The first thing I saw was a shirt. Actually, I observed how small the shirt was. I should say the shirt was awkwardly small.
(Luke 24:13-35 – On the Road to Emmaus)
The first thing I saw was a shirt. Actually, I observed how small the shirt was. I should say the shirt was awkwardly small. I saw a little shirt on a young lady. I saw her smoking a cigarette and standing at a bus stop. It seemed to me her jeans were also uncomfortably snug. And this particular bus stop was located outside an elementary school. I saw a teenage girl in rather advertising attire smoking by the bus stop sign outside an elementary school right as classes dismissed for the day and parents were picking up students. A couple of kids were lined up beside her awaiting the same bus. What started out as a line-up beside her quickly became a gathering around her. I saw some kind of conversation. I did see definite interaction. Fingernails done, makeup on, a tattoo or two—she wore it well. I saw she was not unattractive. I saw attitude. I saw immaturity. I saw substance abuse. I saw sexuality. I saw promiscuous, impulsive, defiant. I saw a reason to feel superior. I saw a way to make myself feel better. I saw all that in about seven seconds as I was driving by.
I must have been on my way to Emmaus. It was much like Luke’s Easter afternoon. In the twenty-fourth chapter of the third Gospel, two disciples drag themselves about seven miles to Emmaus. Jesus meets them right outside Jerusalem just as everyone’s packing up from Passover. Jesus Himself wanders up and walks along beside them. But their eyes are kept from recognizing Him. Their faces are downcast. Their gaze is focused on the ground. Their vision is aimed only at the earth. They see uncertainty. They see anxiousness. They see grief. They see guilt. They see pain and death. They see hurt and hopelessness. They see surface and appearance. They see humankind’s shortcomings. They see the limitations of this world. They barely notice the Person next to them. They scarcely see the Person right in front of them. All the two Emmaus disciples can see is essentially their own reflection.
Their prayers have not proven effective. Their plans have not come to pass. Their approach has not prevailed. Their expectations have toppled and crumbled. The terms they defined have been reduced to a pile of rubble. The timetables they set have amounted to no more than smoldering ruins. Their messiah let them down. Their rulers sold them out. Their companions only made matters worse. They’re staring at the dust, these two has-been disciples, because it all looks the same, it all ends up the same. Everything fails. Everyone’s a failure. Why should there be anything different about this third-wheel straggler? What makes Him more than just another ordinary passing traveler? They size Jesus up and that’s what they see, because they only ever evaluate themselves or anything else skin deep. Not only do they not see God, they don’t even see reality. They’re filtering life through me-shaped glasses with self-colored lenses. Their eyes work fine. It’s the “I” they can’t see past. Their ego’s too big, and it’s their I’s that blind them.
And it’s not the I’s that matter. It’s not their I’s or their eyes that matter. It’s not our eyes or our I’s that matter either. God’s eyes are what’s relevant. It’s what God sees that’s real. Lord God sees how foolish and how slow of heart. Almighty Maker sees us foolish and slow of heart. Those disciples outside of Jerusalem may have felt disappointed and frustrated. We may sometimes feel disappointed and let down about God. We may often feel failed and frustrated about everyone we encounter on our roadsides. So disappointed and frustrated is God’s Law with us. His commandments of selfless love have not been honored by us. His expectations for responsible relationships have not been met by us. Instead our faces are too much downward-looking. Our gaze is too much inward-focused. Our vision is too much fallen and fixed upon this world. Apart from Christ, outside of faith in grace, in and of ourselves and on our own, God sees how foolish and how slow of heart we are.
He saw the shirt. He saw the cigarette. God saw the bus stop and the elementary school and the teenage girl, just like he saw the blinded eyes and downcast faces outside Jerusalem on the way to Emmaus Easter afternoon. And God saw beyond it. God looked behind all that. He saw desperate to be noticed. He saw needing to be cherished and taken care of. He saw hungry to be accepted. He saw weary of being rejected and too weak to heal. He saw enslaved by having to compete and unable to escape it. He saw helpless child ashamed of her own filth, afraid of aloneness that is ultimately her own fault. He saw little girl abused, abandoned, crying out, begging for scraps and shreds. He saw her hurtling headlong hellward. He sees the same thing when He looks at us. He sees the same juvenile tantrums, the same I’m-trying-to-hide kind of tattoos, the same sin always operating as a thin disguise for death setting in. God sees all the I’s that blind. Don’t you? Don’t you see it now too?
