Easter Devotional ~"It was then that their hearts began to burn within them..."

Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus…

“Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.

Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.

Luke 24:13, 29-30

Abide with me! fast falls the eventide;

The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide!

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.

Henry Francis Lyte ~1847

Of all the appearances of the risen Christ, none has a stronger hold upon Christendom that this one. It has brought light to many darkened hearts, and comfort to innumerable souls. Christ revealed Himself to Mary in the garden, and that will always be precious to the Church. He revealed Himself to the eleven, and to Thomas, and to Peter and John beside the Sea of Galilee. But this meeting on the Emmaus road, with its revelation of the living Savior, is engraven on the universal heart.

Who are these two were we cannot tell. We know nothing about them except the name of one of them, Cleopas. They were clearly on intimate terms with the Apostles, for they knew where they lodged when they went straight to them. It is characteristic of the Lord that in the glory of His resurrection-life He gave Himself with such fullness of disclosure to those unknown and undistinguished men. Here is the Master of all those obscure lives that are yet precious in the sight of Heaven. These two are our brothers.

These two travelers had lost their hopes. There was a time, not so long ago, when their hopes had been burning brightly like a star. They trusted this was He who should redeem Israel—that was the glowing conviction of their heart. And as they followed Jesus in His public ministry, and saw His miracles, and heard His words, brighter and ever brighter grew the hope that this was the Christ, the Son of the living God. But now the third day’s sun was near to setting, and darkness was soon to fall upon the world, and a great darkness, heavier than sunset, was beginning to cast its shadow on their hearts. They would never see Him again, nor hear His words, nor follow Him through any village street. And so that evening, journeying to Emmaus, they were men convinced that they had lost their Lord and having lost Him they had lost their hopes.

So long as Jesus Christ had been alive, there had been a great gladness in their hearts. Always in His society there was delight. There was a feeling of peace and of security. When He was with them all their care and worry took to itself wings and fled away. But now their Lord has passed beyond their ken, and it was like the passing of the sunshine for them, and as they walked together they were sad. They never understood how much they loved Him till the shadow of parting had fallen on their love. But now they knew it, and so, that dreary day, their talk as they journeyed was all of Jesus Christ, and the deepest desire of their hearts was this: O that I knew where I might find Him!

We want to follow the successive stages by which He gave them back their joy and peace. First, He showed them the supreme necessity of His death. “Ought not Christ,” He said, “to have suffered these things that so He might enter into glory?” That He whom they loved should die a felon’s death was something too awful to believe. And when it happened it seemed a hideous and irreparable calamity. And then Christ met them, and spoke about His death, and they learned that Crucifixion was no accident. It was no longer the greatest of calamities; it became the greatest of necessities. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? –and they saw its moral and spiritual grandeur, and it dawned upon them that the Cross they loathed was something more wonderful than any crown. It was then that their hearts began to burn within them, and the light to break upon their darkened souls.

The next step our Saviour took was to lead them back to the Word of God. ‘Beginning at Moses and at all the prophets, He expounded unto them the things concerning Himself.’ Once again they heard of the Paschal Lamb, and of the Smitten Shepherd in Zechariah, and of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah. But hearing it all interpreted by Christ, the Bible became a living book to them, and in the hour when it became a living book, they found that Christ Himself was by their side.

One of the surest signs that Christ is nigh is when He makes the Bible live again.

And then He revealed Himself in the breaking of the bread. It was a frugal supper in a village home of two tired travelers, and another. Yet it was then—in the breaking of the bread, and not in any vision of resurrection splendor—that they knew that their companion was the Lord. How that discovery flashed upon their hearts, the Bible, so wonderful in its silences, does not tell. It may have been the quiet air of majesty with which He took at once the place of Host, when they had invited Him in to be their guest. It may have been the familiar word of blessing that awakened sweet memories of Galilean days. Or it may have been that as He put forth His hand after the blessing to take the bread and break it, they saw that it was a hand which had been pierced. However it was, whether by word or hand, they felt irresistibly that this was He.

So when a man has spiritually lost his Savior, and is being restored to the joy of his first love, it is often thus that the Lord reveals Himself. Our commonest mercies come to gleam on us as the most wonderful of all created things. Our sicknesses, our trials, our disappointments, are all transfigured with a Father’s love. Until at last, though we have seen no vision, and have only had common meals and common mercies, we too are thrilled and say, ‘It is the Lord.’

JAMES HASTINGS

The Gospel According to Luke ~1910