Didn’t Our Hearts Burn?

I forever will be enthralled with the story of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus in Luke 24. It still makes me choke up when I read it.

This moment takes place just after Jesus has been crucified and laid in the tomb for 3 days. A few of the disciples were on a journey to another town, and they were discussing the rumors they had heard from the women who had found Jesus’s tomb to be empty, just that morning.

Could it be? Where was Jesus’ body? Was this some trick? What about the vision of angels the women spoke of declaring Jesus was alive?

In that same moment, Jesus, resurrected, came up next to them and began to walk and talk with them on the road and unveil the whole fulfillment of the prophecies about Himself. What is WILD to me is that they did not even RECOGNIZE their friend, their master and teacher, even as He walked right beside them.

I wonder why? Did Jesus look so different in His resurrected body, or did he allow Himself to be disguised in some way?

OR…. were their own hearts so disillusioned by despair and grief at the loss of their hope and dream that they couldn’t see Him for who He TRULY was anymore?

Jesus ends up dining with them that night. Sitting at a table like they did for those 3 years with Him, in a familiar act He breaks the bread for them, and suddenly their eyes are opened and they see Him- It’s Jesus! And in that very moment of recognition He physically disappears from the table. Can you imagine?!!

I love this next part of the story-

“They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke24:32

They hurried back to Jerusalem to rejoin the other disciples and confirm that the rumors were true- Jesus is alive!

AH! I love that sentence. “Were not our hearts burning within us?”

They recognized Him in hindsight, because their hearts knew what He felt like. This is a marker for all who have felt and heard the whisper of God in their being. Do we know how to recognize that whisper, that little burning inside us when Jesus presence’ comes near?

Heartburn.

Not the kind after a really rich hamburger and some fries.

Or the kind you when you have knots in your stomach…

The kind where during the most ordinary moment of the day, the Holy Spirit breathes on something and you feel the familiarity of His presence, the spark of hope amidst numbness, apathy, distraction. When was the last time you felt your heart do that thing where deep below the surface of your thoughts and emotions, you feel in your chest, something light on fire?

This week following our Easter celebration, I think of the disciples with their hearts burning…burning because even if their minds didn’t recognize it, their bodies remembered and knew they were in the presence of Jesus.

I want to encourage you this week to be looking for your own Emmaus Road moments- the ones where Jesus is walking right up beside you in your everyday and it would be too easy to miss Him…in your busyness, your scheduling, maybe in your frustration or tiredness or even despair…and notice the resurrected King is here walking beside you. Notice the still small whisper inviting you into a moment, to think about a situation differently, to laugh, to cry, to call someone, to come home to Love.

I see Him. He is walking down our roads of disappointment, ready to raise our forgotten hopes, and re-light our hearts afire.