Were Our Hearts Not Burning

by Pastor Gina Johnson

You know, I've been walking with Jesus for years. I feel as though I know His voice, I know His words, but there's still those times that even though I'm walking with Him, I still don't recognize Him. Even though He's right in front of me, I still don't see Him.

I want to talk to you all about seeing. And I don't mean seeing with your eyes. I mean seeing with your heart. I want to talk to you all about the unfoldment of awareness that takes place and it doesn't just happen with our eyes and what's out in front of us, but it happens within, it happens within our heart. And you know, I'm sure everyone here has heard or at least the story told in Luke 24: 13-35. But, a lot of it gets overlooked. There's a greater message. So I want to spend time on our own little road to Emmaus this morning and let's see what we can find together.

Now that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him.

He asked them, what are you discussing together as you walk along? They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? What things? He asked about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.

The chief priest and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death and they crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.

In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.

Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus. He said to them, how foolish you are and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said and all the scriptures concerning himself.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther, 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.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he disappeared from their sight. 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.

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven and those with them assembled together and saying, it is true, the Lord had risen and has appeared to Simon. Then the two told what had happened on the way and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

Isn't it interesting as they were walking along the road to Emmaus, they were kept from recognizing him. That part has always tripped me up just a little bit.

It's like, why? Why do we run into these moments where we are kept from recognizing Jesus? And who is doing that keeping? Can we really say the Lord is keeping us from recognizing him? Would God in the flesh really keep himself from us? How many situations do we find ourselves in where we cannot recognize God is there, yet God is always there?

You know, when we look at these two, they weren't strangers to Jesus. They were followers. They were students. They were believers. They were seekers. They were his friends, his disciples. But, they were grieving. And how many of us, whether it's our grief or whether it's something else going on in our life, we get so sidetracked. We get so caught up in what we are experiencing that we can't see how Spirit is moving within us and moving among us.

We can't see how Spirit is actually taking action and preparing us so we can be empowered for what's next, for how to navigate our current situation, for how to move into the next phase that's before us. They had spent the last several days reflecting on what had happened. Everything they were putting their hope and their trust in was just days before beaten and battered, stabbed and put upon a cross.

The one that they had spent time with learning and laughing, breaking bread and telling stories was now gone. How many times have you in your life experienced something that you had put a lot of faith in, a lot of hope in, a lot of trust in, and it might as well have been beaten and battered and nailed to a cross and then nowhere to be found the next day. And when things like that happen, all of a sudden what was familiar, all of a sudden what we leaned into, all of a sudden what we knew to be beside us is no longer there.

It's amazing because when you listen to the scripture in verse 21, it says, we had hoped he was the one. How many times has something changed, a transition came into your life, expected or unexpected, and is like, “Man, but I thought this was going to be it.” That's one of those things that I constantly felt as I recognized that I was going to be going on sabbatical from Warrensburg.

I was sure that's where I was going to be, not just for a year or two, not even just for three to five. I was sure I was going to be there to see it all the way through my youngest daughter graduating high school. I had hoped that was where I was supposed to land.

And it was for just a moment, for just a moment. Can you relate to that? Can you relate to having hope in something, having faith and trust in something? And maybe it's even yourself. “I had hoped I would do better than this. I trained and I listened and I followed and I still fell short. I had hoped it was going to amount to more than this.”

How many times have you hoped the diagnosis was going to be different? How many times did you have hope that particular relationship or that job was going to last as long as you wanted it to? How many times did we hope for a miracle and it just didn't show up, at least not the way we thought it would? You know, the thing is, sometimes hope can move us further along, but other times we allow hope to become disappointment.

And I say we allow because it's where we're at. It's our mindset. It's the way that we're looking at things. It's when you look outside and you see the weather and you say, “Oh, it's gloomy, it's going to be a miserable day.” Or you look outside and you see the weather and say, “Oh, that's so nice to have the rain.” I always call the rain liquid sunshine.

That's actually part of the reason I named my daughter Rain, Rain. My little liquid sunshine comes in like a thunderstorm, I'll tell you.

