He Told You

And they remembered his words … (Luke 24:8)

Have you ever experienced the exhilaration of everything becoming clear and connected?

The disciples did not need new information to understand the resurrection; they needed the illumination that comes when God suddenly turns on the lights in our personal experience of His grace. They needed to reflect upon what they had seen, heard, and experienced in the light of all Jesus has said. In short, they needed to remember in the afterglow of the empty tomb.

Before the resurrection, all that Jesus had said and done had consisted of delightful and sometimes confusing fragments in their minds. Now, everything was cohesive and clear for those who were in that room.

That Same Day

And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. – Luke 24:13

I can’t help it. Whenever I am out on an open highway with no end in sight, I imagine Willie singing, “On the Road Again.”

And then I have to remind myself to ease up on the gas peddle.

Jesus had spent so much of His ministry walking … and talking … and walking … and talking some more. Sometimes He stopped to teach, but mostly, if you wanted to follow Him as a disciple, you had to be willing to move.

Those days were gone, at least in the minds of the two men who walked along that day on the road to Emmaus. They had heard rumors of the empty tomb, but they did not believe that Jesus was alive.

Then He started walking with them and they did not recognize Him. Nevertheless, their hearts burned within them as He opened the scriptures to them and taught them concerning God’s eternal purpose of redemption and His mission to proclaim good news to all the earth.

He was calling them and us to a life on the road, a life of mission.

He was calling them by walking with them, alongside them, and teaching them along the way.

In the same way, the risen Christ desires to walk with us and teach us on the road.

Do you recognize Him?

He is ready to make some pretty special music with His friends!

This is

 It is what my professor and friend, Dr. Cornell Goerner called, "The Great Messianic Seminar."

What a day that must have been!

Luke 24:13-35 (NIV)
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.

 

Another, shorter, and with a slightly different "take."

And then, Willie ….