By Pastor John T. Anderson

 

      In one of the most touching, poignant scenes of Scripture, two travelers trudged on a very sad Sunday from Jerusalem to the town of Emmaus, a distance of about seven miles. As they walked, they talked about the events of the last few days. Extraordinary events. Shocking, unexplainable events. The One in Whom they had anchored their trust, the One they believed to be the Anointed One, the true Messiah had been executed on a cruel Roman cross, and with His death died their hopes.

 

As they tried to make sense of all this, they were joined by another Traveler, Who inquired about their conversation and seemed uninformed of all that had taken place. Patiently, the Traveler pointed to passages in all the Scriptures those “things concerning Himself,” familiar to them, but now seen in a different light. How their minds thrilled at these new insights! Later they confessed, “Did not our heart burn within us.” Luke 24:32. It’s the only time I can think of when “heart burn” was a good thing! Though approaching evening, somehow the path seemed brighter.

 

Coming to Emmaus, although the Traveler made as if He would continue His journey, they constrained Him to stay with them. It was when they began the meal and He broke and blessed the bread that their eyes were opened, and they knew He was Jesus, the risen Lord. 

 

I don’t know exactly what constituted the “things concerning Himself” He exposed to their understanding that day He resurrected those pictures of the past. I wish I could have been there to quietly join them and overhear the conversation! I am left to guess if He spoke, as He did to Nicodemus, about the serpent on the pole, or the lamb of sacrifice. Did He compare His ministry with that the reign of Solomon, His life with Samson’s, His mission with that of Cyrus, His sufferings with David’s? I am left to ponder. 

 

Even though we weren’t there literally two thousand years ago, in a sense you and I can take that Emmaus walk today. Through the Spirit Jesus can walk beside us in our traveling and speak to our hearts those revelations, those insights that will make His mission and His love clearer to us. May I invite you to take this Emmaus walk, to share together these “things concerning Himself” which have come to my mind contained in stories and images of the Old Testament? More than that, I invite you to make the Emmaus walk a life journey, searching the Scriptures for yourself and allowing the Spirit to open to your mind other snapshots of the Savior, other revelations of His grace from the pages of Holy Writ.