Their Eyes Were Opened

3rd Sunday of Easter – A                                                                                LSB #’s 469, 476, 478
Text – Luke 24:31a
 
And their eyes were opened, & they recognized Him.
 
THEIR EYES WERE OPENED
 
 
“They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us  while He talked to us on the road,  while He opened to us the Scriptures?’”  (Luke 24:32 ESV)    After Jesus opened their eyes to recognize Him,  then they understood.   Everything  was suddenly  intensely  clear. 
The reality of the risen Jesus  was making itself known to the disciples as He spoke to them, but they were struggling to put that reality into conscious form.   They only recognized what their burning hearts were trying to tell them  after Jesus opened their eyes  to know Him.  Up to then,  Jesus wanted them to focus on His teaching  instead of on who He is. 
The Son of God was taking these two men back to the basics,  because,  even though they didn’t realize it,  they had gotten lost on their journey back  to the heavenly Father.   In Luke’s Gospel, these two men represent all human beings,  including us  right here,  right now.   Did you realize that you too  are on a journey  back to your heavenly Father? 
Along the way,  you also have gotten lost  at various times  & in various ways.   Maybe you’ve thought that God will allow people into heaven  if they just try hard enough?   Another detour  is thinking that people who are sincere in their beliefs,  whatever religion they follow,  will be accepted into heaven  based upon their sincerity. 
Since The Fall,  the entire human race has been on a journey back to its Creator.   That journey is taking each of us to the Last Day.   There, we will all face the heavenly Father, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,  so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good  or evil.”  (5:10 ESV) 
On that day, some people will be covered by the blood of Christ.  They will be saved. 
Others,  will stand naked  before their Lord & Creator.   They will be condemned.   Do you remember what Adam said  once he realized he was lost on his journey?  “I heard the sound of you in the garden,  & I was afraid,  because I was naked,  & I hid myself.”  (Genesis 3:10 ESV)  
There will be no hiding from Yahweh on the Last Day.   Until then,  each of us  is on a journey  to judgment.   Jesus spoke about the road people choose for their journey in Matthew 7: “Enter through the narrow gate;  for the gate is wide & the way is broad  that leads to destruction,  & there are many who enter through it.”  (7:13 NASB1995) 
Because of the dangers, on our journey there will be many times  when it is in our best interest  to go back to the basics,  back to the Word of God,  both the OT & the New.   Listen to where Jesus took the two men on the road to Emmaus:
“…beginning with Moses & all the Prophets,  He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things  concerning Himself.”  (Luke 24:27 ESV)   In other words,  the entire OT is about the One  who makes possible your journey home  to the heavenly Father.  It’s while Jesus was taking the two men back to the basics  that their hearts subconsciously began to burn. 
Prior to this road trip,  these men had been blind to what the OT is teaching.  Once they returned to Jerusalem, while telling the disciples what had happened,  Jesus appeared among them all.  After showing them the scars in His hands & feet:
“…He said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses & the Prophets & the Psalms  must be fulfilled.’  Then He opened their mind  to understand the Scriptures.”  (Luke 24:44-45 ESV)   In a span of 15 verses, Jesus opened their eyes,  the Scriptures,  & their mind. 
What was the point?  Jesus “…said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer & on the third day rise from the dead, & that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.’”  (Luke 24:46-47 ESV)   And why did Jesus need to do all this for the men who’d been following Him for three years already?  Verse 21 of the Gospel reading tells us  as the men respond to Jesus’ questioning: “…we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel.”  (24:21a ESV) 
‘They had hoped’  means  they hope no longer.  After the death of Jesus, they mistakenly believed that He was not  the one to redeem Israel.  Their conclusion couldn’t have been further from the truth,  & as Jesus opened the Scriptures to them,  He showed that to them.  The death over which they despaired  was the very instrument through which Jesus did  redeem Israel. 
 In our journey back to our heavenly home,  you & I also get lost along the way.   We take detours & what we think are shortcuts.  For a time, we won’t even notice that we’ve lost our way.  Eventually though, the disconnect between our perception of things & God’s promises becomes too discouraging to ignore. 
God promised a Savior, to redeem Israel, yet, Jesus of Nazareth was dead.  Did God’s promise fail, or did these men have the wrong perception as they walked to Emmaus?  In this case, their perception was wrong because, although Jesus did truly die,  He was no longer dead. 
But not knowing that, the disconnect these men felt, & the help of Jesus, got them back on to the correct path.  Sometimes God allows the struggles in our lives, the disconnect that we feel, to wake us up to the fact that we’ve strayed from the journey to our heavenly Father.  So, looking at the sermon title, Their Eyes Were Opened, where else do we hear similar words? 
At Genesis 3:7, we read, “Then the eyes of both were opened, & they knew that they were naked.”  Just as sin brought death into our world, it also brought knowledge of evil.  Once they ate of the forbidden tree, they saw all kinds of horrible things that sin brings into what was God’s perfect creation.  In the Gospel reading from Luke, by opening the eyes of the two men, Jesus is reversing the curse of the Garden.  Now, that’s not a one-time thing.  Every time we are personally forgiven of our sins, Jesus is reversing the curse.  Every time we come to a true understanding of Holy Scripture, Jesus is reversing the curse.  Every time we allow God’s mercy to influence us to be merciful, the Holy Spirit is reversing the curse. 
In fact, because of that, everything about our lives is connected to Easter, because the resurrection is about reversing the curse of sin & death.  Yet, the routine details & busyness of life easily distract us from that reality. 
Jesus knew that before the foundation of the world, so the plan has always been that He needed to take on human flesh, die & rise in order to reverse the curse for us.  We cannot reverse it by ourselves.  Here’s how Jesus’ reversing the curse affected the people in Acts 2:
“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, & said to Peter & the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’  And Peter said to them, ‘Repent & be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, & you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”  (2:37-38 ESV) 
You & I  are people on a journey, from death to life – everlasting life.  For many, it is a long & difficult journey.  We have not yet arrived, so we keep putting one foot in front of the other.  Christ promised to meet us on the road, even if you don’t see Him.  We too are those disciples on the road to Emmaus.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Who are you who walk in sorrow  down Emmaus’ barren road,  hearts distraught & hope defeated,  bent beneath grief’s crushing load?  Nameless mourners, we will join you,  we who also mourn our dead;  we have stood by graves unyielding, eaten death’s bare, bitter bread.   Who is this  who joins our journey,  walking with us stride by stride?   Unknown Stranger,  can You fathom depths of grief for one who died?   Then the wonder!  When we told You how our dreams to dust have turned,  then You opened wide the Scriptures  till our hearts within us burned.  Amen.  LSB 476:1-2.