Open our Eyes – Luke 24:26-48

Resurrection from the dead.  It was something that had been discussed by religious leaders for a long time.  It was a fond hope for generations.  Life lived with the presence of God was full of ups and downs for humans but it was a wonderful thing to know that you had been given a gift that animated you and gave you a heart, a mind, a body, and a soul.  Further to this, the One who had granted you this gift desired to be involved in your life and had given you guidance in how to not only live your best life but in how to help others live their best life as well.  When you read the Psalms and when you examine many of the writings of the Jewish people, you discover that there was a great hope that death – that event that ended each life here – would be overcome and the descent from this life to the shadowlands would be no more.  Ancient Hebrews thought of life in three ways. Two of them were within their present experience – the life they lived while they experienced the world around them and the life that came when this life was over.  Of course there was a hope for a third life but without the second life – the shadow life being overcome – there was no possibility that the third life could ever be possible.

True enough, each of them understood that their inability to live a perfect life meant that there would come a time when they would leave this body behind and go to a place where they would no longer experience the mercy and grace of God.  Would that it might come true and that a new life with God – a continued life with God would be possible.  This longing was not about a personal desire to be eternal but a desire to never know a time when God would be absent from their lives.  For them the point of resurrection was renewal and continuation of a life that could experience the mercy and grace of God.

Jesus had foretold not only his death but also his resurrection from the dead. And while the longing for this was there in the minds of the people, experience had taught them that it was no more than a longing and a possibility that could never come true.

In the account from Luke’s gospel that precedes our reading today, we have the story of two disciples of Jesus who were not any of the inner circle. They are walking to Emmaus and encounter Jesus on the road.  They are amazed that Jesus appears to know nothing of the events of the past week in Jerusalem – even though Emmaus is nearby.  They tell him everything – even identifying themselves as followers of Jesus when they say that women of their group had gone to the tomb. After they shared, Jesus interpreted to them the prophecies of old that had spoken of a Messiah – One who would come and whose sacrifice in the flesh would mean forgiveness and eternal life to so many.

But it wasn’t until he took the bread and broke it and gave it to them that they recognized who it was that had journeyed with them that day.  It was then that they remembered how their hearts were burning – a fire of faith and hope! Then their eyes were opened and they knew that it was true – he had arisen from the dead.  When they arrive where the eleven disciples are they hear the news that Jesus has appeared to Simon Peter. They then relate their experience. Everyone’s eyes are opened.

In words that seem to echo the account we find in John Jesus appears in the room and says: “Peace be with you.” In Luke’s account, Thomas is with them and they all get to touch him.  Whether or not they do is not recorded. But they see his hands and his side, the wounds that the nails made and the spear made. And their eyes are opened. He then asks for something to eat. The disciples who came from Emmaus had seen him take bread and break it and give it to them but now they all watched him eat a piece of fish.  No ghost, no apparition! To them this was a miracle but to Jesus, this was the promise of God.  Jesus then opens the Scriptures to all who were there that day and I am sure that their hearts burned within them as well.

In the person of Jesus, standing, talking, and eating, they found themselves in the presence of the One they believed to be the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Messiah.  Through Jesus, the shadow that death had cast over the people had been cleared away; the veil that separated those that had passed from this life and God had been torn.  No longer would death be the end of the people’s experience of God and God’s mercy and grace.  God’s decision to pay the price for their sins, to be the sacrifice that would wipe away the sins of the people and the world had been made real through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  No longer would  this life be the only life that the people would ever know.  Now there was the reality of a third life – an eternal life with God.

But to enter that new life with God required a commitment.  The person who chose to accept this gift of God needed to repent of their sins; they needed to acknowledge their desire to live as the people of God seeking to follow the commandments and teaching to the best of their ability and to be thankful for the gift of forgiveness, love, mercy, and grace that God desired to bestow upon each one of them.

We repent of our sins and seek the forgiveness of God not because we are afraid of hell and the fire of damnation but because we have experienced the peace that comes from knowing that God has been willing to be the sacrifice that ensures  when we leave this life we will find ourselves ever in the embrace of the God who has created us in love and  who has redeemed us in love.

Jesus opened the eyes of the disciples to the reality that death had been overcome and that a life beyond this life, beyond the grave, had been promised to them by God.  In their generation, they took hold of that promise and with the gift of the Holy Spirit went out into their world encouraging people to repent and receive the gift of forgiveness and the new life from God.

Let us thank God that their eyes were opened!  May our eyes be open too!

AMEN