Seeing is Believing

Poster Magic Eyes. Can you see the 3D object in the 2D poster?

They were everywhere: these auotstereograms originally created by Christopher Tyler in 1979 didn’t become popular until 1991 when Tom Baccei took the prints to Tenyo, a Japanese company that sells magic supplies and they printed a book of the posters. Many have reproduced them over the years and for a while, they were everywhere.

Can you see the image. How can you not it is right there in front of you?!

That’s ok. I don’t see fish. I go fishing with Nick and he says, ok, right under that limb hanging over the water, there is a big brown, throw you jig north of him and bring it in.

I do what he says and he watches the fish and nothing happens and i accuse him of making stuff up because i never saw the fish! Nick has a Magic Eye for fish!

This “Magic Eye” reminds me of the scripture before us today.

How can one walk with Jesus and never see Him? How can two walk together with Jesus and never see Him? How are your eyes?

Isn’t it interesting what we see? In the recent political matters, the cancellation of the Iran Nuclear agreement some how was permission for Palestine to see Israel as an enemy again and launch missile strikes.

In politics, we see our party winning or loosing but never the one to compromise or collaborate.

At work, we see the reasons why we didn’t get what we think deserve, but never the bosses point of view.

At home I see her as XXXX and she sees me as XXXX, but it’s been that way for years, why bother.

I look in the mirror and i see ____________.

I look at God and i see _______________?

It is clear from our stories of the past months many didn’t see the path Jesus was following. Most didn’t know the reason. I love the position He takes in our scriptures today.

Verse 13-17

Cleophas doesn’t see. Verse 18

Can you hear Cleophas tone? ARE YOU BLIND MAN!

Jesus plays along. Jesus wonders what the word on the street is, what the people are saying about the events, better yet, what they BELIEVE happened.

Verse 19, What things?

So they tell Him what things. Verses 19-24

But Jesus stops them and He brings them up to speed.

Isn’t it good to have a third party, a Helper. One who cares about you, is in your corner, will tell you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it. Mom’s can be that person for us. For many of us, Mom’s brought us around to hear and focus on what is true, good, Holy, and right.

A Mother’s eyes see the good in us and others

A Mothers eyes see promise

A Mothers eyes see obstacles and steer us away

A Mother’s eyes glimmer with Hope

A Mother’s eyes have the stare of “you better not!”

A Mothers’s eyes have the gaze that says “I’m proud of you.”

Mom keeps us between the ditches, on the right road and focused.

The Holy Spirit uses our moms to keeps us focused on Jesus.

But the world misses His warnings from time to time.

The disciples loved Jesus and followed Him to that fateful Friday.

Today is Sunday, the town is a buzz. The girls reported to have seen him!

The disciples had been surprised by Him before. They had seen:

Lepers cleansed

Blind healed

Daughter raised from the dead and take food

Lame walk away sins forgiven

Prostitutes change careers

Sinners come to dinner: people unlike Jesus what ________ Like Jesus.

Conflict with the religious leaders

Wisdom like no other...

Yes they had seen Him in such a new way that had a Hope! A Hope like no other time, a hope never conceived. Joy, peace, position.

What’s it like to lose Hope? Some of you have seen days when all Hope is gone.

Some of you have seen horrible days when it seemed the world hated and hatred was the way! We hate Charlie, Japan hates us, the world hates Germany.

I lose hope when i see what man can do to man. How we can treat one another, disrespect one another, kill and mame one another usually from the fear of not knowing one another.

Greed, prejudice, ego, malice, envy, all blind us to God’s plan for all mankind.

For the disciples the future is hazy. Hard to read. Shut up in the upper room, waiting on, well, power from on high.

The two on the road to Emmaus were kept from seeing. They were headed home, maybe they had lost hope. But they talk about it. Jesus overtakes them, and not recognizing Him they tell Him the story. They talk, He listens, then He talks and they listen.

** What kept them from seeing?** Unbelief, no. I think Jesus wanted time to hear them. If they recognized Him, they would stop talking. I think He really wanted know what they thought. After all, not many days from now, they would all retell the story over and over, preaching to all people baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The ones on the road with Jesus, well the talk, He listens, then He talks and they listen. And they were overwhelmed.

And they were overwhelmed.

Jesus allows them to see, verse 31 and He vanishes.

But the future is hazy. Hard to read. Shut up in the upper room, waiting on, well, power from on high.

They return 7 miles to Jerusalem! They had to tell what they had seen!

In the middle of telling their story, Jesus stood in the midst of them.

New eyes are a gift:

Enemies look like neighbors

A spouse will look like the one you fell in love with, vowed to honor and cherish

The poor look at the rich and see a helper

You look at your neighbor and see a friend, maybe one who needs Jesus

You look in the mirror and are reminded, YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD

Verses 29 and 30. He took the bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them.

Their eyes were opened and they knew Him.

Communion