This past Sunday, I preached on the theme “Foggy Faith,” rooted in Luke’s account of the confusion and doubt that followed the resurrection. It is the moment where two disciples, overwhelmed and uncertain about what had just happened, left Jerusalem to return to the town of Emmaus—and in doing so, unknowingly encountered Jesus on the road home.

Part of my work in neuroscience involves a fascinating concept called top-down processing! It is this idea that your expectations, beliefs, emotional state, and even past experiences shape your field of view. Quite literally, how you feel and what you think influence what you are able to see.

If you are anxious, your brain scans for threats.
If you are hopeful, your brain scans for possibilities.
If you feel unseen or overlooked, your brain scans for interactions to confirm that belief.

This might help answer a question I have been holding all week about the road to Emmaus:
Why couldn’t the disciples recognize Jesus, even as He walked with them?

The trauma of the crucifixion and the chaos that followed may have consumed the top-down cognitive process of the disciples and they simply could not perceive the resurrected Prince of Peace beside them. The disciples could have been so focused on what was missing, what was broken, and what did not make sense – that they nearly missed who was walking with them.

I do not want to miss seeing Jesus!

Even in moments of chaos, confusion, disappointment, or anxiety, I do not want to miss Him.

I love that, in the end, Jesus reveals Himself to the disciples in Luke’s Gospel. But I also find myself longing for something deeper. I want to steward a relationship where I do not have to wait for a dramatic revelation or a crisis to recognize Christ’s presence. I want to see Jesus daily—in the ordinary, in the in between, in the here and now.

So how do we do that? If the science of top-down processing holds true, then part of the answer lies in intentional focus!

The apostle Paul gives us a framework in Philippians 4:8:
“Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

When I intentionally focus on where I place my attention – even on the Emmaus roads I experience daily, I can begin to see Jesus.

This week, beloved—see Jesus, on purpose. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Ronald Bell, II