Text: “Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:29).
I wonder if we had lived in the days when Jesus was born and walked upon the face of the earth if we would have had any difficulty accepting the things Jesus taught and did. Would we have given much thought to a baby born in a stable? Would we have even known anything about his birth?
Would we have believed that a woman could become pregnant without ever having been with a man? Whoever heard of conception by the Holy Spirit? Up until that time, the question had never come up.
We do not understand why many things in the world happen. We read the Scriptures and accept them by faith. We do not try to prove God’s Word using our scientific knowledge. We accept and believe God’s Word as the truth.
We believe God spoke to many men throughout the years and inspired them to record for future generations His words that we read today. We would not know anything about how life started if Moses had not recorded the words of creation in the book of Genesis. God revealed to Moses the story of creation, the story of Adam and Eve, the story of Noah, the story of Abraham, the story of Isaac, and the story of Joseph.
There are some people today who do not believe these stories. They say that creation occurred over many years and not in seven days as we know the 24-hour day. Some say that there is no way in the world that Noah could build a boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Four hundred fifty feet is the length of one and one-half football fields.
Noah and his family found grace in the eyes of the Lord and together they were obedient and built the boat. They not only built the boat or the ark, but they built it to the specifications God requested.
Many people of that day probably thought Noah was some kind of a nut, but that didn’t make any difference to Noah. Other people were not being obedient to God. Life was wild. People were doing things not acceptable to God. “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence” (Genesis 6:11).
Other people must have been warned about what was on God’s mind, but chose not to believe. Judgment was about to come upon these people and only eight people would be saved; Noah, his wife, and Shem, Ham, Japheth and their wives. Judgment did come; “…on the seventeenth day of the second month – on that day all the springs of the great deeps burst forth, and the flood gates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:11-12).
In Noah’s day it was difficult for people to believe that God is God of his word. Today, many people do not consider God’s Word or believe that what His Word says will happen, sooner or later.
Many people do not believe that sin is real and that there is a penalty for sin. Some people do not believe the story of Adam and Eve and how sin entered the world through disobedience. They say they live a good life and do not do anything bad, but Scripture says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
I have heard people say that there is no heaven and there is no hell because God is good and we have nothing to worry about. If we were no good, God would not have created us. The fact is: at creation, everything was good, but then disobedience entered the picture. Once man disobeyed God, man became separated from God. In other words there was a void between man and God. Man was now sinful, but God was not.
Every person born after Adam and Eve is born with a sinful nature. God did not want this to happen, but truth of the matter is it did happen. God was not happy with man, but by the same token, God did not totally give up on man.
God had a plan and that plan was to give man another chance. God’s plan was the plan of Redemption. God’s plan of Redemption would give man another opportunity to become righteous in His sight.
God’s plan was to send His Son into the world to pay for all the sins committed and all those that would ever be committed. Since man has a sinful nature, man is going to sin on a daily basis. The important issue here is that man has a choice to sin or not to sin due to the rejection or the acceptance of the Holy Spirit.
We can only understand this concept through an eye-opening experience with the Lord Jesus Christ. The people who followed Jesus through his days of ministry on earth had some eye-opening experiences. Many of Jesus’ followers witnessed some of the miracles Jesus performed.
Those who saw unbelievable and impossible things happen right before their eyes must have wondered if it was all a dream. On the other hand, perhaps the followers were so dedicated and believing that whatever Jesus did they accepted without question.
There were events that took place during the last week of Jesus’ life that were real. People witnessed the joyful entry into Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday. They witnessed the cleaning of the temple by Jesus and the teaching of Jesus in the temple.
His disciples celebrated the Passover and were present to see when Jesus humbled himself as a lowly servant and washed their feet. The disciples heard the words of Jesus when he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me – one who is eating with me” (Mark 14:18).
It was a difficult time for Jesus when he went to the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James, and John. Although Jesus had talked to the disciples about the events that were forthcoming, the disciples either did not believe or did not understand. Peter, James, and John had an eye-opening experience when the crowd armed with swords and clubs arrived at the Garden for the moment Judas would betray Jesus.
