Our scripture lesson says: “Their eyes were kept from knowing him.” Our eyes are kept from knowing him often enough, though we may have a difficult time admitting it.

Ah – but that Emmaus story has nothing to do with our predicament. If we do not know Jesus it must be because we have not studied the Bible hard enough or prayed long enough or worked enough for social justice. The biblical story teller (we think) says of the couple on the road to Emmaus “their eyes were kept from knowing him” because if the story teller didn’t say that, he would have trouble with his story – somehow he has to get the disciples to Emmaus and to the table before the recognition scene. So he invents this mysterious something that keeps the disciples from recognizing him.

But this is no contrived bit on the storyteller’s part. He is simply stating the “facts” of the story: the two Emmaus travelers do not recognize Jesus – their eyes are kept from knowing him. Remember that this day is Easter, the day of Resurrection. The two travelers have heard the story of the women and others who went to the tomb, but they have judged it an idle tale. It is this that keeps their eyes restrained. They are still caught up in death rather than life.

The stranger on the road is just that – a stranger. When the stranger asks what the two are discussing and why they are sad, Cleopas bursts into speech. It is not such a bad speech – it testifies to many of the same things that later sermons testify: Jesus the mighty prophet, with the message from God, the events of the crucifixion – but when we arrive at the Resurrection, the statement goes awry. And so the stranger begins to instruct Cleopas and his friend.

Emmaus is reached at evening and the travelers urge the third to stay with them, though it appears he may have planned to travel longer. But the stranger consents readily enough to stay. As he blesses and breaks the bread at dinner their eyes are opened and they recognize him – and then “he vanished from their sight.”

Their ears have been opened by Jesus’ words on the road, - their eyes by the breaking of the bread. But so far we have simply retold the outer story – we do not understand how or why the changes have taken place.

Now we must see that this is a story of transformation from within. We first see the evidence of this transformation when the two Emmaus travelers invite the stranger to stay with them – and as they say to each other a bit later “Did not our hearts burn within us on the road as he spoke?” This is another sign of the transformation. The breaking of the bread just as Jesus broke it at the Last Supper completes the transformation and their eyes are opened. Jesus vanishes from their sight not for magical reasons nor because he did not wish to stay with them. He vanishes because as the resurrected Christ he has so thoroughly become part of the Emmaus couple’s lives they no longer need to see the outer figure. With the bread they have eaten, they have become one with the resurrected Christ. Christ now lives within them. In contrast to the day’s plodding journey they rush back from Emmaus, through the night, to Jerusalem to share their experience – and they find that here also the resurrection has now been experienced.

And so today, as we, too, come with our own hopes and fears, faith and doubts to this table celebrating the risen Christ, Christ’s real presence will be here, not only in the Bread and Cup, but also in us, the Body of Christ, the Church. Look around you. The resurrected Christ is here and now in each one of us. May our eyes be opened to recognize him. Amen.