A Twilight Musing

Luke tells the story of Jesus’ appearance after His resurrection to two disciples on the way to Emmaus. It is instructive to note the successive stages of their understanding and recognition of Jesus, which culminated when He “took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (Luke 24:30-31). When Jesus first began to walk with them, they related to Him the events of the past few days, but without understanding. They had seen that Jesus was a great prophet and the potential redeemer of Israel, but they were puzzled by His seemingly ignoble death and even by the news of His resurrection. They had been impressed by the life of Christ, but they did not understand His mission or His relationship to God’s purposes. So Jesus “interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (v. 27).

Even then, however, they did not recognize the risen Jesus before them, for mere intellectual comprehension of the Scriptures does not guarantee that one is acquainted with Jesus personally. It was the burning of their hearts within them (v. 32) as they listened to the Scriptures that moved them to invite Jesus into their home to sup with them. (We are reminded of Jesus’ words in Rev. 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”) These two disciples from Emmaus would never have recognized Jesus had He not come into their house and revealed Himself through the breaking of the bread. The principle of knowing and appreciating Jesus is clear: it does not come through seeing Him as an unusual man, or through mastery of the Scriptures only (although that is a necessary step), but through the intimacy of breaking bread with an invited guest.

Dr. Elton Higgs was a faculty member in the English department of the University of Michigan-Dearborn from 1965-2001. Having retired from UM-D as Prof. of English in 2001, he now lives with his wife in Jackson, MI. He has published scholarly articles on Chaucer, Langland, the Pearl Poet, Shakespeare, and Milton. Recently, Dr. Higgs has self-published a collection of his poetry called Probing Eyes: Poems of a Lifetime, 1959-2019, as well as a book inspired by The Screwtape Letters, called The Ichabod Letters, available as an e-book from Moral Apologetics. (Ed.: Dr. Higgs was the most important mentor during undergrad for the creator of this website, and his influence was inestimable.

More from this series