Lost keys – have you ever had the experience of looking for something and not

seeing it even though it’s right in front of you. You ever had that experience when
you can’t see or feel Jesus? Maybe right now.

‘their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (Luke 24:16)? They still fail to
recognize Jesus even after, “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he
interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures” (24:27).

Expectation – a different Messiah

They said “we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (24:21). Instead,
this line helps me imagine why the disciples might not recognize Jesus,

A messiah absolutely should redeem Israel. We do not know how many ancient
Judeans and Galileans were expecting a messiah. But our ancient Jewish sources,
among which stand the Gospels, suggest that any decent messiah would repair the
world, starting with Israel. If that’s what people thought, we can understand the
disciples’ dismay. They awaited Israel’s redemption. Yet after Jesus’ death, the
Romans remained in charge and the poor still needed good news. Even in Acts,
when the disciples know Jesus is risen, their hope remains constant: “Lord, is this
the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

In response to the two disciples’ hope—and to their disappointment—the Risen One

lays out “all that the prophets have declared” concerning him (Luke 24:25, 27). “Was
it not necessary” for the Messiah to suffer all the things these disciples have
described before attaining glory (24:26)?

BIBLE – Jesus gradually reveals himself – starts with

To the modern reader/hearer, it is hard for us to see Jesus in OT. We see him in the
gospel and epistles but we often need help to see him in the OT scriptures. But
Jesus makes it clear they need to see this. People have long discussed the Gospels’
“post-resurrection perspective,” how the experience of and conviction about Jesus’
resurrection transformed their understanding of everything. Paul, for example,
persecuted the church until he received his own revelation of the risen Jesus.
Luke’s post-resurrection perspective generates a certainty that “Moses and the
prophets” were speaking about Jesus. We moderns cannot find the details of Jesus
healing, , crucifixion, and resurrection in the text of Israel’s Scriptures. Need to dig
deep into the mind of an ancient Jew – Passover – seder meal

The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope he sees worlds
beyond; but if he looks at his telescope, he does not see anything but that. The Bible
is a thing to be looked through to see that which is beyond; but most people only
look at it and so they see only the dead letters and words on the page.Phillip Brooks.
Sometimes it is our perceptions of what we want and expect Jesus to be rather than
what he truly is that mean we don’t see Him clearly.

MORE THAN BIBLE

Simeon, who encountered the infant Jesus and declared, My eyes have seen your
salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for
revelation to the gentiles and for glory to your people Israel (Matthew 2:30-32).

Jesus acted as if He was going to go further but they urged Him to stay with them.
Jesus wants us to ask him to stay with us, to seek him, to desire to be with him more

Only in the breaking of the bread are the disciples’ eyes opened to recognize Jesus
(Luke 24:31). But what prevented them this whole time? Many interpreters
understand Luke’s use of passive voice—“their eyes were kept from recognizing
him” (24:16)—as a divine passive. That is, they credit God with preventing the
disciples’ comprehension. That is certainly possible. I find it more compelling to
believe it is the disciples’ expectations that prevents their recognition. This is not the
context they expected for an encounter with Jesus.

One note: Wise preachers will minimize the metaphors of “seeing” and “perceiving.”
This language can marginalize people whose vision is impaired, persons who have
likely developed modes of “perception” the rest of us have not.

The meal redefines the disciples’ understanding of Jesus. Jesus takes, blesses,
breaks, and gives the bread to them (Luke 24:30), the same sequence of actions
we recall from his final meal (22:19). The pattern also recalls Jesus’ feeding of the
five thousand (9:16). Meals so characterize Jesus’ ministry that Robert J.
Karris2 concluded, “In Luke’s Gospel Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or
coming from a meal.” Meals will shape Christian gatherings in Acts and on to today
precisely because believers recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread (24:35).

David Watson – more people becoming Christians thro’ the communion service
Christians coming together and seeing and believing in Jesus thro what he has done
for them on the cross.

We should not alienate ourselves from Jesus’ disciples. We have our own
misconceptions about what a messiah should be and do, for too many Christians
entertain a Jesus who grants us political “dominion,” shows us how we can succeed
in love and in work, or wants to “bless” us with wealth. These two disciples have
something to teach us. Jesus the messiah offers blessings far deeper than any we
can imagine on our own. Luke sets the terms for this messiah by handing down a
story.

When 2 people talk about Jesus together it is often not long before He joins them – even if
at first they are not aware of His presence. Appears and disappears preparing them for His
ascension and HS. We often think it would be good if Jesus stayed on the earth in is body
but only one place at one time – how often would he come here to Stokesley?

Christ our God longs and desires to open our minds to understand the scriptures, to
understand all that has been written, spoken, and revealed about him in whatever
form that happens and has happened. That’s what Jesus did for the disciples and it’s
what he does for us. This is not an academic or intellectual understanding. That the
disciples are witnesses does not mean they now have all the answers. It means
they now have the life Jesus is giving to them. They are witnesses based not on
what they know, but on who they are, how they live, and their relationship with
the risen Christ

Remember that day when you sensed something new was being offered you;
possibilities that you did not create for yourself. They just opened up. Reflect on that
moment when you realized that you were ok and could again start to live. Those are
the moments when Christ opens our minds to understand. They are moments of awe
and wonder that leave us in sacred silence. They fill our eyes with tears. We weep,
not from sorrow or pain, but the water of new life. They are the moments in which we
say, “I never want this to end. I don’t want to leave this place.”
In each of those moments the one who is fully alive and risen, the Christ, is calling us
to see and recognize him, to join him, and to discover our new life. This is the
authentic self we long to become, the self that we already are, and the self we are
becoming. This is resurrected life.

Open your eyes, your heart, and your mind to the life Christ is offering you. Let it be
the voice of Christ opening your mind to understand. Sit with it. Pray with it. Wrestle
with it. Trust it. As soon as you catch a glimpse of the risen Christ and your own
resurrection leave a comment, share it with others. Encourage each other with these
words. “You are witnesses of these things,” he says to us. Tell it. Live it. Become it.
The resurrected life is yours. You are witnesses. You are witnesses.