The story in Luke 24 of the conversation on the road to Emmaus is a story where two disciples have their eyes and their understanding opened to see what is real and true. In the first part of the story Jesus opens the Scriptures to the two disciples, and they receive understanding about how all the law and prophets point to Jesus. But there is yet another veil that lies over their eyes. They don’t see Jesus himself and recognize him until they eat with him. And as he blesses the bread and breaks it and gives it to them, their eyes are at last opened and they know it is Jesus. There is this wonderful moment when suddenly the clouds in their understanding are gone and everything is clear. There is another time in the Bible when it says two people’s eyes were suddenly opened. I wonder if you remember who they were?
It was Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They also were eating a meal, a meal of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It says in Genesis 3, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.” Because of their disobedience, they felt shame for the first time, and it opened their eyes to their nakedness before God and one another. Have you ever had a dream where you are somewhere with a group of people, maybe at a party or at work, and you suddenly realize that you are naked? You’re standing in a room full of people and you forgot to put your clothes on! Sometimes in the dream you’re faced with the dilemma, should I scream and run out of the room or act cool and nonchalant and hope nobody notices. Apparently those kinds of dreams are extremely common. They express our subconscious feelings of shame, or of being afraid of being exposed as a fraud, feeling people are going to see beneath the façade and find out the truth about us. Those feelings are part of our human sinful condition. Just like Adam and Eve, our eyes are opened deep inside and we know the truth about ourselves.
It was Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They also were eating a meal, a meal of the forbidden fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It says in Genesis 3, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.” Because of their disobedience, they felt shame for the first time, and it opened their eyes to their nakedness before God and one another. Have you ever had a dream where you are somewhere with a group of people, maybe at a party or at work, and you suddenly realize that you are naked? You’re standing in a room full of people and you forgot to put your clothes on! Sometimes in the dream you’re faced with the dilemma, should I scream and run out of the room or act cool and nonchalant and hope nobody notices. Apparently those kinds of dreams are extremely common. They express our subconscious feelings of shame, or of being afraid of being exposed as a fraud, feeling people are going to see beneath the façade and find out the truth about us. Those feelings are part of our human sinful condition. Just like Adam and Eve, our eyes are opened deep inside and we know the truth about ourselves.
But we try to fool ourselves and others. Some people try to hide by presenting a perfect picture, every hair is in place and their clothes are beautiful and clean and pressed, and try very hard never to make mistakes. Others present a sort of studied slovenliness. “Hey, I’m cool, I don’t care what anybody thinks about me. Whatever!” That’s a way to hide, too, to protect oneself from disappointment of rejection. We have to hide because we feel that if anyone really knew the truth about us they would despise us or they would be shocked, and run the other way. The story of Adam and Eve tells us that our shame comes from our sin that has alienated us from God. We are exiled from the Garden, from our true Home where there is perfect communion with God, and now we feel awkward, out of place and need to hide our shame from God, from others and from ourselves.
Today’s gospel reading tells another story where there is also a meal in which eyes are opened to see the truth. This is the story of the two travelers on their way to Emmaus. One is named Cleopas and the other is unnamed, but some think it might be his wife Mary. She is mentioned in the gospel of John as being one of the women who stood at the cross during the crucifixion. The two of them are walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus the afternoon of the resurrection. They walk along feeling grief over the death of Jesus, but also they are astonished by the news they heard that the tomb was found empty that morning. What could it mean?! Jesus, still hidden to them, joins them in their walk and interprets for them all the Scriptures beginning with Genesis and the five books of Moses and going all the way through the prophets, showing that all that had happened was the fulfillment of the Scriptures. Later that evening when Jesus comes to stand in the midst of all of the disciples, Luke says that he again explains the meaning of all the scriptures to them. In verse 45 it says, “Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them. ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.’” Here also on the road to Emmaus Jesus is opening the minds of the disciples so that they understand who Jesus is, but they still don’t recognize him. There is another opening that has to happen.
The two disciples are longing, hungering for more, and so they beg Jesus to stay and have supper with them. Then in verse 30 it says, “When he was at the table with them, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” This is very different from Adam and Eve’s eating and having their eyes opened. For Adam and Eve, their eyes were opened and they discovered their shame, their nakedness, their sinfulness. For the two disciples, their eyes are opened and they see the resurrected Jesus. They see the one who has for all time healed the shame of Adam and Eve, the one who has healed humanity’s alienation from God through forgiveness of sins, the one who is able to bring us home again, back into loving communion with God. It is a meal that opens their eyes to the reality of eternal life.
When Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened, their vision was turned inward upon themselves. It is the curse of self-consciousness, where humanity becomes self-centered and self-absorbed. Isn’t this a true metaphor for our human predicament? We cannot by ourselves escape from our self-centeredness, our shame, our basic unloving behavior towards others. In our fallen condition we are inward and self-focused. But for the disciples on their way to Emmaus, their eyes are opened in a way that turns them out from themselves to a fullness of not only understanding God’s plan of redemption, as Jesus had just unfolded to them on their journey, but they are brought out of themselves and into communion with the Lord in the breaking of the bread. The curse is reversed! Sin is forgiven. The alienation from God, and from one another, and from even our own true selves that came in the Garden of Eden is healed and we are invited into communion with God in the breaking of the bread.
The echoes of the Last Supper are very strong, where Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples. It is in this moment of the powerful symbol of Jesus’ giving of himself for them in the breaking of the bread, that they recognize him. He is the one who gives himself totally for others, who pours his life out for others. Rather than having their eyes opened to be turned inward on their own shame and nakedness and failure, they have their eyes opened to see the One who is totally outward in self-giving, totally other oriented, who forgives and loves and receives them. I think Luke wants us to understand that it is a moment of recognition not only that it is the resurrected Jesus, he is our salvation, our healer, the one who reorients our self-centered inwardly focused lives towards communion with God.
Luke also wants us to understand that this salvation that Jesus brings is what was promised from the beginning, from Genesis, from the moment when we became alienated from God. It is a promise that is echoed all through the Old Testament, and which is finally fulfilled in Jesus. The passage from I Peter that we read speaks about Jesus’ sacrifice and says that “he was destined before the foundation of the world.” The reversal of the curse of sin and death has been God’s plan all along. And it is God’s plan for us also.
Are there places in your own heart where you are still carrying shame? Are there places of sin that need to be forgiven? Where do you need to receive this risen Lord who can heal the shame, and set us free from that awful feeling that we need to hide? Is there a place in particular that comes to mind? It might be a place of sin that you’ve been trying to run away from and hide from others. Or it might also be a place of shame that is the result of the sins of others against you—feelings of inadequacy, needing to be right and to look perfect. How might God be inviting you into his healing presence today?
We are invited to the Lord’s Table today, where Jesus blesses and breaks bread, and through the broken bread gives us himself, his very presence, to us. He is present as the risen Lord, who in fact covers our nakedness and shame with his own naked body that hung on the cross. He restores us to communion with God, bringing us home to the Father. He brings us to eternal life through his resurrection. As we come to the table today, offer to God the place where you need his healing. Seek his healing presence, so that your eyes might be opened to Jesus, the risen Lord, who loves, forgives, heals and saves.