Part 1
By Rev. Dr. Terence Lau, Zion Alliance Church
On the Road to Emmaus
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. 29 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.
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 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?”
33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”
Luke 24:13–16, 27-34 (NIV84)
At Pentecost, God poured down the Holy Spirit to enable the abiding presence of Christ in us always. As we face the challenges and uncertainties in life, let’s seek to experience the presence of Christ, like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the first Easter Sunday.
Luke 24:15-16 “As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.”
Jesus’ disciples were all in grief, fear and confusion on this first Easter Sunday. They were in total darkness. So were these two disciples when “Jesus himself came up and walked along with them.”
Did they expect Christ’s presence? No, not at all. Yet Christ quietly, unknowingly to them, came up and walked alongside.
What a wonderful Savior, and what a reassuring thought:
Christ’s presence with us is on Him, not on us.
Like a loving mother rushing forward to hold a child in need, she doesn’t wait for the child to cry for help. In our utmost weakness and darkness, before we even call for help, Christ is already there to comfort and guide us.
Strangely, “they were kept from recognizing Him.” Christ’s presence is sometimes not what we expect, to the point that we may not feel His presence. Sometimes, he intentionally refrains from letting us feel His presence, for He has something more precious for us to learn.
(Luke 24:27) “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”
Instead of letting them immediately feel His presence, Christ revealed the glorious eternal plan of salvation to the two disciples. Christ was subtly leading them from the lower plane of their immediate need to feel to the higher plane of God’s eternal, glorious plan of salvation.
Christ’s presence is more than how we feel. It is to be assured by something far more significant: God’s eternal glorious plan for us. Christ wanted the two disciples to know about that.
Nevertheless, when the two disciples looked back later on, ‘They asked each other, (Luke 24:32) “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”’
Even though they didn’t feel Christ’s presence at the time, His comfort and strengthening were there nonetheless and remained.
And then, more importantly, now that they were revealed the glorious plan of God and the love of Christ for them (v31), “Their eyes were opened and they recognized him (Christ), and he disappeared from their sight.”
It was not just their physical eyes; their inner eyes were opened now by a true affirmation: an assurance from the Holy Spirit of Christ’s great love towards us. Though Christ “disappeared from their sight,” it didn’t matter anymore. They don’t need Christ’s physical presence to feel about him. God’s glorious eternal plan now assured them.
True comfort, the true presence of Christ, is not from how we feel about His presence but from the affirmation of Christ’s great love in us.
It is the secret of Christians: how we, as children of God, experience power and strength amidst life’s challenges and uncertainties.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38–39 (NIV84)
劉振鎰牧師 Rev. Dr. Terence Lau, retired minister and member of the Advisory Council of Hudson Taylor Centre at Tyndale Seminary.
He was formerly the senior pastor of Zion Alliance Church and is now a Minister-at-large of the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Canada.