Good morning…

I love the Bible story “On the Road to Emmaus”, found in Luke 24:13-35. Two people are walking and talking about Jesus being unjustly accused and brutally crucified, taking down into the grave their high expectations, “We had hoped that he would be the one to set Israel free! But it has already been three days since all this happened,” (v. 21, CEV). The resurrected Jesus comes along side them, walking and talking, but his identity is veiled as a wise, faith-filled stranger.

By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared! Luke 24:28-31 (NLT).

Henry Nouwen explains in Bread for the Journey: “The recognition and the disappearance of Jesus are one and the same event. Why? Because the disciples recognized that their Lord Jesus, the Christ, now lives in them … that they have become Christ-bearers. Therefore, Jesus no longer sits across the table from them as the stranger, the guest, the friend with whom they can speak and from whom they can receive good counsel. He has become one with them. He has given them his own Spirit of Love. Their companion on the journey has become the companion of their souls. They are alive, yet it is no longer them, but Christ living in them.”

Day in and day out, ordinary people who cooperate with the process of spiritual transformation are entrusted with the same power that raised Jesus from the grave. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, Galatians 2:20 (NLT).

Jesus walks and talks with us daily, praying to our Father: The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind–just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. The same glory you gave me, I gave them, so they’ll be as unified and together as we are–I in them and you in me. Then they’ll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that you’ve sent me and loved them in the same way you’ve loved me,
John 17:20-23 (MSG),

Sue