{"id":6482,"date":"2021-02-16T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T00:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=6482"},"modified":"2021-10-06T04:52:24","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T20:52:24","slug":"266-emmaus-their-eyes-were-kept-from-recognising-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=6482","title":{"rendered":"266. Emmaus: \u201cTheir Eyes Were Kept from Recognising Him\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

13\u00a0<\/sup>Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup>and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.\u00a015\u00a0<\/sup>While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,\u00a016\u00a0<\/sup>but their eyes were kept from recognizing him<\/span><\/strong>. [Luke 24:13-16<\/span>,\u00a0NRSV<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many have asked why the two disciples failed<\/em><\/strong> to recognise<\/em><\/strong> the resurrected Christ on the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not just these two disciples from Emmaus who could not recognize the crucified and resurrected Lord. Mary Magdalene, all the apostles, and many other disciples at their encounter with the resurrected Christ did not at first recognize him. Why was that the case? One answer is that, while the crucifixion of Jesus is a historical fact, his resurrection is what may be called a faith-fact. We need the eyes of faith to \u201csee\u201d the Risen Lord. Without that faith, one does not \u201csee\u201d. Not all can \u201csee\u201d that, for not all have the faith. But without seeing and accepting that fact, Christ is not (yet) risen in one\u2019s life.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Reasons for Not Believing the Resurrection<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What was the cause of the two disciples\u2019 failure at recognition? We begin with two proximate reasons: the overpowering trauma from Jesus\u2019 crucifixion, and the lack of a cure for that trauma.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, from the two disciples themselves, the women\u2019s story after their empty-tomb visit seemed pure nonsense \u2013 \u201can idle tale\u201d (verse 11)\u00a0– to the apostles.\u00a0What happened at the torture and crucifixion of Jesus were hard, cruel, devastating facts. The seeming triumph of evil in the Passion and death of Jesus was so complete and so overpowering that any message that appeared to override the harsh, blinding cold facts quite naturally seemed like \u201cidle talk\u201d. More than anything else, the disciples\u2019 disbelief of the resurrection reminds us, in the first place, of the horrific harshness of Jesus\u2019 suffering death. Despite Jesus having foretold his Resurrection, the trauma had all but vanquished what little faith they had, so that the women\u2019s report could not make sense, and did not bring the disciples to believe, the apostles included.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having encountered the full force of Jesus\u2019 horrible, humiliating death, the over-powering and traumatic experience was something none of the early disciples was about to forget any time soon. That this is the case is testified to by Thomas who adamantly refused to believe all reports on Jesus\u2019 post-resurrection appearance: \u201cUnless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe\u201d (John 20:25). And so, secondly, what the disciples needed was a cure, something to neutralize that trauma. Like Thomas, what the rest of the body of followers in Jerusalem now needed was another, counteracting force to bring them back to faith again. And that counteracting force is supplied by a personal<\/em> encounter<\/em><\/strong> with the Risen Lord himself, so that they may be overpowered by the God of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a deeper level, the failure to recognize the Risen Christ has to do with, for whatever reason, a miscomprehension of the work of the Messiah and what he must go through to accomplish his work.<\/span><\/p>\n

In their zeal for a savior to get rid of the foreign power, the disciples have clean forgotten the constant pattern of God\u2019s assistance: the harder your work and the weightier your burden, the mightier is God\u2019s support for you. And the darker your sorrows, the brighter will His light shine upon your feet. The real failure disclosed in the entire Emmaus narrative, of course, is not the suffering and death of Jesus, but the disciples\u2019 inability to comprehend the spiritual truth hidden in his social and political suffering and dying.<\/span><\/p>\n

They have shut out the constant reality that pain was always part of the path of the Messiah and pain will always be part of the path<\/em><\/strong> of those who walk the way of the Lord. They have yet to move on to the true Christian pattern of salvation, which is from pain to hope and from failure to glory. The Messiah\u2019s triumph would be achieved through failure. But, \u201cslow of hearts to believe\u201d what the prophets had long ago foretold, the two disciples (and the others back in Jerusalem) could not possibly see this. So even though their experience of Jesus as \u201ca prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people\u201d had enhanced their hope in the redemption of Israel, neither their experience nor their hope could cope with the humiliating death of Jesus. That death had become a stumbling block on their road to understanding divine prophecy, and thus on \u201cseeing\u201d the Risen Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Slow of Heart to Believe<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The disciples\u2019 recollection \u201cconcerning Jesus of Nazareth\u201d betrays \u201chow slow of heart to believe\u201d they were.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are three closely-tied parts to that recollection: (a) Jesus as a prophet mighty in deed and word; (b) the rejection and death of Jesus; and (c) their hope in Israel\u2019s redemption. Their inability to hold the first two facts together (a mighty prophet who was rejected) has led to the collapse of their hope.<\/span><\/p>\n