04/19/2026

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, to him who loves us and has washed us clean from our sins with his own blood and made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve God and his Father.

To him be all glory, honor, and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Christ is risen.

He is risen to me.

Hallelujah.

We don't realize how impossible it is for us to see Jesus.

Saint Paul the Apostle explains the reason like this.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 2.14.

In fact, it's nonsense to him.

The truth is, our eyes must be opened by the Lord Himself through the means he gives.

If it was that way for the disciples, then we shouldn't be surprised that it's that way for us.

If it was that way for those who follow Jesus in his earthly ministry, we shouldn't be surprised that it's this way in our own day and age, with the people of our own age.

Where do people of the world derive their comfort?

Where do we drive our comfort?

Most often it's from the world around us.

A hug from a person we know, a quote from some sympathetic writer, a nod from an acquaintance, that we've really got it tough.

But the disciples on the road to Emmaus received none of those things.

They found no comfort in the world around them.

They had really thought that Jesus, whom they had grown to know and love, was really going to be the Christ, that he was the one that was going to return Israel to its former glory.

But their expectations were dashed to pieces as they watched him die by execution on a tree.

Cursed even by Jewish standards.

That's no way for a Jew to die, much less a Messiah.

All their hopes now lost.

Who was there to comfort them in their sorrow?

No hug, no heady quote from a sympathetic writer, no nod from an acquaintance, that they've really got it tough.

So now they walk away from Jerusalem with their heads hung low, feeling pretty sorry for themselves.

All their hopes put to death, literally.

Even on the third day, regardless of the claims from the other believers.

Since they were Jesus' disciples, you would have thought they'd have been comforted by the words Jesus spoke.

While he ministered to them while he was there on earth with them.

He told them that the Son of Man was going to be persecuted by the hands of men.

He told them that the Son of Man was going to die and be in the belly of the earth for three days.

He told them the Son of Man was going to rise again.

But what of that matter?

It was only proof yet again that the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.

For they are spiritually discerned.

If not his words, well then they should have been comforted by witnessing all his miracles, right?

I mean, they should have been comforted by remembering that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

But they were downtrodden, walking away from it all, from the place where it had all happened.

If this is how they feel, why should it surprise us that they react to Jesus the way they do?

Especially when he inquires about their conversation on the road to Emmaus.

Looking sad, no doubt, they stood there and they stared at their risen Lord.

Jesus said, What things?

And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a mighty prophet, a prophet mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.

Not only are they disappointed, but they even struggled with the report from the women and the other disciples.

Moreover, some of the women of our company amazed us.

They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they didn't find his body, they came back saying that they'd even seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

But some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said.

But him they did not see.

Nor could these two disciples see Jesus either.

They could not recognize Jesus present right before them.

They did not have the ability to come to him or know him by their own reason or strength.

They must be enlightened.

Their eyes of faith must be opened by the only one who can actually do that.

And the only one who can do that is Jesus.

And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

But even as Jesus unveiled how all the scriptures, from Genesis to Malachi, prophesied about Christ and what he should suffer, and who he was, they still didn't see Jesus.

They could not recognize him.

He calls them foolish because, regardless of what is preached into their ears by the prophets, by the women, by Jesus Himself, their eyes of faith have difficulty seeing, and their hearts are slow to believe.

The Lord must open their eyes.

As they got close to Emmaus, Jesus acted as though he was going to keep going, but they urged him to stay with him, so he did.

When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them.

And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.

Now their eyes were opened.

Now they saw their Lord.

They turned to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the road, when he opened to us the scriptures?

And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.

And they found the eleven, and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.

And then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

We really shouldn't be surprised that the ministry of Christ actually looks like this that our Lord Jesus uses his word to ignite the hearts of his hearers, all of you, even his disciples, but truly opens the eyes of the baptized believers to see him when they are at the table of the Lord receiving his holy supper.

By this gospel, we should know exactly what our Lord's ministry looks like.

Yet, according to our human nature and reason, we're always looking to alter it or add to his ministry in some other way, as though we can do it better than Jesus.

But his ways are better than our ways.

His thoughts are better than our thoughts.

We, like the disciples, want to be comforted in our fear, in our daily struggles, in a world that's filled with life and death and strife.

And we often, too often, look for our Lord everywhere else than where he reveals himself to us in his holy scriptures, and letting him open our eyes in the breaking of his bread at this very table.

The table of the Lord.

The fact is, Jesus must be the one to open the eyes of his people.

His Holy Spirit speaks, and your heart burns within you.

His Spirit tells you that bread and wine are his body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins, and your eyes are opened.

It should not surprise us that he does it through such mundane and unentertained things, such as the preaching of his word and the administration of his sacrament.

That he truly does open our eyes in the breaking of the bread at our table, right here, right now, even today?

Is it not Jesus who tells us this bread is his body and then breaks it and gives it into each one of your mouths to take part of the one body?

Is it not Jesus who gives you the one cup of the New Testament in his blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins?

For where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is life.

Just as Moses wrote, the life is in the blood.

This is how Jesus opened the eyes of the disciples then.

This is how he connected them to his body.

This is how Jesus does it for his disciples now, for you and for me.

We see Jesus because he opens our eyes of faith through the preaching of his pure gospel and the bread that he breaks before us in his holy supper.

This is yet another reason why receiving the Lord's Supper every Lord's day after hearing his word is so important for our faith.

So let's stop looking around the world for comfort or for Jesus in the places he doesn't promise to connect himself to us.

And let us have our eyes open by the crucified and living one who rose to live forever, for all eternity, and take all of you, dear baptized, to live with him forever.

He has conquered sin and death for his people.

He reveals himself every Lord's day and the gospel faithfully preached and his sacrament rightly given, as the confessors would say.

And that's where we will find true comfort.

Because that's where Christ shows up.

That is where we find peace and joy and true eternal excitement.

Because that's where our Lord unites with us and declares us forgiven of all our sins.

And then, and then you'll want to go out into the world and proclaim it from the rooftops.

The Lord has risen indeed, and he's appeared to Simon.

And not only that, but he has made himself known to us in the breaking of the bread, right here, right here at this altar.

Your Lord comes to you with absolute certainty, so that you know that you are in him and he is in you.

Amen.

Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.