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S. Easter 3.26 Luke 24:13–35

‘But their eyes were kept from recognizing him…’

But their hearts knew him, right? And burned, baby, burned within them!

It’s my contention that everyone knows who Jesus is, the moment he appears to us—which, like many of my opinions, is a minority viewpoint among modern scholars. That line from Luke, at first, seems to contradict my thesis that everyone knows Jesus. But actually it demonstrates why many seem not to know him—like Cleopas and his pal, and so many of the “unchurched”.

Because they see with their eyes, with their reason, with their empirical sensibilities. The Myth of Intellectualism has blinded them to the True, Good, and Beautiful. They have eyes only for “facts” and “data” (modern concepts that the pre-modern world literally had no words for! And the fact that data is what drives our world today is the main reason it is so incredibly screwed up!).

St. Exupery is surely right when he says in ‘The Little Prince’: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” It’s ironic that line comes from a professional airline pilot who loved planes and tinkering with them. But airplanes were literally only a vehicle for St. Ex get up above the world and get a different perspective on things…

And in his beloved story “The Little Prince”—whom he claims in the book to have met when he crashed in the Libyan desert, so whether it is fiction is something that St. Ex fans have long debated—St. Ex tells how the Little Prince learned this lesson from the Fox who lived on an adjacent planet to the Prince’s where he was tormented by his love for a Rose that demanded a lot from him without giving much back in return—except sadness…

The Fox told the Little Prince his trouble, simply put, was: “it is only with the heart one can see truly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” Trying to be objective and just go by the facts and the data keeps us from seeing what is really True, Good, and Beautiful. Sure, his love for his Rose would probably be the end of him. But what a glorious way to go, throwing yourself head-first and laughing into the holy rage calling your name!

Following our hearts is not safe, St. Ex and the Little Prince both learned! It will get you laughed at, ridiculed, broke, and crashed in the Libyan desert, quite far from your lovely Rose! But look at the beautiful friendships that are forged in detention and plane crashes in the desert and fighting Nazis like Bogie and Louie at the end of Casablanca and letting the Rose fly off with Victor Lazlo.

Our love affair with Jesus is like that—as Cleopas and his pal find. They are crashed in their own desert as we find them today, getting out of town, walking along, sad. They had their hearts and dreams pinned on Jesus. They thought he was The One who would save them from themselves, from boredom and from a fact and data-driven world.

But, no! He was arrested as an insurrectionist, an Enemy of the State, tortured, whipped, mocked, and brutally put to death by crucifixion. They saw him dead and buried in Joseph’s tomb. That was the end of that! Heart-broken, Cleopas and his pal light out for the territories, forced to admit the fact and data-driven world is dull and brutal but probably all there really is…

And then this Stranger meets them who seems to be going their way. But he’s rather clueless. He doesn’t seem to know anything about Jesus the Messiah and all the terrible things that had just happened in Jerusalem. So they tell this “Stranger” about Jesus which is delightfully and comically absurd.

But the Stranger shoots back, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Sometimes, the terrible plane crash in the Libyan desert puts us in the Place where we meet the Friend who changes everything…

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, the Stranger pointed out all the things in the Story they had missed—the things concerning himself and the central necessity of the cross and tomb for sin, death, and hell to be properly vanquished once and for all!

I would point out that Jesus does not criticize their empirical vision, their eyesight, or their reason. He chides them for being slow of heart to believe the Word! Because it is only with the heart that one can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eye… 😉

The Stranger acts like he’s going farther, but they beg him to stay with them. And in the breaking of the bread (the Lord’s Supper!) their eyes are opened (by their burning hearts, by the bread that is his Body on their lips, the cup that is his blood satisfying their fevered thirst 😉 and recognizing him at that moment, he vanishes from their sight. (!)

But not from their hearts! They race back to Jerusalem to tell the good news to the Apostles saying “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures!?”

That holy heart-burn will always get your head straight and your eyes on the prize!

The Risen Jesus is a lot like Gandalf after he died in the mines of Moria. He is a bit aloof, not easy company. He is the same but different. And the difference is HOLINESS!, I would say. My takeaway from the Emmaus story (like my friend Art Just’s) is that the Risen Jesus is not great company for earth-bound sinners. He lives on another plane now, far above us. And it’s a place we long to go, but aren’t quite ready for. Our hearts are ready, but our heads and eyes and bodies? Not so much!

There is some dying for us to do to become his true friends. A crash in the desert, a shipwreck that opens our heart to what is essential and invisible to the eye and intellect. We need to get broken—like Jacob wrestling this Stranger in the desert night in order to limp away steering by our burning hearts not our sin-blinded eyes…

The best way for us to enjoy the Stranger’s company is by the Word of scriptures, rightly expounded, that gets our hearts burning with a holy fire, absorbed in the Story of Jesus and his boundless, self-sacrificing Love…

The best way is to sit at Table with him and be fed by his broken body and his blood shed for our sins. And then, our dying, our terrible crashes in the deserts of this world, will become the Way of shucking off the shackles of sin that binds and blinds, so that flying blind, by the dead-reckoning of a burning heart, we will know Jesus as he truly is: Friend of sinners, Savior and God and King. Just so, the Peace, surpassing all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.