But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
On the evening of the resurrection day two disciples walked sadly from Jerusalem toward Emmaus, and the risen Jesus drew near and journeyed with them as an ordinary stranger, while their eyes were held and restrained so they did not know Him for hours. Grief and disappointment absorbed them, and unbelief blinded them because they did not understand and believe the prophecies of His suffering and glory. Recognition was withheld on purpose so He could first interpret Moses and all the prophets concerning Himself, that their faith might rest firmly on the Old Testament agreeing with the facts rather than merely on seeing Him alive. Their eyes were opened when He blessed the bread and they saw the wounds in His hands, and then He vanished while they hurried back to Jerusalem with burning hearts and joy exceeding their former despair. As He then taught and comforted the perplexed on their hardest path, so now He walks unseen beside those who meditate on His sacrifice and opens the Scriptures to give peace and consolation.
Emmaus Road Setting
The verse belongs to the evening of the resurrection day, when two disciples walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, eight miles away. They journeyed on foot with staffs across open country as robed travelers, with Jesus walking beside them without being known. He joined them late in the afternoon as they went, coming up as a stranger to walk and talk with them unrecognized.
They walked sadly and weeping, burdened with grief and deeply discouraged and perplexed by Jesus' death and the reports that He had risen. They were absorbed in perplexing thoughts and busy talk about what had happened, especially the women's report of angels and of meeting Jesus after His resurrection, so that they scarcely noticed they had company and hardly noticed His presence. They were returning home to meditate and pray in hope of gaining light on matters that were dark to them. While their eyes were held from knowing Him He taught them, opening the Scriptures concerning Himself, and their hearts were filled with new hope and joy.
The risen Jesus drew near and joined them disguised as a stranger, appearing as an ordinary traveler and fellow traveler returning from the feast. His humble, ordinary manner gave no sign that their companion was more than a fellow traveler, though He was the divine Saviour and conqueror of death. He was the same size as before with no special marks identifying Him as the Son of God, so they took Him for someone else while He spoke of Himself as though He were another. He came alongside to teach and comfort them, entering their conversation and leaving them free to speak of the events that had confused and saddened them.
Why Eyes Were Holden
Their eyes were held and restrained from knowing him while he remained disguised as a stranger, so that sight was clouded and kept from seeing who he was. They walked and talked with him for hours as he taught and comforted them, and his truths sank deeply into their discouraged hearts, yet they did not know who he was. He entered their conversation and stayed unrecognized while he explained the Scriptures to lead them to faith in his life, character, mission, death and resurrection.
Grief and disappointment so absorbed them that they did not look closely at him. Absorbed in perplexing thoughts over recent events, especially the reports of the women who had seen angels and met Jesus after his resurrection, and busy with their conversation as they returned home to meditate and pray for light, they scarcely noticed they had company and hardly noticed his presence. Burdened with grief they wept as they traveled, and unbelief had blinded them so that faith and hopes seemed to die with him, with sorrow shaping how they saw him. Their understanding was blinded by unbelief and sorrow, and their failure to recognize him was linked to failure to believe what Scripture taught about his suffering and glory.
That failure to recognize him was bound up with failure to understand the prophecies of his suffering and glory, which they only dimly comprehended through priests' traditions and misinterpretations about his trial, death and resurrection. When the prophecies about the Messiah were made clear they could understand that his life and death fulfilled them, and as the Scriptures were explained their faith revived. They did not fully recognize divinity in humanity while he walked among men in humiliation, being slow to take in the great truths testifying of him and the mystery of his incarnation and dual character of his nature. In him dwelt knowledge that no human being unaided by divine agency could comprehend, needing the help of him whom kings, prophets and righteous men had foretold, and only after illumination by the Holy Spirit were they brought into fellowship with the Deity, longing to see him again and have him explain the Scriptures and grieving that faith had been feeble and ideas wide of the mark.
