Main news for 12 September 2025

King James Version (en)

Luke, Chapter 24, verse 16

¹³ Christ himself appeareth to the two disciples that went to Emmaus

¹⁶But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.

NOTES

An interesting question: why do the apostles walking on the road to Emmaus not recognize their Teacher? Of course, they were not expecting the Resurrection; it seemed to them that everything was over, and to the One they took for a stranger they bitterly told everything "that had happened in these days in Jerusalem." But how can one fail to recognize the One with whom one has spent several years, speaking with Him every day? A changed humanity, not easily perceived by the eyes and senses of fallen man? Perhaps yes, for the Kingdom reveals itself with difficulty, and only in part, to untransfigured sight. But at the moment of the breaking of the bread they see Him with complete clarity. What happened?

A theologian could perhaps build an entire sacramentology on this one fact. But the matter here may be both simpler and more complex: the disciples simply partook of the Kingdom, entered it, and found themselves right at its center, where He, their Teacher, is. And from within the Kingdom the Kingdom can be seen well, so the apostles, of course, immediately made out Jesus without difficulty. But how and why it turns out that the Kingdom now opens to the disciples, then closes again to them, remains something one can only wonder about.

One thing is clear: now it is truly near, so near that one can cross its boundary without even noticing it. Yet, on the other hand, it turns out that one can cross the boundary of the Kingdom without noticing not only the boundary, but even the Kingdom itself. One can pass through it without seeing or sensing anything, without noticing even the One whom, while He still belonged in His human nature to the untransfigured part of creation, it had been impossible not to notice. Apparently what is needed is a relationship actualized here and now, a bond like the one uniting those gathered around the broken bread, in order to experience the reality of the Kingdom. And it turns out to be infinitely great: as soon as the apostles recognized Jesus and found themselves in the same spiritual dimension with Him, He immediately disappeared from sight, dissolving into the infinite distance, for He is at the center of His Kingdom, and the apostles, it appears, are still very far from the center...

And yet the meeting took place. That is the main thing. The rest will follow, for ahead lies an entire life, a life to be lived in the Kingdom.

If in the previous story the women never met the risen Jesus, becoming participants in the Gospel of the Resurrection only by faith in His word, now a real meeting is described for us...

A strange situation at first glance: the disciples are walking along the road beside the Teacher without recognizing Him. How could this have happened? Of course, Jesus changed greatly after the resurrection, but at other times and in other situations His disciples still recognized Him, even if sometimes not immediately. But here, throughout a journey that was by no means short, they never recognized Him!

The evangelist says that their eyes were "held" - that is how the corresponding Greek word sounds literally. It was as if something kept them from seeing. Some barrier, something through which the gaze cannot penetrate, which does not let it pass through. So what was this invisible barrier? Invisible because they were walking along the road right next to each other, talking, and it would seem nothing could have prevented the apostles from recognizing Jesus.

But they saw Him while at the same time, in a sense, not seeing. Did they see indistinctly? Hardly; then they would have raised the question much earlier. More likely, they saw clearly, but... as if not the One who was actually walking beside them. It happens when the person you are speaking with puts on a mask very much like a human face: it is easy then to mistake him for someone else, but no one who sees him will doubt that a human being stands before him, even if an unfamiliar one. So what barrier changed the appearance of the risen Jesus so much?

Obviously, the very one that separates the Kingdom from our world, which is still not transfigured. He was already dwelling in the Kingdom, for after the resurrection His life belonged entirely to the Kingdom, and in the untransfigured world He was visible only to those, and only to the extent, who could perceive the reality of the Kingdom entering the world. The apostles, however, were not truly ready for such perception. Of course, they had spent a great deal of time beside Jesus during His earthly ministry; they had seen manifestations of the power of the Kingdom and felt its breath.

But they had not yet truly shared in its life. Their sharing in the Kingdom and its life would happen later, on the day of Pentecost, when the breath of the Kingdom would burst into the world like wind. Then, after Pentecost, they would learn to see Him clearly and distinctly. The barrier would disappear for them. For now it still exists, and, seeing the Teacher, they do not recognize Him unless He Himself makes Himself recognizable to them. After all, only a resident of the Kingdom clearly sees its realities. And its King as well.

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