An Old School Mediated Device

Our culture seems to have an obsession with mediated devices. I like to think that I’m still young until I remember my college days, driving around with a clunking car phone reserved only for emergencies. Although less sophisticated, even then we had a proclivity for mediated devices. I thought I was so cool as a teenager with my see-through phone in my room. I spent hours on that thing. If I wasn’t hanging out with friends, my bedroom was my favorite place to go after school to use my gateway for private conversation with them. And when I was supposed to be in bed, I was whispering secretly into the night so I wouldn’t get caught, thereby suffering the consequences of its removal. We only dreamt about the possibilities of the modern-day Facetime video chats. These days things are very different and much the same. My 14-year-old daughter does have a cell phone. She also has a passionate connection with it that needs to be kept in check. I might seem like a dinosaur to her, but I am young enough to remember pouring my heart out to boys or in gossip with my friends on the phone for endless hours. In a hope to help guard my daughter’s heart, she is not allowed to take her phone to her room. And yet this hardly seems to be a problem for Solanna. Her generation prefers texting over actual conversation. At first, this troubled me. I’m sure all of us have been annoyed by someone texting while we are talking to them. And yet, my daughter happily hangs out with us while also convertexting with her friends. (Sure, I just made that word up, but I think it would be a great addition to the Urban Dictionary). She isn’t hiding out in her room. And there is another wonderful benefit. Although one might be a little more bold in a text than they would in actual conversation, it’s often not worth the effort to pour your heart out in 140 characters or less-- especially when you know that your parents have reserved the right to read any and all texts on the phone that they pay for. Any signs of deleted messages results in indefinite removal of Solanna’s portal to socialization. When my husband and I said, “I do,” we never imagined our future nights cuddled in bed together, scouring through our daughter’s text messages. Still, with all its flashy apps and amazing capabilities, the modern-day mediated device of choice is lacking in ambiance. That’s kind of why I don’t mind my daughter having one. If you’re after intimacy, our technologically advanced model doesn’t offer too much more than my clunky car phone from the 90’s. Still, there is the concern that we are communicating primarily through our mediated devices, even becoming fashioned to their image. But I think that technology is just developing on a real need. Even before clunky car phones, we had a very functional tool that often served as a comfortable spacer between that face-to-face communication that we long for. This old school mediated device is still around today, and it is full of intimacy. It’s called a table. It seems that we feel more comfortable having something between us, even when we can be physically present. But a table encourages physical fellowship. In Scripture, we see table fellowship as a means to celebrate, to remember, and to look forward. Table fellowship is actually the context in which Christ introduces the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. He institutes a call to remembrance. In his book, The Ongoing Feast, Arthur Just Jr. reiterates that “Remembrance takes place at the feast where liturgically the people of God recall the great acts of God’s past salvation by recognizing the presence of God in their midst” (241). On the same day as his resurrection, two disciples were privileged to have table fellowship with Christ.

Thus, the Emmaus meal is the fulfillment of Jesus’ command “do this in remembrance of me” because it is the first act of the breaking of bread between Jesus and disciples after the Lord’s Supper and the resurrection. The whole action involved in the breaking of bread is the antecedent of “do this,” not simply the meal itself or the consecrating words over the bread. The Emmaus meal is not only reminiscent of the Last Supper, but is an anamnesis of the entire fellowship of Jesus. In a very real sense, it is more than a remembrance of Jesus’ meals, for it is also an anamnesis of all the covenantal meals God celebrated with his people in the Old Testament, particularly the Passover meal. As an act of remembrance, the Emmaus meal is a continuation of the table fellowship of God with sinners (241-2).

Old school or new school, our technology points to a very real need. We need joyful fellowship with our God, and we need a mediator. Although the world’s progress seems to be defined as mediation through disembodied technology, God reveals the true mediator, Jesus Christ. God’s purpose is to make us become like our Mediator, which truly is glorious. We need to be watchful that we are not becoming like the world’s mediators. As we use these tools, Christians need to be constantly aware of the idolatrous allure of our devices. Our goal is not to be disembodied data exchangers. Jesus Christ’s resurrection secured for us new, glorified bodies on a new earth. Our hope in communication is nothing less than a face-to-face relationship with the One who made us. He is now setting the table for a feast like we have never known. Until then, we anticipate this every time we gather in his name.