Opening Our Eyes

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to two people on the road to Emmaus. They walked and talked with him as the traveled, but didn’t recognize Him. Mostly they talked about the miraculous things that had happened—the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is a profound irony here that while speaking of Him, they didn’t know Him.

Sometimes we as mortals have this same experience. We speak of the Savior, marvel at His goodness and miracles, yet we don’t know Him. In other words, we know about Him without knowing Him. But as Jesus taught, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

So how did the people of the road to Emmaus finally come to know Jesus? It didn’t happen until they sat down to eat with Him. At that point Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them to eat. Obviously there this is symbolic of the sacrament and as the two people ate we are told, “Their eyes were opened, and they knew him” (Luke 24:30).

There is a great lesson in this story for us. Yes, we need to study His words and learn all we can about Jesus, but one of the ways we will really come to know Him is through the sacrament. If partaken of with real intent and feeling, the sacrament will open our eyes, also.