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Do you understand the resurrection story in Luke 24:13-35 about the two disciples walking the road to Emmaus? How could they walk with Jesus for miles and not recognize him? Why would God miraculously keep them from recognizing Jesus? Was Jesus’ body so disfigured and changed by the crucifixion that they could not recognize him?
After studying this passage, I came to this conclusion, and I love it:
Theirs eyes were “kept from recognizing him” (v. 16) so we could have a resurrection account that we fit into ourselves. This is our story! Each of us today walk this road to Emmaus like these two disciples.
They are struggling with sadness and confusion. Hope has gone out in their hearts. They had “hoped” that Jesus would “redeem Israel” (v. 21). They even waited till the third day after the crucifixion, but now they were going home. They were sad, discouraged, confused, and hopeless.
What were they to do? Jesus comes to them, but their eyes are kept from recognizing him, so he could teach us a lesson. What is the lesson?
We have faith and hope in Jesus and his resurrection because of the Scriptures. Jesus “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (v. 27). In fact, Luke uses the same word in verse 31 and 32 to create this tie. Their eyes were “opened” (v. 31), through the “opening” of Scriptures (v. 32). That is when their hearts began to burn within them. Hope and faith were rekindled and began to burn again. Jesus opens the Scriptures and teaches them that things did not turn out wrongly, but rightly! Later, Jesus will refer to the Scriptures being fulfilled about himself in verses 44-47.
Do you see how we walk in the same shoes as these disciples? We haven’t seen the resurrected body of Christ. How do we believe? Through the Scriptures! We have times of discouragement, sadness, and confusion. What are we to do to rekindle hope and faith? Look to the Scriptures!
It is in them that we find the “words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
