Then their eyes were opened
and they recognized him.
—Luke 24:31
The Emmaus disciples hadn’t recognized Jesus when he joined them on their walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus.
But at dinner, when he “took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them . . . their eyes were opened and they recognized him”—not because the hands that broke the bread were the same as they had been accustomed to seeing, but because they were different. These hands were wounded; nail-pierced.
“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands,” scoffed Thomas, “I will not believe.”
The next time Jesus saw Thomas, he said, “Look at my hands.”
“My Lord and my God!” declared Thomas.
Look at his hands.
Nail-pierced.
My Lord and my God!
Look at his hands and confess him
as your Lord and your God.