NOTES for Luk 24:16
A strange situation at first glance: the disciples are walking along the road next to the Teacher, not recognizing Him. How could this happen? Of course, Jesus changed greatly after the resurrection, but at other times and in other situations His disciples did recognize Him, though sometimes not at once. Here, throughout a rather long journey, they did not recognize Him at all.
The evangelist says that their eyes were "held back," which is what the corresponding Greek word literally says. As if something kept them from seeing. Some barrier, something through which the gaze cannot penetrate, something that does not let it pass through. What is this invisible barrier? Invisible because they were walking down the road beside each other, talking, and it would seem that nothing could have kept the apostles from recognizing Jesus.
But they saw Him and at the same time did not quite see Him. Did they see Him unclearly? Hardly; then they would have asked the corresponding question much earlier. More exactly, they saw Him clearly, but as if He were not the One who was actually walking beside them. It happens this way when a conversation partner puts on a mask very much like a human face: he can easily be taken for another person, but none who see him will doubt that a person, though a stranger, stands before him. What barrier so changed the appearance of the risen Jesus?
Clearly, the very one that separates the Kingdom from our world, still untransformed. He was already in the Kingdom, for after the resurrection His life belonged entirely to the Kingdom, and in the untransformed world He was visible only to those who could perceive the reality of the Kingdom entering the world, and only to the degree they could perceive it. The apostles were not yet truly ready for such perception. They had spent much time with 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 partaken of its life. Their partaking of 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. Only a resident of the Kingdom clearly sees its realities. And its King too.