Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Introduction

Although in a dif­fer­ent con­text and dif­fer­ently too, Luke presents the account of the resur­rec­ted Jesus present­ing him­self to the dis­ciples. This happened after appear­ing to the two dis­ap­poin­ted dis­ciples on their way back to Emmaus. As these dis­ciples were nar­rat­ing to oth­ers their exper­i­ence, Jesus him­self showed up and greeted them in the same way as in John – Peace be with you – Sha­lom aleikhem! All the dis­ciples includ­ing Thomas were present. Unlike in John where the dis­ciples rejoiced on see­ing Jesus, in Luke, the dis­ciples were afraid. Luke explains that Jesus showed his pierced hands and side to the entire dis­ciples to dis­pel their fear. To prove to them that they were not deal­ing with a ghost, Jesus reques­ted for some­thing to eat. Cer­tainly, eat­ing the piece of grilled fish before him dis­pelled every fear and doubt that it was truly Jesus.

He opened their minds….

He then opened their minds to under­stand the Scrip­tures (Luke 24:45). This is how Luke sum­mar­ized the meet­ing of Jesus with his dis­ciples in Jer­u­s­alem, after the two dis­ciples came back from Emmaus and nar­rated their exper­i­ence to them. After rep­rim­and­ing the two dis­ciples who nar­rated to him their dis­ap­point­ment as regards the mes­si­ah (cf. Luke 24:18–26), begin­ning with Moses and all the proph­ets, Jesus explained to them the things about him­self in all the scrip­tures (Luke 24:27). Although they did not under­stand imme­di­ately. But after the break­ing of bread, and when he dis­ap­peared from their midst after they recog­nized him, they said to each oth­er “Were not our hearts burn­ing with­in us while he was talk­ing to us on the road, while he was open­ing [explain­ing] the scrip­tures to us?” (Luke 24:32). It was after this exper­i­enced that they made a U‑turn and went back to Jerusalem.

Conclusion

Jesus wishes the mis­sion of pro­claim­ing the Gos­pel con­tin­ues even after his resur­rec­tion. Any oth­er mes­sage or news that is opposed to this, must be left behind. The two dis­ciples to Emmaus wanted to make the news of their dis­ap­point­ment a top­ic for the pub­lic. Jesus inter­vened and called them to oth­er. Their dis­ap­point­ment was due to their spir­itu­al han­di­cap. To set them free, Jesus opened their minds to under­stand the mes­sage of the Scrip­ture. It is the resur­rec­tion of Jesus, the love of God and the mes­sage of sal­va­tion that should be made pub­lic, not ima­gined dis­ap­point­ment. They needed the light of God. And we need it too. Besides the phys­ic­al or mater­i­al light, we must ask God to grant us his own divine Light to enlight­en and dir­ect our activ­it­ies, our going out and our com­ing in, so that we may be true wit­nesses of the truth wherever we are and in whatever we do. Like the psalm­ist (cf. Ps 4), in time of dis­tress and dis­ap­point­ment, we must remem­ber God’s love and how much he loves us; we should not sin; we must pon­der the situ­ation; be silent; offer right sac­ri­fices; and put our trust in the Lord.

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPIES OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vols. I and II)!! The reflec­tion for the THIRD Sunday of Pascha (B) is found in vol. II pages 183–192. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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