“Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus [Warm Spring, Spring of Salvation], about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.” He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. [testimony of Jesus] As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him, and he disappeared from their sight. 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?” [Truth and Revelation revealed] They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” [testimony] Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognised by them when he broke the bread”. Luke 24: 13-35 NIV
I have found, this time, because perhaps I’ve walked this way before and not seen, that there is to be discovered, favour and privilege along this Emmaus Road- the journey. This journey toward the burning place, the spring, the place of truth and life, the place of revelation of His presence that transforms our step and sight. Where we walk with our questions and even confusions and at times inner chaos and sorrow. He indeed walks with us, His closeness marks each step. As I, with Him, journey from the place of mystery and confusion towards the place of my heart burning once again in intimacy, in revelation and in life. He is the encounter, very present, even in the unknown. There is a divine blinding at times to His very closeness that enables the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened, in order that we may really see, that we may really know the hope to which we are called and the riches of the glorious inheritance in Him, where we are developed in faith and choose to see with faith and not by sight. Here may we fully surrender our perspective of things, so the Spirit of Truth can illuminate and mark our understanding, our hearts with His word. We yield to receive the very reality that He, God Himself walks with us, unlocking intimately intentionally on our behalf the life our hearts need to feed and sustain and endure. The testimony of Jesus and His being within the Hope of glory over all we experience. There is favour in this divine blinding where He unveils His testimony to and with us, in our own stories, that our hearts are filled with a faith for what we can not yet see. Yet, we are being led by Him to see, we shall see in time. He leads us on journeys through mystery to call to our hearts to know, to experience and to burn with His life, His way, His truth and reality in us, in our very beings. That hope and faith will be fully awakened in us as we come I step with the hope and life to which we have been called to. In seasons where Hope feels lost, He want to minister to our hearts, he wants to sometimes bypass our minds so Hope can be restored and renewed within, in Him and His unchanging testimony. He likes the journey, our invitation is ever to journey with Him. He walks with us. He is close, He draws close. He is the very present One that awakens our hearts so that we can have a fullness, an overflow that can only be with His strengthening of power in our innermost beings that comes through union. It is He who dwells within us, walks alongside us in mystery. Through faith He manifests before us in fullness in His divine and marked time, establishing His testimony and promises in us, with us, for us. He unveils as we choose to see with eyes, a perspective of who He is and all He has accomplished.
Beloved, He indeed walks close. He walks with. His testimony is our authority, because He loved.
Perhaps it is that I am ever being led with a grace for these short paths of divine ‘blindness’ as I allow my heart to be awakened and receive more. My head yielding its desires to know, to understand everything so that my heart can come alive and encounter the fullness of Him for me, in me, with me. There are kairos times that can leave me with questions and confusion, times even that leave me with mystery, sometimes it’s brings sorrow and yet is always an invitation to my inner deeper longing.He hears our questions and opens up His presence , His truth to settle us, so we may step on. I am learning to let go and let my head be stilled as my heart allows Him to lead me along and reveal to and within me greater mysteries and wonders of truth and love. He comes alongside and walks with me, He speak into my heart and awakens me. He causes me to become sure and firm footed again with a burning of His life and truth in my heart, in place of other ‘needs’ my head dictates. He doesn’t leave me in the mystery, even if mystery remains because He makes Himself known. Known through experience, not simply knowing through good understanding. It is this knowing that I am made for and become awake within. His truth known in my innermost being. My heart knows and is ‘home’, where I was made to wholly commune with Him. This is my true life, and being alive. His very dwelling within me enlarges, for on this road I made space not for answers but to journey and encounter, commune in the mystery, step by step. It’s as I tread, aware of Him, leaning into Him, I learn to silence the questions and confusion of the hour and allow Him, who is Truth to speak, reveal and lead. The revelation He brings to my heart is the fire that burns within me. And with all I am I want to burn for Him, I want to live ablaze in the reality of Him. And be caught up in the fire of His truth that burns away my need for answers and understanding. To be fuelled by the fire of His love for me, burning in my heart that makes me sure footed upon every terrain. Because He is and the reality of His very presence and being with me, for me, infuses and transforms my every step. It is indeed the fire of His love, His very passion, that pursues and burns away before me all that limits my journey deeper.
As we walk faithfully, leaning in- even in the unseen, even in the mystery, yet too pursuing and allowing our hearts to be captivated by truth. He manifests before us in a depth and fuller ‘ness’, it is in His divine and marked time, because He is fulfilling, faithfully His testimony within, unto.
The Emmaus roads we walk when we are simply overwhelmed or confused by the time season or hour are indeed if we allow a spring of salvation for us. Increasing to us and in us the full measures and realities of Christ in us, for us, through us, in all things. We don’t have to agree or share the same experiences, but with one heart we can acknowledge He leads, He walks, He pursues, He is Truth and He is Faithful. This is so, however the road is for each of us.
He reveals Himself.
He is Jesus, who walks with us.