The Third-Man Factor and a Loaf of Broken Bread

A reading of St Luke chapter 24, verses 13-35


‘Who is the third who walks always beside you?

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you.’


In these lines from ‘The Waste Land’, the 1922 poetic monument to the modern era, T.S. Eliot mixes images of Saint Luke’s story of disciples meeting the risen Christ on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus with incidents recorded by Sir Ernest Shackleton in his 1919 account (simply called ‘South’) of his ‘Endurance’ expedition to the Antarctic (1914 – 17). Shackleton reports that at moments of particular difficulty he and his colleagues would become aware of the presence of an extra figure lending support and consolation. This he attributed to divine Providence, claiming that it contributed notably to their survival.


In the gospel story, the disciple Cleopas and his unnamed companion, reduced to a state of debilitating despair by Christ’s apparent defeat by death on Good Friday and being, early on Easter morning, inclined to dismiss the women’s reports of angels at an empty tomb as just ‘an idle tale’ have decided by the afternoon to leave the bewildered community behind them and head (presumably homewards) to Emmaus. But then a third person, a stranger, begins to walk beside them, questioning them about their grief, then giving them a crash course in their own Jewish history, explaining to them how needful it is that the Christ (the Messiah, the representative King of Israel) should suffer and only then come into his glory. What the disciples have experienced in the heart-breaking loss of Jesus is what is always experienced by the holy People of God in a world that is organised by powerful men with a view to personal gain rather than faithful obedience to the Creator of all things.


Their walking together with Jesus has been a true walk into meaning, through which they have reached a clear understanding not only of Jesus, but of themselves as people called to live in covenant with God. Jesus has opened their hearts (and minds and eyes) so that when they reach their destination and eat together, and he breaks the bread just as he has done with his followers so many times before, they see him and know him for who he is – at least for a split second, until he vanishes from their sight. They’re not distressed or disappointed by this: they have been so inflamed and ignited by his presence that their hearts remain full of him, confident that they will continue to experience his presence through the scriptures, and in the breaking of bread.


This is where the Christian differs profoundly from the atheist materialist who believes that only what is visible, verifiable and measurable can be said to exist. Christians insist not only that there are more things in heaven and earth that are allowed by that philosophy, but that the immortal and invisible God comes close to those who are attentive and alert to the divine presence.


Cleopas and his companion turn round immediately and walk back the seven miles all the way to Jerusalem. Sure enough, the risen Christ is waiting for them once again, as he waits for us all, wherever we are on the long and winding road. ‘Who is the third who walks always beside you?’ He makes himself known, and when he does, our hearts truly burn within us.


For bread-breaking opportunities, do please visit a church near you this Sunday.