In a wider application, eyes are held so what is before them is not recognized when repeated teaching about coming trial and suffering is not grasped because the knowledge is unwelcome. Self-pity makes them shrink from sharing his suffering, and Peter's protest expressed the thought and feeling of all twelve.
Deliberate Delay for Faith
Recognition was held back on purpose, and no miracle was done to convince them, because making himself known first would have let joy satisfy them before they had firmly learned the truth. He needed their faith to be established on all the types and prophecies of the Old Testament, so that they would learn that his death was not the destruction of their hopes but the very strongest evidence that he ought to suffer and enter his glory. While still disguised he interpreted the typical law, Moses, and all the prophets, leading them to intelligent faith in his life, character, mission to earth, death, and resurrection. In this way exposition of Scripture became his first work, showing the lasting use and authority of the Old Testament as witness to his mission.
He delayed revealing himself so that truth would take firm root in their minds on the unquestionable evidence of the law and the prophets agreeing with the facts of his life and death. Their faith was to rest on that agreement of Scripture with the facts, rather than merely on seeing him alive or on hearing his personal testimony that he was alive. Remaining unrecognized left them free to speak with him about the events that had confused and saddened them, telling why they were sad and giving their account of him as a prophet mighty in deed and word. It also made them hunger for and firmly learn the truths about his life, mission, death, and resurrection before the joy of recognizing him could satisfy them, and it fitted them to impart that truth to others. When that object was gained he allowed them to know him so that their joy might be full, and then he vanished from their sight.
Their not knowing lasted the whole time he opened the Scriptures to them. They walked and talked with him for hours without knowing who he was, while he taught and comforted them. The truths he spoke sank deeply into their discouraged hearts during that unrecognized teaching.
Recognition and Joyful Return
Recognition came later at the table when He took the bread and blessed it, and the marks of the crucifixion and the nail wounds in His hands were seen, with His familiar voice also making Him known. Then their eyes were opened, they rose up to worship Him, and He vanished from their sight. Their failure to know Him had lasted through the whole time He was opening the Scriptures to them while His teaching sank into their discouraged hearts.
That unknowing continued until they pressed Him to stay with them, and by welcoming Him they came to know that their companion was the Lord. Their experience stands as the example of those who want Jesus to remain with them. When their eyes were opened they recognized Him and understood the chain of prophecy extending from the patriarchs to that time which foretold what had happened to their Saviour.
Their unknowing belonged to the despairing outward journey from Jerusalem, when they meant to take up their old employment again and conceal their blighted hopes. It stands in contrast to the late-night return with burning hearts, when joy exceeding their former despair made hunger and fatigue forgotten as they hurried back over the dark, rough, moonless road to Jerusalem. They hastened to impart to the other disciples the newly found knowledge of a living Saviour risen from the dead, the great truth around which all the faith and hope of the church would center. While they went, Jesus still attended them unseen and heard with gladness their expressions of joy and gratitude by the way.
He was their unseen companion on the road to Emmaus and all the way from Emmaus back to Jerusalem, walking beside them without being recognized until their eyes were opened. He entered with them into the upper chamber where the brethren were gathered. There hope and faith were struggling for ascendancy amid excitement, for they had heard the report of Mary Magdalene and the other women but some were too hopeless to believe, while Peter's testimony of his interview with the risen Lord carried more weight and revived faith. The Emmaus pair bringing joyful tidings were met with the declaration that the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.
The meeting shows Him as a risen and living Saviour who Himself joined two disciples on the way, walked with them, and made Himself known to them before leaving them. Beginning at Moses He opened to them in all the prophets the things concerning Himself. In that walk abundant evidence was given that makes the resurrection certain.
Scripture Opened and Taught
Beginning at Moses He opened in all the prophets the things concerning Himself, making the prophecies about the Messiah clear so that His life and death could be understood as their fulfillment. Their darkness and unbelief about His trial, death and resurrection were bound up with the priests' traditions and misinterpretations of prophecy. He joined the two as they walked, speaking as a stranger, and in that walk abundant evidence was given making the resurrection certain.
Their understanding was limited at first, but He opened it by explaining the Old Testament Scriptures and revealing meanings they had not perceived. After the resurrection He continued on earth as educator as before, when He spoke as never man spoke, teaching the lonely and disappointed on the way to Emmaus and those assembled in the upper chamber. While their eyes were held from knowing Him He opened to them the Scriptures concerning Himself, and their hearts were bound with a holy, new and sacred hope and joy. On the resurrection afternoon He joined two grief-burdened disciples walking to Emmaus while perplexed over the women's report, kept from knowing Him as He talked unrecognized, asked why they were sad, and heard their account of Jesus of Nazareth as a prophet mighty in deed and word, making exposition of Scripture His first work and showing the lasting use and authority of the Old Testament as witness to His mission.
The same opening of understanding comes when the Holy Spirit shines upon the sacred page for those who seek God humbly and ask Him to guide them into truth, that they may know what is truth. He talked with them by the way and opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures until their hearts burned within them. This calls for study of Daniel, Revelation and the other prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, with prayer for light, yes light, in the dwellings. He opened the Scriptures to the two and later revealed Himself to the eleven, but the reason the two did not recognize Him is left unexplained.
Christ Present Today
He drew near on the resurrection day late in the afternoon to walk the eight miles to Emmaus with two perplexed disciples going home to meditate and pray for light on what was dark to them, especially the women's report of angels and of meeting Jesus risen. He came as a stranger in humble, ordinary manner with no sign to mark Him as more than a fellow traveler, though He was the divine Saviour and conqueror of death. They were so busy with their talk and so burdened with grief that they wept as they traveled and hardly noticed His presence nor looked closely at Him. With pitying heart of love He saw a sorrow there that He could comfort, and He understood their sorrow and would comfort them, yet first He would teach them lessons they would never forget. He walked beside the sorrowing to teach and comfort, identifying Himself with His suffering and perplexed people and attending them on their hardest paths, and though unrecognized His presence brought comfort.
When eyes are opened mourners can see He is near to give peace and life and consolation even in despondency, and they may accept it. As He opened the Scriptures concerning Himself their hearts burned within them in contemplation of His teaching and word. The same is true now, for Jesus unseen walks beside those who meditate on His incarnation and great sacrifice to save from perdition and bring pardon, peace, and everlasting righteousness. He surrounds them with the holy atmosphere of His presence and feeds them the bread of life, and His unseen presence is near while they talk. If they knew He was by their side and heard their talk, their hearts would burn with holy joy as did the hearts of the two when He was unseen to them and then opened the Scriptures to them as they listened.
Those who have centered their affections on Christ and talk together of the plan of redemption, the love of Jesus, salvation offered to fallen man through His infinite love, holiness of heart, precious saving truth for these last days, and the grace of Christ feel that same joy given on the walk to Emmaus and gather divine strength from such hallowed association. The hidden encounters of the Waldenses with their Redeemer are like that meeting, for He opened the truths of Scripture to them and strengthened them though His presence was not recognized in the same way the two failed to know Him as He walked and talked with them. People may still meet heavenly visitors appearing as ordinary men and fail to recognize them because eyes are held, for angels visit earth in human guise and communicate with people who do not know who they are.
The account is instruction for the work given to followers to carry the gospel from Jerusalem to all nations, while the holding of eyes shows the disciples on the road not recognizing Him. Those who truly receive light by seeing Jesus and talking with Him follow the example of the two who at first did not know Him and then received light, by returning to those whom God has led and is still leading and telling what they have seen and learned. They show how the light better qualifies them to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, and they seek counsel from those chosen to bear a living testimony, who have borne and are still bearing the truth and giving the last message of warning and who have had deep experience in God, instead of taking a different line and breaking unity. The image of eyes held also describes failing to see a situation as it is and to discern the true character of the work, whether through shortsightedness or deception, as with Elder Olsen who could not see or take in the situation as it was either because he was shortsighted or because some power had deceived him, leading to a blind decision.
