The Archbishop's thoughts on the Resurrection according to St Luke's Gospel
Friday 21st December 2007
BBC Radio 4 presenter Ernie Rea introduces 'Witness: Behind Luke's Story', a programme which explores the mind of the man behind St Luke's Gospel. The Archbishop gives his thoughts on Luke's greatest contribution and describes how it has shaped Christians' views on Jesus' resurrection.Read a transcript below, or click download on the right to listen [12Mb]. Note that the Archbishop's contribution is 10 minutes in to the programme.
Luke's great contribution of course is the Emmaus story: two disciples who are (well I think you'd have to say) running away from Jerusalem. They want to put the whole mess and horror of the cross behind them, and as they go Jesus comes up with them, they don't recognise him, he talks to them, he gradually opens their eyes to think again about the cross and then he breaks bread with them and as he does that they didn't see him anymore. They rush back to Jerusalem and there are the other disciples saying, "We've seen him too". And there's something about Luke's view of the resurrection which insists (so to speak) that we don't regard it as just something that goes on in people's heads.
So the Emmaus story tells us at one and the same time, the risen Jesus is as real as somebody across the table from you and he's also a stranger you can begin to recognise left to yourself. And I think that connects with the way in which throughout the Acts of the Apostles, the breaking of bread is so important for Luke – that's where Jesus is met, it's still around the breaking of bread that the community finds him again.