Were Not Our Hearts Burning?
[Resurrection Station #2 – Luke 24]
“Were not our hearts burning within us?”
Three days after the crucifixion of the man they had hoped
would be “the one to redeem Israel,” Cleopas and his friend met that crucified
man walking with them on the road to Emmaus. And again, they didn’t recognize
him.
And again, I try to give them some grace about that, just
like I give Mary. Some people believe that Jesus’ resurrected body was somehow
different enough from his original that he wasn’t easily recognizable at first.
And I can see that. I’ve often wondered what the new and perfect version of my body
will look like – what age? What weight? What “flaws” will be gone? Maybe Jesus’
new face was missing scars from childhood accidents and wrinkles from sun
damage. Maybe he fell and broke his nose at some point . . . and the nose on
his new body was unbroken and didn’t look the same.
I mean . . . why not? It’s possible. In any case . . .
The Living Bible and a couple others say their “hearts felt
strangely warm”. (My Methodist friends will hear echoes of John Wesley here.)
The Message words it thus: “Didn’t we feel on fire?” On
fire.
When was the last time the words of scripture set your heart
on fire?
In 1997, I was living in Springfield, Missouri, with a new
baby and my life crashing to pieces around me. I had started attending Bible
Study Fellowship, absolutely RAVENOUS for the Word, and I was praying
desperately, usually writing out my prayers so that my agitated brain would stay
focused and so I could look back again and see when he answered me (which he
did often).
One morning, in a moment of quiet despair, I wrote this
prayer: “Lord, do you want me to just forget about the past and focus on this
new thing you’re doing?” I cried a bit and then put my prayer journal away to
head to a BSF seminar. About twenty minutes into her teaching, the BSF leader
pointed us to this passage in Isaiah which was new to me, and which stopped me dead
in my tracks:
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See,
I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making
a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:18-19)
I sat and stared for a few minutes. And my heart burned
within me.
God has brought those verses from Isaiah back in my life so many times –
usually at desperate, painful moments when I most needed to know he was still
there, still loving me, still in control. In an app on my phone, out of
nowhere. The “verse of the day” on KLOVE over the car radio. In the middle of a
sermon, displayed in huge print on the wall (and with no apparent connection to
anything else the pastor was talking about that day).
And every time, my heart felt strangely warm.
Last spring, when our church opened back up for live
services, somebody had made banners for the sanctuary with those words
plastered on them: “See, I am doing a new thing”. And our worship pastor had
written a song that we sang every Sunday for several months: “God is doing
something new . . .”
And yes, people, I left those services on fire.
There have been other passages of scripture God has brought
to me at specific times for specific purposes. But see, here’s the most
interesting thing about these occasions: I wasn’t necessarily expecting God to
speak to me at the time. It's not like I had a difficult decision to make or a burning question on my mind that I was looking for answers to. I was just reading the Bible . . . going through my
routine . . . living my day . . .
Just walking to Emmaus, and Jesus showed up to open the
scripture to me.
My task for this week of Eastertide: recommit to
being in the Word. Regularly. All the time. Just make it life. Lord, thank you for your
Word . . . and thank you that you keep showing up with it.
[Did you mis R-Station #1? Read it here.]
[Ready for the next one? Here's R-Station #3.]
["What's a Resurrection Station?" you ask? Glad you did. Click here.]
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