Road to Emmaus

Dear Weekly Readers! This week our article is written by Pastor Wayne Juntunen. Please enjoy as we remember the mighty happenings that took place after our Lord's resurrection! May God Bless your week! John R.


AN EMMAUS WALK NEVER TO BE FORGOT!

Two disciples on an afternoon stroll from Jerusalem to Emmaus had heard some amazing things that morning. Some of the women had returned to the disciples to say they had “seen a vision of angels, which said that he [Jesus] was alive (Luke 24:23). And some of them, especially Peter and John, who were with them went to the sepulcher, and found it even as the women had said, but they didn't see Jesus (Lk. 24:24). They were saying this to Jesus whom they did not recognize. To them he was a stranger.

Undoubtedly Jesus chose to remain “a mystery man” to them for at least two reasons—1) to give these disciples an opportunity to talk about their understanding of what had happened during the past few days; 2) to provide Jesus with “an opening” to help them understand what happened in the light of the fulfillment of the Old Testament thereby making their faith more sure. (See 2 Peter 1:19). While they thought this “stranger” was the only one in Jerusalem who didn't know what had happened, in reality Jesus was the only one who did know what had happened.

What a special few hours for these two disciples! May it bring comfort and encouragement to each of you to know that Jesus cares about you as much as did for these two. Though we may be as sad, disheartened, confused, or bewildered as were these men, Jesus loves us and will draw near to us and walk with us to encourage, enlighten, comfort and guide us in our walk of faith. Because we all see through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12), we constantly need Jesus to draw near to us. And He does so through His Word and the Holy Spirit. Life is so filled with so many trials and tragedies only the assurance of Christ's presence with us can help us to go through them.

While the hearts of these two disciples burned within them while Jesus talked with them and opened to them the scriptures (Lk. 24:32), they still did not know this was Jesus speaking to them. When they reached their home in Emmaus, Jesus “made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent” (Lk. 24:28, 29). Jesus went in to spend some time with them and “as he sat at meant with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him” (Lk. 24:30, 31).

Can you imagine how important it was for these disciples to invite Jesus into their home; even though they didn't know it was Jesus? Jesus, the gentle Lamb that he is does not and will not impose himself on anyone. Even with the Laodicean Church, of which we read in the Revelation of St. John, Jesus said: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). Jesus may walk with us, talk with us, open his Word to us, but until we long for him to enter our homes, our hearts, our lives, we will never truly “know him.” It is a precious and blessed thing to know the Scriptures as they speak to us about Jesus. But we need to know “the Christ” of the Scriptures in a real, personal relationship.

When these disciples knew Jesus as the once crucified, but now the resurrected, living and actual Messiah, Jesus could leave them. And their personal experience with him was so powerful, they hastened back to Jerusalem, probably as fast as their feet would carry them, to tell the others that the Lord is risen indeed!

May this glorious message of the resurrected Lord have such a powerful impact upon us that we, too, will hasten to tell others this Good News! Everyone needs to know that Jesus, our crucified Savior, is living. And he longs to dwell within us for it is in him that “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Or as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans: “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (11:36)



Pastor Wayne Juntunen