In this passage, two disciples of Jesus are walking from Jerusalem to a small village named Emmaus. It has just been a couple of days since Jesus has been crucified. They are troubled and dejected as they discuss the recent events while they walk, perhaps wondering what they would do now that their teacher and master and Lord had been crucified. Possibly, they are thinking that it wasn't supposed to have happened that way... then a third traveller joins them and asks what they are talking about.
The scriptures tell us that although the disciples could see and hear this third traveller, they did not really know who he was... they could not really "see" or "know" him for who he was until he "opened" their eyes and revealed himself to them as their Lord and master, the one who had so recently been crucified. And then, after their encounter with Jesus is over, they realize that somehow, they must have known all along who he was, because their hearts had "burned within them" as he had spoken with them.
As we walk life's road, while we cannot see the One who walks with us, yet we still can know who He is... with our eyes "opened" by His love and faithfulness, we can "see" Him who is now invisible to us... and through prayer and reading the scriptures, we can talk with and hear from the One who travels life's road with us. As the hearts of the early disciples "burned within them", even when they did not yet know who was traveling with them, so our hearts will also "burn within us" as our unseen Lord and Savior journeys with us along the roads we travel in life.
