125. Rock Goes The Gospel - Snow Patrol "Open Your Eyes"

"Eyes Open" is the fourth album by Northern Irish/Scottish rock band Snow Patrol. It was released in the UK on 1 May 2006, and 9 May 2006 in the US. The first European single, "You're All I Have",was released on 24 April 2006; the first U.S. single was "Hands Open" and the first Australian single was "Chasing Cars". Eyes Open is the 15th best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK. It's the first album without bassist Mark McClelland and the first to feature bassist Paul Wilson and keyboardist Tom Simpson. "Open your eyes" is the fifth single taken from this album

All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you
My bones ache, my skin feels cold
And I'm getting so tired and so old

The anger swells in my guts
And I won't feel these slices and cuts
I want so much to open your eyes
'Cause I need you to look into mine

Tell me that you'll open your eyes [x4]

Get up, get out, get away from these liars
'Cause they don't get your soul or your fire
Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine
And we'll walk from this dark room for the last time

Every minute from this minute now
We can do what we like anywhere
I want so much to open your eyes
'Cause I need you to look into mine

Tell me that you'll open your eyes [x8]

All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you

This song is extremely emotional and powerful. In my opinion this song describes a tragic scene; The sudden loss of a loved one.

"All this feels strange and untrue
"And I won't waste a minute without you
My bones ache, my skin feels cold
And I'm getting so tired and so old"

It would be easy to picture a scene at the hospital with a loved one who has died, the family are told that the loved ones condition rapidly deteriorated with no hope of survival. The situation is so surreal to the person they almost can't believe it and feel numb, helpless, physically and mentally exhausted.

"The anger swells in my guts
And I won't feel these slices and cuts
I want so much to open your eyes
Cos I need you to look into mine

Tell me that you'll open your eyes"

One of the first stages of grief is anger, here its clear the person is so maddened by the situation and cannot understand how someone they love has died before them and they ache for the person to open their eyes and touch that persons life once more. 

"Get up, get out, get away from these liars
Cos they don't get your soul or your fire
Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine
And we'll walk from this dark room for the last time"

This part is in my opinion the most profound part of the song. Because the situation is so surreal and the person doesn't want to believe it, he/she begs that together they leave the 'liars' who say this is the end.The others simply don't understand the loved ones importance to the person, they need that person, they can't leave. He/she begs again for response and embrace from the motionless person on the hospital bed...to leave the gloomy situation and never have to face it again.

"Every minute from this minute now
We can do what we like anywhere
I want so much to open your eyes
Cos I need you to look into mine"

The person pleas again and promises that in return for a response they can do anything. They would do anything within their power to see the persons soul again.

"Tell me that you'll open your eyes

All this feels strange and untrue
And I won't waste a minute without you"

The person feels frustrated and panics,they cannot face the pain,they're only hope is to beg. Feeling lost still,the person begins to realise it is really happening and admits 'All this feels strange and untrue'. They don't know how to go on without the person that meant so much to them. The loved one will always be missed and remembered.

Today is Good Friday. The day in the Christian calendar when millions of believers throughout the world remember the lonely death of Jesus upon the cross.

The tragedy of the happenings in Jerusalem  is vividly painted for us in Luke 24 through the eyes of two disciples who are returning home and although the passage takes place on the morning of the resurrection there is a lot of Good Friday feeling about it.

In this final chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we read of two disciples (Cleopas and one unnamed) of Jesus who were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. The two disciples have experienced the shock of bereavement in a similar way to Snow Patrol's "Open your Eyes" They have returned having seen Jesus killed by the Romans at the bidding of the religious institution. they were downcast and hopes were now gone. They were living life in a Good Friday world. Their friend and messiah that they had believed in had now gone and all they had left was to return home to their families and grieve. The story of this road to Emmaus is filled with shock and dashed hopes. It is filled with lost potential from the perspective of the two who are journeying down the road. Of course the story does not end there. 

As they travelled, a man joined them—the resurrected Jesus, although they did not recognize Him. The man asked, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” (Luke 24:17). The two disciples were surprised that the man had not heard of the recent events that had Jerusalem in turmoil. They proceeded to tell the stranger of Jesus’ crucifixion and the report of His empty tomb. Jesus responded, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27).

So, as they walked, Jesus taught what the Old Testament had predicted about Himself. When they arrived in Emmaus that evening, the two disciples stopped to eat, and they asked Jesus to join them. He did, and as He broke the bread and blessed the meal, “their eyes were opened” (verse 31), and they recognized Him. Jesus then vanished. Their response? Luke reports, “They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen’” (verses 33-34).

On the road to Emmaus, Jesus gave a lesson on the prophecies of the Old Testament which were fulfilled in His death and resurrection. What a lesson that would have been! The Author of the Book explains His work, making connections from Scripture to the events they had recently experienced. The disciples’ reaction to Jesus’ lesson was one of deep conviction of the truth of what He was teaching. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked?” they ask each other (verse 32). Their physical eyes were blinded to the identity of Jesus, but their eyes of faith were being opened as Jesus opened the Scriptures to them.

Following this account, Jesus appears to His other disciples, removing all doubt that He was alive. Jesus had promised that He would show Himself to those who love Him (John 14:21), and this is exactly what He does on the road to Emmaus. The story of the disciples on the Emmaus Road is important for many reasons. It provides an emphasis on the Old Testament prophecies related to Jesus,evidence regarding an additional appearance of Jesus, and a connection regarding the many eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus. Luke 24 is often seen as a model of the journey that Jesus makes with many of us today, as He opens our eyes, points us to the Word, and reveals Himself along life’s walk as the resurrected Saviour and Lord.

Another thing that the Emmaus passage speaks to us about is the absence of God. The two disciples are returning with hopes dashed and have seen the one they have believed in killed. They are suffering because of the absence of their friend. the passage goes on to show that Jesus is not absent, (he is risen) but hidden from them. In a good Friday world we may think that God is absent. Indeed this is emphasised in much of what this world has top say about itself. More than that people think that because they cannot see God that means he is dead, unreal, not believable. God is not absent as we think but simply may be hidden and travelling with all of us in our Good Friday feeling of hopelessness. We may Just be one meal away from having our eyes open. Now There's a thought.