But when we sometimes allow hope to be met by disappointment, who do you think creates that disappointment? You might blame it on that person standing there disappointing you in the moment, but don't you think they hoped that they were going to show up and do well? Don't you think that they hoped they weren't going to let you down? You know, there are some people in this world that maybe do get kicks out of hurting other people, making them miserable, but believe it or not, those are really few and far between.

A lot of times when you're being disappointed by someone, just imagine what they're feeling within themselves, because they had hoped they were going to do better, too. And then sometimes hope is met with disappointment that we didn't expect. It's that time where you go to a regular doctor's appointment and they find something that, whoa, that's not even what I was here for.

And we look at it with sorrow and we're upset and we're angry that we found this out, because now that changes everything. But would we rather have not found out and have it sneak up on us later in that crucial moment? It's so interesting.

A lot of times we get so caught up in disappointment, whether we brought it on ourselves or whether we want to point at something outside of us, and then we can't even see that resurrection is walking right beside us. It's like sometimes at home I take off my glasses because I'm fixing my hair or something's in my eye, or I just take them off for a moment to do something. I get up and I walk away and it's the funniest thing because then I can't find my own glasses without someone coming over to help me.

I could be looking at them over and over again and I'm still gonna miss them. That's what it was like for these guys. They were so caught up in what they were missing. They were so caught up in their scattered thoughts and their disappointments and the things that they saw going this way but instead went that way.

We all wear these lenses. Some of us wear lenses of fear. Some of us wear the lenses of disappointment. And sometimes, you know, we wear those lenses that say, “This is how it's always going to be. This is all I've ever known. Oh, well, this is who I've been my whole entire life. Oh, you know, I'm so familiar. This is what it's supposed to look like and this is how it will always look.”

And when we get stuck in there, it's like we forgot that we took our glasses off and we are just walking around blind. We're just walking around with blurry vision, not able to see what's really happening until someone comes up and says, “Hey, why aren't you wearing your glasses?”

When Jesus shows up and he walks alongside of them, he is listening to their pain. He is listening to their sorrow. And I love the way he responds to them because he doesn't start talking at them. He starts talking to them. He starts to inquire what it is they're experiencing. And through his words, he brings the scriptures to life as the Living Word. It's not just someone who's standing up here reading the scriptures to them. This isn't a lesson from a textbook. Jesus speaks to them as if he's lived these words, as if he embodies these words because he does. And as they are listening to these words, something starts to stir.

Do you have those moments where you're walking along and you're caught up in things that really aren't serving you? Where you're caught up in things that really aren't going to get you anywhere, but you're just going to keep walking in circles, lost and disappointed. But then something is said to you. You hear something, you see something, you feel something, and something starts to stir inside of you.

They said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked to us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?” Jesus, his presence, he opened the scriptures to them. And it wasn't hard to do because the scriptures were already within them. There was a part of them as he spoke to them that was starting to understand.

They felt it. There was a part of them as he spoke to them that was starting to recognize. And maybe at first they didn't see with their eyes, but that burning they felt within, they started to recognize him with their hearts.

When we start to feel that burning within, we know that that is the Spirit saying to us, “There's something more to this. Take another look. Clean your glasses and put them back on again. Put them on as if you're putting them on for the first time.”

I'd ask you, what is burning in your heart right now? What is in your heart right now that says something is going to be taking place for you? Something is happening. Maybe it was an encounter like a friend of mine had. It was an encounter that burned in her heart and caused her to stop for a moment and look at herself in a different way.

You know that's what happens when we sit with each other because we're all just a reflection of each other. So whether I'm looking at you and I see something I don't like, well I better be careful because you're just a reflection of me. And if I look at you and I see something that I love and something that stirs the Spirit, well then I definitely have my glasses on because I can see you. I can see me. I can see Jesus.

