April 18, 2021: Eyes Wide Shut
Luke 24:13-35
Rev. Rhonda Blevins
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 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?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
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If I were to take a poll and asked you to name your top 10 Christian hymns—your favorite hymns of all time—how many of you would include Amazing Grace in your top 10? This immensely popular hymn has been dubbed America’s “spiritual national anthem.”[1] As America’s “spiritual national anthem,” it may come as no surprise to learn that the person who penned “Amazing Grace” dealt in America’s “original sin” as Jim Wallis calls it.[2]
John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace,” was a slave trader, working on ships transporting slaves from Africa to North America, eventually becoming a captain. Newton wasn’t a religious person. In fact, quite the opposite. He mocked believers and made a sport of debauchery. He was raised Christian, but he denounced his faith as a young sailor.
Newton told a story about a violent storm he experienced aboard a ship in the Atlantic Ocean in March 1748. The storm was so ferocious, he witnessed a crew member thrown overboard from a spot Newton himself had been standing in moments earlier. Newton and another mate tied themselves to the ship’s pump to keep from being swept overboard. He found himself crying out, “Lord have mercy upon us!” Those words, words that he spoke in a moment of desperation, would stay with him. And though his conversion was not immediate, he would eventually find a robust, sincere faith, becoming a minister.
Roughly 25 years after that storm, John Newton now a clergyman, would pen the words to what would become America’s “spiritual national anthem.” I wonder if the popularity of this hymn is that the lyrics, especially the first two lines, tell the conversion story of every person who has discovered a robust, sincere faith:
I once was lost but now I’m found,
Was blind, but now I see.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus could easily have written those first two lines
They were lost. Oh, they thought they knew where they were. They thought they knew where they were headed. They were headed to Emmaus from Jerusalem, about seven miles away.
And as they were walking a mysterious stranger joined them. The stranger didn’t seem to know anything about what had happened in Jerusalem . . . about the man named Jesus and his crucifixion. About the women saying that the tomb was empty and that they had a vision of angels. Then the stranger began to unpack the scriptures for them, starting all the way back at Moses and the prophets. It was, incidentally, a long walk to Emmaus.
And when they arrived at Emmaus, the mysterious stranger joined them for dinner. And suddenly, at the breaking of bread, they realized that it was Jesus who was with them! It was Jesus who had been walking with them. It was Jesus who had unpacked the scriptures for them. Then he vanished. And suddenly, Emmaus was not the place to be. That same hour, they turned to go the seven miles back to Jerusalem. They had been lost and didn’t even know it.
Are we lost? I wonder if part of our response to this strange story from Luke is to find the humility to wonder if, like these two on the Emmaus road, we are lost. Part of me doesn’t have to wonder—part of me knows we’re lost. The world is changing at breakneck pace. The old paradigms are fading away, but we don’t quite have a new paradigm that works. Why do you think there’s so much discord and angst? We have racial tension, political tension, and let’s throw a global pandemic into the mix. We don’t know who to believe, what to trust or where to turn.
Like the two travelers on the road to Emmaus, we are lost.
I once was lost but now I’m found,
Was blind, but now I see.
The two travelers were lost, and they were also blind. Like Mary Magdalene in the garden earlier that day on Easter Sunday morning, the two travelers on the road to Emmaus walked and talked with the risen Lord for the better part of seven miles without recognizing him. They saw him without seeing him. It was only in the breaking of the bread, the scripture tells us, that their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. But only for an instant. Once they recognized divinity, they couldn’t look at him for long. And just like that, he was gone.
Are we blind? I wonder if another part of our response to this story is to find the humility to wonder if, like these two on the Emmaus road, we are blind. They were looking at complete divinity and couldn’t recognize it. How much harder is it for us to recognize the spark of divinity in others? The divine essence inherent in each soul—in each man, woman and child: black or white, gay or straight, Muslim, Jew, Sikh or Christian—each created in God’s image—each created as an expression of divinity in time and space—God’s breath breathed into life in every person. It’s hard to remember that in the moment. It’s even harder to see.
Like the two travelers on the road to Emmaus, we are blind.