On the evening of the resurrection day two disciples walked sadly from Jerusalem toward Emmaus, and the risen Jesus drew near and journeyed with them as an ordinary stranger, while their eyes were held and restrained so they did not know Him for hours. Grief and disappointment absorbed them, and unbelief blinded them because they did not understand and believe the prophecies of His suffering and glory. Recognition was withheld on purpose so He could first interpret Moses and all the prophets concerning Himself, that their faith might rest firmly on the Old Testament agreeing with the facts rather than merely on seeing Him alive. Their eyes were opened when He blessed the bread and they saw the wounds in His hands, and then He vanished while they hurried back to Jerusalem with burning hearts and joy exceeding their former despair. As He then taught and comforted the perplexed on their hardest path, so now He walks unseen beside those who meditate on His sacrifice and opens the Scriptures to give peace and consolation.
Emmaus Road Setting
The verse belongs to the evening of the resurrection day, when two disciples walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, eight miles away. They journeyed on foot with staffs across open country as robed travelers, with Jesus walking beside them without being known. He joined them late in the afternoon as they went, coming up as a stranger to walk and talk with them unrecognized.
They walked sadly and weeping, burdened with grief and deeply discouraged and perplexed by Jesus' death and the reports that He had risen. They were absorbed in perplexing thoughts and busy talk about what had happened, especially the women's report of angels and of meeting Jesus after His resurrection, so that they scarcely noticed they had company and hardly noticed His presence. They were returning home to meditate and pray in hope of gaining light on matters that were dark to them. While their eyes were held from knowing Him He taught them, opening the Scriptures concerning Himself, and their hearts were filled with new hope and joy.
The risen Jesus drew near and joined them disguised as a stranger, appearing as an ordinary traveler and fellow traveler returning from the feast. His humble, ordinary manner gave no sign that their companion was more than a fellow traveler, though He was the divine Saviour and conqueror of death. He was the same size as before with no special marks identifying Him as the Son of God, so they took Him for someone else while He spoke of Himself as though He were another. He came alongside to teach and comfort them, entering their conversation and leaving them free to speak of the events that had confused and saddened them.
Why Eyes Were Holden
Their eyes were held and restrained from knowing him while he remained disguised as a stranger, so that sight was clouded and kept from seeing who he was. They walked and talked with him for hours as he taught and comforted them, and his truths sank deeply into their discouraged hearts, yet they did not know who he was. He entered their conversation and stayed unrecognized while he explained the Scriptures to lead them to faith in his life, character, mission, death and resurrection.
Grief and disappointment so absorbed them that they did not look closely at him. Absorbed in perplexing thoughts over recent events, especially the reports of the women who had seen angels and met Jesus after his resurrection, and busy with their conversation as they returned home to meditate and pray for light, they scarcely noticed they had company and hardly noticed his presence. Burdened with grief they wept as they traveled, and unbelief had blinded them so that faith and hopes seemed to die with him, with sorrow shaping how they saw him. Their understanding was blinded by unbelief and sorrow, and their failure to recognize him was linked to failure to believe what Scripture taught about his suffering and glory.
That failure to recognize him was bound up with failure to understand the prophecies of his suffering and glory, which they only dimly comprehended through priests' traditions and misinterpretations about his trial, death and resurrection. When the prophecies about the Messiah were made clear they could understand that his life and death fulfilled them, and as the Scriptures were explained their faith revived. They did not fully recognize divinity in humanity while he walked among men in humiliation, being slow to take in the great truths testifying of him and the mystery of his incarnation and dual character of his nature. In him dwelt knowledge that no human being unaided by divine agency could comprehend, needing the help of him whom kings, prophets and righteous men had foretold, and only after illumination by the Holy Spirit were they brought into fellowship with the Deity, longing to see him again and have him explain the Scriptures and grieving that faith had been feeble and ideas wide of the mark.
