Main news for 12 September 2025

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.