Imagine being a famous person (you fill in the blank. It could be a politician, actor, musician, athlete, etc.) Now, you’re sitting on a plane and you hear the people in the row in front of you start to discuss different aspects of your career. You listen with interest to see how they perceive different things and then they get to an event that has been the subject of rumors. They start discussing what they think happened, with some ideas being close to the real story, and others being just comical. So you pop your head around the corner and say, “You wanna know what really happened!?” Of course, they are ecstatic to see that the very one they have been talking about is now talking to them and can fully explain every detail of that situation.

After Jesus’ resurrection, He is walking down the road, and He meets two men who are talking about Him. He asks them, “What are you talking about?” The one man, named Cleopas in effect replies, “You aren’t from around here, are you?” His implication is that this was SUCH a high profile event that EVERYONE in the area knew about it. Cleopas goes on to summarize the events of the past week and at the end of his recounting, Jesus says, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?" He then goes back and shows how the law and the prophets pointed to these things. What might this explanation have looked like? Hebrews chapters 7-11 give us a pretty good idea as they tie the Old Testament into the events of Christ's life.

In the course of His explanation, Christ is revealing Himself to them piece by piece, but they still haven’t picked up that it is Jesus talking to them. As they reach their destination, Jesus implies that He will keep going. They invite him to stop with them, have supper, and spend the night. As he sits with them, he “took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.” Immediately, they understand that this is Jesus! Can you imagine how they must have felt? Elated that Jesus is alive. Maybe a bit embarrassed that they were trying to explain Jesus to…Jesus. And then…He disappears.

They “rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem…” They didn’t waste any time in running back to tell the disciples what they had seen! This was roughly 7.5 miles, and it was already evening when they asked Jesus to stop with them.

 As they are telling the disciples what they saw, “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them.” Just as suddenly as He had disappeared in Emmaus, He reappeared in Jerusalem. They assume they must be seeing a spirit, but as Jesus points out, spirits don’t have a body, so He invites them to touch him, to feel his hands and feet. He eats with them.

 And once again, he starts with the law, the prophets, and the Psalms revealing the truths that were written that they might know that what He said was true. “Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.” Up until this point, they just didn’t quite understand. As a preacher, I’ve experienced when people don’t seem to understand what I’m trying to communicate. I’m sure Pastor Dan has had the same experience. It’s easy to become frustrated as a preacher, and also as a listener.

That is why I encourage you on Sunday morning before you come to church, or perhaps as a family on the way to church, pray that the Lord will open your eyes to the truths of His Word; that your heart might be open to understanding; that you might be changed by the truths of His Word. Jesus, the One Who knows all, has all wisdom, and was in fact the very Subject of the message preached and they didn’t understand until their eyes were opened. Without God doing the same for us, we can attend church our whole lives and never get much from it. But if God helps us to understand, there is no limit to the depth of what He can show us from His revealed Word.

Would you ask God to open your understanding this Sunday? Would you ask Him to reveal the truths of His Word even during your personal time in Scripture? He WANTS you to know! That’s why He gave you His Word in the first place!