In a wider application, eyes are held so what is before them is not recognized when repeated teaching about coming trial and suffering is not grasped because the knowledge is unwelcome. Self-pity makes them shrink from sharing his suffering, and Peter's protest expressed the thought and feeling of all twelve.
Deliberate Delay for Faith
Recognition was held back on purpose, and no miracle was done to convince them, because making himself known first would have let joy satisfy them before they had firmly learned the truth. He needed their faith to be established on all the types and prophecies of the Old Testament, so that they would learn that his death was not the destruction of their hopes but the very strongest evidence that he ought to suffer and enter his glory. While still disguised he interpreted the typical law, Moses, and all the prophets, leading them to intelligent faith in his life, character, mission to earth, death, and resurrection. In this way exposition of Scripture became his first work, showing the lasting use and authority of the Old Testament as witness to his mission.
He delayed revealing himself so that truth would take firm root in their minds on the unquestionable evidence of the law and the prophets agreeing with the facts of his life and death. Their faith was to rest on that agreement of Scripture with the facts, rather than merely on seeing him alive or on hearing his personal testimony that he was alive. Remaining unrecognized left them free to speak with him about the events that had confused and saddened them, telling why they were sad and giving their account of him as a prophet mighty in deed and word. It also made them hunger for and firmly learn the truths about his life, mission, death, and resurrection before the joy of recognizing him could satisfy them, and it fitted them to impart that truth to others. When that object was gained he allowed them to know him so that their joy might be full, and then he vanished from their sight.
Their not knowing lasted the whole time he opened the Scriptures to them. They walked and talked with him for hours without knowing who he was, while he taught and comforted them. The truths he spoke sank deeply into their discouraged hearts during that unrecognized teaching.
Recognition and Joyful Return
Recognition came later at the table when He took the bread and blessed it, and the marks of the crucifixion and the nail wounds in His hands were seen, with His familiar voice also making Him known. Then their eyes were opened, they rose up to worship Him, and He vanished from their sight. Their failure to know Him had lasted through the whole time He was opening the Scriptures to them while His teaching sank into their discouraged hearts.
That unknowing continued until they pressed Him to stay with them, and by welcoming Him they came to know that their companion was the Lord. Their experience stands as the example of those who want Jesus to remain with them. When their eyes were opened they recognized Him and understood the chain of prophecy extending from the patriarchs to that time which foretold what had happened to their Saviour.
Their unknowing belonged to the despairing outward journey from Jerusalem, when they meant to take up their old employment again and conceal their blighted hopes. It stands in contrast to the late-night return with burning hearts, when joy exceeding their former despair made hunger and fatigue forgotten as they hurried back over the dark, rough, moonless road to Jerusalem. They hastened to impart to the other disciples the newly found knowledge of a living Saviour risen from the dead, the great truth around which all the faith and hope of the church would center. While they went, Jesus still attended them unseen and heard with gladness their expressions of joy and gratitude by the way.
He was their unseen companion on the road to Emmaus and all the way from Emmaus back to Jerusalem, walking beside them without being recognized until their eyes were opened. He entered with them into the upper chamber where the brethren were gathered. There hope and faith were struggling for ascendancy amid excitement, for they had heard the report of Mary Magdalene and the other women but some were too hopeless to believe, while Peter's testimony of his interview with the risen Lord carried more weight and revived faith. The Emmaus pair bringing joyful tidings were met with the declaration that the Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.
The meeting shows Him as a risen and living Saviour who Himself joined two disciples on the way, walked with them, and made Himself known to them before leaving them. Beginning at Moses He opened to them in all the prophets the things concerning Himself. In that walk abundant evidence was given that makes the resurrection certain.
Scripture Opened and Taught
Beginning at Moses He opened in all the prophets the things concerning Himself, making the prophecies about the Messiah clear so that His life and death could be understood as their fulfillment. Their darkness and unbelief about His trial, death and resurrection were bound up with the priests' traditions and misinterpretations of prophecy. He joined the two as they walked, speaking as a stranger, and in that walk abundant evidence was given making the resurrection certain.
Their understanding was limited at first, but He opened it by explaining the Old Testament Scriptures and revealing meanings they had not perceived. After the resurrection He continued on earth as educator as before, when He spoke as never man spoke, teaching the lonely and disappointed on the way to Emmaus and those assembled in the upper chamber. While their eyes were held from knowing Him He opened to them the Scriptures concerning Himself, and their hearts were bound with a holy, new and sacred hope and joy. On the resurrection afternoon He joined two grief-burdened disciples walking to Emmaus while perplexed over the women's report, kept from knowing Him as He talked unrecognized, asked why they were sad, and heard their account of Jesus of Nazareth as a prophet mighty in deed and word, making exposition of Scripture His first work and showing the lasting use and authority of the Old Testament as witness to His mission.
The same opening of understanding comes when the Holy Spirit shines upon the sacred page for those who seek God humbly and ask Him to guide them into truth, that they may know what is truth. He talked with them by the way and opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures until their hearts burned within them. This calls for study of Daniel, Revelation and the other prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, with prayer for light, yes light, in the dwellings. He opened the Scriptures to the two and later revealed Himself to the eleven, but the reason the two did not recognize Him is left unexplained.
Christ Present Today
He drew near on the resurrection day late in the afternoon to walk the eight miles to Emmaus with two perplexed disciples going home to meditate and pray for light on what was dark to them, especially the women's report of angels and of meeting Jesus risen. He came as a stranger in humble, ordinary manner with no sign to mark Him as more than a fellow traveler, though He was the divine Saviour and conqueror of death. They were so busy with their talk and so burdened with grief that they wept as they traveled and hardly noticed His presence nor looked closely at Him. With pitying heart of love He saw a sorrow there that He could comfort, and He understood their sorrow and would comfort them, yet first He would teach them lessons they would never forget. He walked beside the sorrowing to teach and comfort, identifying Himself with His suffering and perplexed people and attending them on their hardest paths, and though unrecognized His presence brought comfort.
When eyes are opened mourners can see He is near to give peace and life and consolation even in despondency, and they may accept it. As He opened the Scriptures concerning Himself their hearts burned within them in contemplation of His teaching and word. The same is true now, for Jesus unseen walks beside those who meditate on His incarnation and great sacrifice to save from perdition and bring pardon, peace, and everlasting righteousness. He surrounds them with the holy atmosphere of His presence and feeds them the bread of life, and His unseen presence is near while they talk. If they knew He was by their side and heard their talk, their hearts would burn with holy joy as did the hearts of the two when He was unseen to them and then opened the Scriptures to them as they listened.
Those who have centered their affections on Christ and talk together of the plan of redemption, the love of Jesus, salvation offered to fallen man through His infinite love, holiness of heart, precious saving truth for these last days, and the grace of Christ feel that same joy given on the walk to Emmaus and gather divine strength from such hallowed association. The hidden encounters of the Waldenses with their Redeemer are like that meeting, for He opened the truths of Scripture to them and strengthened them though His presence was not recognized in the same way the two failed to know Him as He walked and talked with them. People may still meet heavenly visitors appearing as ordinary men and fail to recognize them because eyes are held, for angels visit earth in human guise and communicate with people who do not know who they are.
The account is instruction for the work given to followers to carry the gospel from Jerusalem to all nations, while the holding of eyes shows the disciples on the road not recognizing Him. Those who truly receive light by seeing Jesus and talking with Him follow the example of the two who at first did not know Him and then received light, by returning to those whom God has led and is still leading and telling what they have seen and learned. They show how the light better qualifies them to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God, and they seek counsel from those chosen to bear a living testimony, who have borne and are still bearing the truth and giving the last message of warning and who have had deep experience in God, instead of taking a different line and breaking unity. The image of eyes held also describes failing to see a situation as it is and to discern the true character of the work, whether through shortsightedness or deception, as with Elder Olsen who could not see or take in the situation as it was either because he was shortsighted or because some power had deceived him, leading to a blind decision.