cole Arthur Riley writes in her book Black Liturgies that Christ’s death begins with a meal: “Eat, drink” that we would remember him in our bodies. Riley suggests that when Jesus asked us to remember him, he asked us to eat, drink – perhaps so that we would meet something of Jesus in the act of nourishment.
Jesus leaves us with resurrection as a ritual of remembrance that you partake with other friends. If you’re looking for Jesus, find a table and be curious about who you invite and who invites you to their tables. Resurrection is a road and resurrection is a ritual and it leads to revelation.
May Jesus meet you in your roads and may you be attentive to your rituals. May your table rituals be illuminated and animated with the presence of Christ in the most ordinary of ways.
Reflect
As we enter into the summer and Ordinary Time in the church, how might the ritual of the table become a place for ordinary resurrection?
Act
Pick a handful of people that you have wanted to connect with, old friends or new, and share a table sometime before the summer ends.
Pray
Jesus, you who ate and drank and sat and laughed with friends, you were recognized at the breaking of the bread after you gave thanks; help us break bread and give thanks with others. Invade our table rituals with joy, food, laughter, curiosity, the sharing of our stories. Keep our eyes peeled, as you reveal yourself through the rituals of table and thanksgiving. By your grace, help us give thanks for old and new friends. Amén.
Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the High Calling archive, hosted by the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Not a Ghost Story.
Inés Velásquez-McBryde
Chaplain at Fuller Theological Seminary & Pastor, Preacher, Speaker
Inés is an ordained pastor, preacher, reconciler, writer, and speaker. We are pleased to feature Inés as a regular Life for Leaders writer. On June 15, 2019, Inés received her Master of Divinity degree from the School of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary where she now serves as...