Peter was so upset with what he witnessed that he …”drew his sword and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear” (John 18:10). Peter thought he was doing the right thing, but Jesus turned to him and said, “Put your sword away” (John 18:11). Jesus then touched the man’s ear and he was healed (Luke 22:51).
Peter thought the same way we think today. When something undesirable happens we tend to take things into our own hands. We believe we should take immediate action. We do what the world would do and not what Jesus would do. Instead of trusting God, we do something that leads us into sin.
The crowd witnessed many events that Thursday night. They witnessed Jesus being taken before Annas, Ciaphas, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, Herod, and then back to Pilate. The crowd witnessed the three times Peter denied knowing Jesus. People watched as Barabbas was set free and Jesus was handed over to be crucified.
Scripture says, “Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him and again and again, saying, ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ And they struck him in the face” (John 19:1-3).
Jesus was led away to be crucified. “So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with two others – one on each side and Jesus in the middle” (John 19:16b – 18).
Many eyes were opened as they nailed Him to the Cross and watched him die. Darkness came upon the earth from the sixth to the ninth hour and the curtain in the temple was torn, Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:44-46). The eyes of those who witnessed this event were opened.
Joseph of Arimathea received permission from Pilate to bury the body of Jesus. Nothing took place on the Sabbath, but the following day, the first day of the week, the women went to the tomb to place spices upon the body of Jesus but found the stone rolled away and the place where Jesus had been laid.
The women were told by two men (angels): “He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered his words” (Luke 24:6-8).
It appeared that everything was over. Their hope in the Messiah their Savior was now gone. The thing to do was to go back to their daily work routine of life. People were disappointed. They were sad. They were lost.
Two believers were traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus which was a distance of about 7 miles. As the two walked along they talked about the events that had taken place and how they had hoped that Jesus was the one who would deliver them from the Roman oppression. Their hearts were empty the bottom had dropped out of their lives.
That same thing happens to us today. When we lose hope or things don’t seem to work out the way we expect them to, we feel helpless and let down. We tend to blame ourselves. Where did we go wrong? Where have we failed? God, have you forgotten how we feel or where we hurt? All of us have times when we feel like this.
Christians don’t feel like this all the time and for the most part they are not pessimistic concerning life. But Christians do have their dark days. We are just like these two travelers on the road.
We do get discouraged, but we have the advantage of knowing what Jesus did for each of us. We know how things will work out because he has revealed to us all we need to know.
“So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them” (Luke 24:15). As the travelers were walking and talking about what had happened a third person approached them and asked, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” (Luke 24:17).
Let’s stop and reflect on our own lives for just a moment. I would venture to say that there have been times when each of us felt like those travelers. Something has taken place in our life that we don’t understand.
We are mauling over thoughts in our mind like: “Lord, why is this happening to me? I though you were on my side. I do everything you tell me to do and yet I feel like I am carrying the load of the world upon my shoulders. Help me to understand because I can’t go on like this.”
After we have poured out our heart to God a change takes place. There is no one else around, but we feel a sudden relief. We feel as though things are not a bad as we thought. We feel like someone really cares. We feel like we are being uplifted.
No, Jesus is not walking beside us like he did the travelers, but he is even closer than that. He has always been with us. He is living within our hearts in the Person of the Holy Spirit. He has opened our eyes to His presence within us. He is saying to us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
Jesus didn’t leave those two travelers to continue to live a hopeless life, but instead he opened their eyes and let them know that he is alive now and will forever be alive. Those two travelers were now so excited and full of hope that they went and told the other eleven plus all those who were with them.
We are to do the same thing. We are to tell all those around that this life is only a pass-through. There is a better life ahead. There is hope. There is a future.
There is one who loves us so much that he gave His life that believing we might spend eternity with Him.
Let us help open the eyes of people in the world today who are like the two travelers who thought the good life was over and they had nothing to look forward to. Let us tell them what Jesus has done for us and that he will do the same for them.
Jesus opened the eyes of the travelers when he “…beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).
He got their attention with the Scripture concerning the things of Himself, but the real eye-opener was when “He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:30-31).
Think about this eye-opening experience as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper this morning.
Amen.