The lie pleases the eye. Truth is what lies beneath. The lie is always what meets and pleases the eye. The truth lies beneath and beyond the sinful mind’s reach. Jesus reveals that reality hides under a contrary form. Authentic life, genuine living, is not at all as the veneer appears. Actually, from the exterior, it looks a lot like the exact opposite of what it really is. God hides Himself in human flesh. The Son of God disguises His majesty in the humility of Mary’s Child. He wraps glory inside gentleness and grace shown to the broken. He cloaks power with compassion for those who put on the act. He conceals infinite wealth and eternal reward beneath mere words. He covers confidence and kingdom under crucifixion. He veils salvation behind surrender, suffering, self-sacrifice. He hides victory, even God’s victory, even God’s own victory over death, He hides victory within forgiveness. And He hides resurrection for the body, the resurrection of His body, within regular bread and wine.
God hides to open eyes. Jesus hides in order to reveal to blind eyes. He hides so that even blinded I’s may see. Jesus acts as if He’s going farther in order that He may remain. Jesus breaks bread in order that He may mend hearts. Jesus disappears in order that He may be located and go along. Jesus opens the Scriptures in order that He may make sadness obscure. On the road to Emmaus and everywhere else, Jesus makes the mystery the key, not only to see but also to even receive the resurrection presence, to enact the everlasting life, and to enjoy the heavenly kingdom with Him. Forgiveness from God is looking beyond and seeing beneath. Grace given from God is getting behind and going inside. Faith created by God is knowing not what is but what’s meant to be, not how it was but how it will turn out and end up. When you see sin, then you can see salvation. Once you have seen sin, you will be shown salvation.
More important than seeing is being seen by somebody. Being beheld is even better than beholding. Whom you are seen by makes a great difference, and to be beheld by Jesus is to be held by God. The only eyes God has are the human eyes of our good neighbor, our dear brother, our childhood and lifelong friend. The only eyes God has for us are the ones of our fellow Man Jesus. Lord God looks beyond your shortcomings. Almighty Maker sees behind your limitations. He wears absolute-devotion-shaped glasses with unconditional-love-colored lenses. He always sees you are His baptized child. He only sees you as His beloved one. He sees His name on your head and his Word in your heart indicating indisputable ownership. He sees His sandals cradling your feet and palm branches waving joyfully and triumphantly in your hands. He sees finest robes made white in Lamb’s blood fastened around your shoulders. He sees His ring slid on your finger and His crown set upon you like a halo. He sees you without defect or blemish, dressed as a bride beautifully adorned for her husband.
You’ve seen the teenage girl at the bus stop. You’ve been the young lady at the bus stop. I have, and we all are. But now we’ve seen God in the cross. We’ve seen Christ Jesus in the breaking of bread. We see love in the Word. We see power in the forgiveness of sins. You know she is somebody’s daughter. Above all she is God’s daughter, and He has just the hug and the talk that she needs. You believe she is somebody’s bride. More than anything she is Christ’s own bride, and He has a better dress, one more befitting her beauty and dignity. You trust she is somebody’s sister. She is your sister. You get to be the older sister who helps her understand the ways of hair and makeup. You get to be the big brother that protects and defends her from perverts and predators. No I’s are required. No pride or egos are allowed. This is the wonder of Easter. This is the mystery of the communion sacrament. This is the Gospel of the Lord. Thanks be to God, and praise be to Christ! Amen.
The video “Road To Emmaus – The Greatest Mystery Revealed,” produced by WELS Evangelism, tells the story of Jesus’ walk with two disciples on the road to Emmaus during the afternoon of Easter Sunday. During the journey, Jesus explained why it was necessary for him to suffer and rise from the dead, dialog that touches on the doctrines of redemption and justification by faith alone. DVD available through Northwestern Publishing House or click “Watch Video.”