Things Heard and Things Seen

The second half of the Easter story of Christ on the Road to Emmaus was read in Chapel this week. The story is especially powerful and important with respect to epistemology, to ways of knowing or theories of knowledge. Last week, Jesus drew out of the disciples (or learners!) their perplexity and confusion about the Passion and the discovery of the empty tomb. They were running away from Jerusalem in their uncertainty and disappointment. Only when they acknowledge their confusion, can Jesus then “interpret to them in all of the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Jesus the Word explains the words of Scripture about the Word, namely, himself! Beautiful. A way of learning by what is heard.

But only in the conclusion of the story do we see the effects of this teaching on these disciples. It happens only after the episode in which they learn through what Jesus does, namely through something seen. Sitting at table with them, “he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.” Something done and seen. The immediate consequence is astounding. “Their eyes were opened, and they knew him.” A way of learning by what is seen.

They had heard him but it is the visible word of action that brings them to an understanding of both what was heard and what was seen. Luke tells us that Jesus, “vanished out of their sight,” which is significant to the essential teaching of the Resurrection. Jesus is alive and present but not as reduced to the finite and material. He cannot be possessed and controlled by us. The body is affirmed and made the vehicle of a new and deeper spiritual truth; it is redeemed and restored to its ultimate truth as found in God who is by definition unseen.

What is done and seen by Jesus has awakened them and opened their eyes to the truth of the crucified and risen Christ. But it also leads them to affirm the experience of what had been opened to them in his opening the Scriptures about his Death and Resurrection. “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” All of that is affirmed through this break-through moment when Christ takes the bread, blesses it and gives thanks. His action immediately and inescapably recalls his words and actions at the Last Supper. His Word in action is the Word made visible. This is the logic of the Sacraments.

Thus the Road to Emmaus story reveals the Christian epistemology of Word and Sacrament, the Word audible and the Word visible. The Word heard and the Word seen transform us. The two disciples on the Road to Emmaus were running away from Jerusalem in their perplexity, fear, and confusion. But after this moment, they rise up and return to Jerusalem and find the others and tell them “what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of the bread.” Such a lovely phrase.

There is profound learning gained through the teaching of the Word audible and the Word visible, in short, Word and Sacrament. In the logic of the Resurrection, these are the principal vehicles of divine teaching that belong to the forms of our participation in that teaching. Such is the meaning of things heard and things seen that open our hearts and our minds. Such is education. It is very much about things heard and things seen that bring us to understanding. They transform us in remarkable ways, literally turning us around from our fears and uncertainties to joy and gladness and to our being with one another in care and support. And such is the radical meaning of Resurrection. It provides us with a deeper sense of human dignity and life and gives us strength and courage.

(Rev’d) David Curry
Chaplain, English and ToK teacher
Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy