Jump Start # 88

Luke 24:34 “saying, ‘The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.”

  The discovery and excitement found on the road to Emmaus is where our verse today comes from. Jesus was raised. Two men were leaving Jerusalem and heading back home. They had been in the city for the Jewish feasts. Jesus walks with them. This must have been fascinating for Jesus to witness. The men didn’t know who Jesus was. They begin talking about Jesus, and all the things that had happened. He was crucified. He was the hope to redeem Israel. They knew about the “third day.” They knew that the women did not find the body. That amazed them. Some of the disciples had seen the empty tomb. And yet here they are walking home. Confused. Perplexed. Uncertain what to make of all these things. Their journey home is seven miles. That is a serious walk for most of us city people these days.

  Listening to these two go on and on, Jesus had enough. He rebukes them by calling them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe.” And then beginning with the Law of Moses and going through the prophets, in probably the greatest Bible class ever taught, Jesus used Scriptures to explain what and why these events took place.

  They reached Emmaus. It was evening. They had a walking Bible study with Jesus, but they didn’t know that their teacher was Jesus. The Lord then disappeared. The two were amazed! They proclaimed, “our hearts were burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road.” And then, most amazingly, they got up and returned, another seven miles, back to Jerusalem. They found the apostles and told them what had happened.

  Emotions fill this story. It had been a long day. It had been a sad day. But now excitement fills their hearts. I expect they hurried back to Jerusalem. They couldn’t wait to tell what had just happened. Emotion does that to a person. Many of us couldn’t stay up very late to watch a movie without falling asleep, but put us in the emergency room waiting on the outcome of an injured loved one, and we can be wide awake all through the night. That’s just how emotions are.

  So many of our hymns come to my mind: “I love to tell the story…” or, “As a deer pants for water, so my soul longs after you…” Not having been there, and not seeing with our own eyes what these two men saw that day, takes some of the emotions out of us. But still, we can be guilty of making our worship service dull, boring and lifeless. Those that participate in public worship must work beyond dry lectures to preaching with passion, singing with feeling and teaching the living word of God. Now this is not a call for jumping up and down, turning lights off and “creating an artificial atmosphere of feeling.” No, this is a call for all of us to be moved by the living God. We ought to be passionate about God. It ought to excite us and burn within us. Being bored in church services is a faith problem. Changing preachers and painting the walls will only do so much. After awhile folks get bored with that. What needs fixing is on the inside.

  Have you ever noticed as soon as the last “amen” is said, that we immediately turn our conversations to sports, kids, cooking, politics and what’s happening right now? Wouldn’t it be refreshing to find some after that “amen” sitting down, with their Bibles opened, sharing, asking, discussing and growing? Can you imagine walking 14 miles because of the Lord? I recently heard a story about a family who lived in the Midwest during the 1940’s. They wanted to go hear a preacher in a gospel meeting. He was preaching 150 miles away. The family didn’t have much. The father cashed in a war bond so the family could afford gas to go to that gospel meeting. Amazing! That’s the spirit of the men of Emmaus. Lord help us not become “dull of hearing” as the folks in Hebrews became. May we love to hear your word!

  The spirit of the men of Emmaus…do you have that?

Roger