THE SACRED ROAD TO EMMAUS

 

 

 

“Did not our hearts burn within us…….while he opened to us the scriptures?” was the heartfelt reflection of two believers who enjoyed the company of the resurrected Christ on the road to a village called Emmaus (Luke 24:32). 

 

The story goes that the Saviour joined two men, post resurrection, travelling to Emmaus, who were discussing the hottest topic of the day, His possible resurrection. The travellers told Him they ‘trusted’ the Galilean was the Messiah who would redeem Israel but were now sceptical because He had died (v 21). The Saviour was gracious even though He chided them for their unbelief (v 25). He then expounded to them all that was prophesied of Him ‘beginning at Moses and all the prophets’ (v27). His point was, ‘how is it that you know the scriptures but you don’t believe them’??? Indeed, many who were witnesses of His mortal mission did not believe Him because they did not understand the scriptures which testified of Him and what He would do as the Redeemer and Saviour of the world. 

 

Luke tells us that these disciples’ eyes were restrained from knowing Him (v 16a). Could it be that it was more important for Jesus that they believed on Him through the scriptures than through showing them His resurrected body? Did He not say to Thomas, 'blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed'? (John 20:29)

The lesson is this: the ‘burn’ comes from only one place: The Holy Ghost. The lesson is also this: the Saviour is in our midst STILL through the medium of The Holy Ghost. It is he who can open our eyes and our hearts so that we will not only believe but KNOW Christ. And where is the Christ most if not in the scriptures? If we study the scriptures without the presence of the Holy Ghost we are just building upon our knowledge and not our testimony. We need to feel ‘the burn’ to know. We all know what we must do to be worthy of his sacred companionship. As you travel on your personal road to Emmaus may the scriptures be burnt upon the tablets of your heart and may you know, and not just believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour of the world. He is the Resurrection and the life. He is the Redeemer of your soul. He is the road…… 

 

 

I gave you My all:

My heart, my body, my soul.

I paved the way

And conquered death.

I am in your midst;

I am the only,

I am the last,

And I am the first.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: The Road to Emmaus by Liz Lemon Swindle)

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

 

“From the perspective of man, the gospel is a better way of life. It is life bursting forth in a wilderness of darkness. It is faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is signs, gifts and miracles. It is persecution and suffering and trials. It is learning to live as becometh a saint. It is overcoming the world until, eventually, in glorious immortality, the true saints dwell with Him who is their Friend and into whose image they have been molded.

 

“From the perspective of him who is our Redeemer, the gospel is the atoning sacrifice which puts into full operation and makes binding and efficacious all that the Father has prepared for them that love Him. It is our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem, his childhood in Nazareth,  his ministry in Judea and Perea. It is the miracles he wrought, the works he did, the laws he made known. It is the Garden of Gethsemane and the hill of Calvary. It is great drops of blood dripping from every pore, as he took upon himself the sins of the world. It is a Roman spear piercing a sinless side. It is an open tomb outside a city wall. It is all power given him in heaven and on earth. It is immortality as a free gift for all and eternal life for the faithful. 

 

“The gospel is all this and ten thousand times ten thousand things more. But all that it is, all that it has ever been, all that it shall ever be, all that appertains to it, centers in Him of whom the prophets testify….” 

(Bruce R. McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 52-3)

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN