Inspired Perspective
People see things from a particular point of view. A person’s perspective is influenced by several factors. One’s background, one’s leanings, one’s education, one’s mood on a given day: all these things have an influence. People describe themselves and you might hear them say, “I am an optimist,” or “I am a pessimist,” …a realist, a pragmatist, an idealist, a rationalist. How a person sees, the world and life affect attitudes, beliefs, and actions. We speak of the eyes of the heart and the eyes of faith. Our physical eyes inform us about the physical world, and the eyes of our mind or heart influence our inner perspectives.
The prayer that comes up early in our Sunday worship on the Third Sunday of Easter takes a phrase from the Gospel according to Luke. In the twenty-fourth chapter, we come to know the story of two disciples on a seven-mile stretch of road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Jesus in his resurrected state appeared to them, but they did not recognize him, he seemed to them to be just a traveling stranger. Jesus asked them what they were debating as they walked; they stood still, and their faces were filled with gloom.
The two disciples wondered how this traveler seemed not to know of the big story in Jerusalem: Jesus had been crucified, and soon after some women related the astounding tale of how his body was not at the tomb. These women experienced a vision of angels who told them, Jesus was alive. They walked along and Jesus, whom they still did not recognize, opened the scriptures to them, showing how the Messiah’s experiences were foretold in the Writings and the Prophets and were fulfilled in the happenings of Jerusalem. After that they reached the village, and he ate with them; indeed, he presided at the meal, and notice here what then happened:
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 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 the scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:30-32)
By the meal they shared, and by the scriptures, he elucidated, “their eyes were opened.” This is a story of revelation. They were granted an inspired perspective about who Jesus is and about what happened through the crucifixion of Jesus, resulting in his being raised from death. When we say “inspired,” we mean here two things. For one thing, the breath of life was breathed into their sense of what had happened—specialized respiration, resulting in revelation. We also see it means that the Spirit of God offered to them the perspective they could then choose to adopt. This happens not only to figures in the Bible, it happens to you. The Spirit reveals truth to those who give God their trust. Look at the Collect for Sunday:
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for the Third Sunday of Easter, BCP p. 224)
Can we offer ourselves to have the eyes of our faith opened in the days of this long season of Easter? Let us see ourselves, the world, and life with such inspired eyes.