Burning Hearts.

There are weary hearts today. Those who can't or won't fake that things are ok. God is ok with that. Thank God, God isn't spiteful. He doesn't despise weary hearts at the expense of the weary heart. He welcomes the weary heart.

Two guys walk along a road going toward Emmaus. That's walking away from Jerusalem. They are walking away from the death of Jesus. Remember the up and down heart whiplash of really intense events affecting real hearts intensely? These guys are in that too. Facing the death of Jesus mixed with tales of His missing body and even claims that He is alive. And as they are walking to Emmaus, they are talking with each other about everything that happened. I don't know what it is about this detail, but it affects me. They chose to talk it about it. There wasn't a "screw it, it's all over, let's go for a burger". It was worth talking about. Staying in it.

While they are talking, "Jesus Himself comes up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing Him." I noticed this progression in this story that can be found in the bible book of Luke, chapter 24 and verses 13 to 32. The two guys talk to each other about Jesus. Then they talk to Jesus about Jesus (even though they didn't know it was Him). Then Jesus talks to them about Jesus (even though at first they didn't know it was Him). And then after Jesus disappears, the two guys talk to each other about Jesus again.

As they get to Emmaus, the other man (Jesus) seems like He's going to keep going and the two men strongly urge Him to stay with them for the evening. I wonder what that "strongly urging" was from. Even though they don't yet know it's Jesus, are they being affected by the presence of Jesus? As they spend time together around the table that evening, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. It was in this moment that their eyes were opened and they recognized it was Jesus. They realized it was Jesus when the bread of life broke the bread and offered it to them. They recognized Him in brokenness. They recognized Him in brokenness. No sooner had they recognized Him and He disappeared from their sight. Don't know why He went away just then, but He let them recognize Him before He went away. Kindness. Didn't have to do that.

He's gone again. And they are talking to each other again about Him. "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road?" There is something about the presence of Jesus. They didn't know it was Jesus until the moment before He disappeared, but they are declaring that they were aware of the affecting presence of the Words of Jesus while He walked with them.

They didn't require Him to intersect with them that day.

They didn't require Him to listen to them that day.

They didn't require Him to talk to them that day.

They didn't require Him to stay with them that day.

They didn't require that their hearts burn in them at the sound of His words.

But...

The Word, Jesus, did intersect with them.

The Word, Jesus, did listen to them.

The Word, Jesus, did talk to them.

The Word, Jesus, did stay with them.

The Word, Jesus, did burn in their hearts.

And us?

Burning hearts?

There's more.