Day 87 – Healed by the Eucharist

Today’s reading: Acts 20:1-16

Today we see an interesting episode.

On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered. And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, "Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him." And when Paul had gone up and had broken bread and eaten, he conversed with them a long while, until daybreak, and so departed. And they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted.

First, note that we are told that this is the first day of the week. Thus, we see the author and the Holy Spirit confirming that Christians are gathering for worship on Sunday. A young man named Eutychus is listening. Paul preaches for a long time, well into the night. Eutychus falls asleep, falls from the window ledge where he had been sitting and dies.

What is interesting it that we are not told exactly when the boy comes back to life. It could be when Paul goes to him but the passage also suggests that it is after Paul had “broken bread and eaten”, which is a phrase used to identify the Eucharist. There are only two possibilities. Either Paul raised the boy from the dead and then they celebrated by offering the Eucharist or the boy was raised after the offering of the Eucharist. Either way, we see the central part the Eucharist plays in the Christian life.

Tomorrow: Acts 20: 17-38