I once was lost but now I’m found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Father Richard Rohr suggests, “Spiritual maturity is largely a growth in seeing. Full seeing seems to take most of our lifetime.”[3] I’ve been listening to a podcast with Rohr with Brian McLaren and Rev. Jacqui Lewis called “Learning How to See.” The first episode is entitled, “Why Can’t We See?” Why couldn’t the disciples on the road to Emmaus see? Why can’t we? Why are we . . . blind? McLaren suggests the reason, simply put, is bias. He defines bias as “a prejudice or pre-critical inclination in favor of or against something. It’s a pattern of prejudice or pre-critical inclination. Before we even think about it, we bring it to bear. And we could say it’s a pattern of distortion in our ability to see what’s there.” He names “thirteen biases that affect the way we receive or the way we see”:
1. Confirmation bias. The human brain welcomes information that confirms what it already thinks and resists information that disturbs or contradicts what it already thinks.
2. Complexity bias. The human brain prefers a simple lie to a complex truth.
3. Community bias. The human brain finds it very hard for you to see something your group doesn’t want you to see. In other words, we put tribe over truth. This is also known as social confirmation bias.
4. Complementarity bias. If people are nice to you, you’ll be open to what they see and have to say. If they aren’t nice to you, you won’t. We mirror back the attitude we receive from other people; that makes us open or closed to what they have to say, whether it’s true or not.
5. Contact bias. If you lack contact with someone, you won’t see what they see.
6. Conservative/liberal bias. Our brains like to see as our party sees, and we flock with those who see as we do.
7. Consciousness bias. Our brains see from a location, a person’s level of consciousness, or we could say their cognitive maturity makes seeing some things possible and seeing other things impossible.
8. Competency bias. Our brains prefer to think of ourselves as above average. As a result, we are incompetent at knowing how incompetent or competent we really are.
9. Confidence bias. Our brains prefer a confident lie to a hesitant truth. We mistake confidence for competence, and we are all vulnerable to the lies of confident people.
10. Conspiracy bias. When we feel shame, we are especially vulnerable to stories that cast us as victims of an evil conspiracy by some enemy or other. In other words, our brains like stories in which we’re either the hero or the victim but never the villain.
11. Comfort, or complacency, or convenience bias. Our brains welcome data that allows us to relax and be happy, and our brains reject data that requires us to adjust, work, or inconvenience ourselves. We could say the brain is lazy, but it’s very fast at being lazy.
12. Catastrophe, or normalcy, or baseline bias. Our brains are wired to set a baseline of normalcy and assume that what feels normal has always been and will always remain. That means that we minimize threats, and we’re vulnerable to disasters, especially disasters that develop slowly.
13. Cash bias. Our brains are wired to see within the framework of our economy, and we see what helps us make money. It is very hard to see anything that interferes with our way of making a living.
All this is happening instantaneously in our brains beneath our awareness, preventing us from seeing reality as it is. Which of these biases were at play, do you think, preventing the Emmaus road travelers from seeing Jesus for who he was? Which of these biases are at play in our judgments, opinions, thought patterns and worldview? What do we miss because we simply haven’t learned how to see? Because we’re walking around with our eyes wide shut?
Back to the story of John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace.” Think about his life as a slave trader. What biases do you think might have been at work in him to find buying and selling human beings a perfectly acceptable way to make a living?
Eventually, Newton would see the err of his ways. In 1788, four decades after the storm that served as the catalyst for his spiritual awakening, Newton wrote this:
“It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was, once, an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.”[4]
He once was lost, but then was found. Was blind, but then he could see.
So, fellow traveler, what are we missing as we walk the road with eyes wide shut? How might we learn to see more clearly? How might we adopt a “growth mindset” that we might grow in our ability to see? We start by wanting to see more clearly and naming this desire to a God who wants to meet us on our journey. Here’s a prayer from the 13th Century (you may know it as hymn lyrics) to help us in our quest. Here’s your prescription for better vision: pray this three times per day for seven days, and come see me in one week:
Day by day,
O, dear Lord, three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly,
To love thee more dearly,
To follow thee more nearly,
Day by day.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Grace-America-Spiritual-National/dp/1883318300
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Original-Sin-Privilege-America/dp/1587434008/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9BD7V1LYTAWP&dchild=1&keywords=jim+wallis+americas+original+sin&qid=1618689020&s=books&sprefix=jim+wallis+am%2Cstripbooks%2C183&sr=1-1
[3] https://cac.org/seeing-truly-2016-07-15/
[4] https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/638832/amazing-grace-history