How can we recognize the risen Jesus in our daily lives? In the story of Jesus' appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke gives us insight into this question.
On the same day that Jesus rose from the grave, He appears to two disciples who are walking seven and a half miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Although Jesus appears to the two and talks with them, they do not recognize that it is Jesus. Typically, we might wonder what is different about Jesus that keeps the two from recognizing Him. However, I would encourage you to consider what is going on with the two disciples that blinds their eyes.
Verse seventeen says that their faces are downcast. Other translations say they are sad. The Greek word in this passage, skuthropos, means that they are gloomy, mournful, and even angry. Have you ever been so down emotionally and spiritually that nothing looked the same...the sky looked grey even when it was blue...the world seemed dark even when it was light? This is the outlook of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They don't recognize Jesus because of their own attitude and outlook.
Into their gloom and doom mentality, Jesus reveals Himself to the two disciples in two ways that pull them up and out of their despair.
There are two key verses:
Verse 27 says, Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
First, Jesus shares the Word. The Word-made-flesh explains the written Word. He sets their understanding on a new foundation through the Word. We, too, recognize the risen Jesus when we spend time in the Word. The Word adjusts our attitudes, shifts our mentality, and focuses our emotions in the right direction. Not only does the written Word bear witness to the Word-made-flesh Himself, but the reading of the Word brings the risen Jesus present to us.
Verse 30 says, When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. This simple act made them recognize Jesus. Why? Because they had witnessed this very same action before.
Jesus did the same thing when He fed the 5,000. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. - Luke 9:16
Jesus did the same thing at the Last Supper. Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." - Luke 22:19
We, too, recognize the risen Jesus when we receive the bread of His body - taken, blessed, broken, and given - in Holy Communion. Not only does the bread bear witness to the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf, but the eating of the bread manifests the grace and presence of Christ in our hearts.
So let us return to the question at hand. How do we recognize the risen Jesus in our daily lives? We encounter Jesus as a daily companion through the reading/meditating/applying of the Word to our lives and through the act of receiving Holy Communion. The key is looking for Jesus with the eyes of the heart. Our physical eyes can be blinded by difficulty, struggle, attitudes, and despair. But the eyes of our hearts are illumined by grace - in the Word - in the Bread of Life - enabling us to see Jesus through difficult circumstances and painful experiences.
I close with the words of St. Augustine: "Everything in those Scriptures speaks of Christ, but only to him who has ears. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And so let us pray that he will open our own." AMEN
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