Has the Spirit whispered something to you as we've navigated through the Easter season, as we're coming into the new creation of spring, as we all are in the transitions of graduations, as some of us are having those moments of shifting family members, or perhaps we're moving ourselves. Perhaps we're having a change in a job or we're waiting for a job that's just about to come into our hands. Can you feel something moving in you? And if you can't, well then I'm going to encourage you to take a moment and put yourself in this story and ask yourself, what is keeping me from seeing what's walking right beside me? What is keeping me from feeling the presence of the Spirit? What is keeping me from recognizing that resurrection is happening within me, beside me, around me, all the time? Resurrection isn't a one-time thing that's one and done.

It's a moment by moment occurrence. Every moment we can experience resurrection. Every moment we can see more clearly.

You know, it's interesting. He's walking with them on this walk and it says that he was acting like he had further to go. They are feeling the stirring inside of them and so they say, “Hey, no, no, no, no, it's getting late. Don't go any further. Stay with us for dinner.” And when he was at the table with them and he took the bread and he gave thanks and he broke it, then they were able to recognize. Then their eyes were open. Then I put my glasses back on.

It's interesting because it wasn't a miracle. It wasn't in a 17 to 21 minute sermon. It was in the breaking of the bread. It was in that reminder of the oneness and the presence. And from there, as they came into this recognition, as soon as they were able to see that he was there, what happened? He disappeared. He disappeared.

How interesting is that? I always wonder why did he not just say, “Hey guys, guess who? It's me. You guys don't recognize me?” Why didn't he just maybe see if they had like some kind of ailment, just put his hand on them. Why didn't, as they were walking, he just say, “Hey guys, check this out. Water. Boom. Hey guys, look, it's me. See, told you it's me.” Why didn't he do that?

I'll tell you why. Because Jesus, the Spirit, does not have to perform. He does not have to show up in some grandiose way to get us to know that he is there. He can simply break bread. He can simply enter into that sacred, intimate space with us through stillness, through just being, and in that moment, when he did that with them, when he broke the bread, they remembered. They remembered everything. That burning in their hearts was so ignited that things became clear.

And what did they remember? They remember that there is life, and then there is death, and then there is life again. And that's something that's hard for people to remember. Sometimes, I've said this before, people are just going through this life, living to die. But if you truly understand, we were given life, we are given death, and we are given life again. So let's live to live.

Do you have any thoughts on why he disappeared? Why? Why did he go? Why did he leave so abruptly? What was it? You know, I always wondered about that.

The more and more I thought about it, the more I needed to research the thoughts around the kingdom and the kingdom being within. The reason that Jesus disappeared was because he didn't need to be beside them anymore. He didn't need to hold their hand. He didn't need to tell them stories on another walk. He didn't need to sit there and ask for dessert. He was already within them. He had always been there within them, but something had clouded them, so they weren't able to recognize it.

But I'll tell you, when you come to that recognition, when it dawns on you that Jesus is always there within you, then you will be just like these two. Because what did they do next? They said, “Oh, wasn't it burning in our hearts?”

And what did they do? They didn't say, “Hey, okay, well, now let's take a nap and rest for a while. Let's make a plan.” They got up, and they, if you look in some translations, they ran. They ran back to Jerusalem. They were so excited. They felt free, and they felt alive again, and I bet they even felt a little silly because it was theirs all along.

How many of you have had those moments that start off with walking in circles, blind and confused, filled with disappointment and doubt? You recognize that Jesus is there. You have that aha moment, and then you just keep walking in circles again. How many of you get that message from the Spirit, get that opportunity, get that golden ticket, and then say, “Eh, maybe not. It's just so much better to hold on to my grief. What will I talk about if I let go of all my disappointment? What will I spend my time doing if I'm not worried all the time? How will I ever function if I don't keep repeating how everything has always been, and it's how it's always going to stay? What will I do if I stop being stagnant in my growth and in my learning and my expansion of love and light in this world?”

What will you do? It's amazing how we hear these stories time and time again, and I always have to wonder. I have to question myself sometimes. What do these stories mean to you? What do they say to you? Can you hear the Spirit inviting you to recognize that Jesus is right beside you, Jesus is within you, that you don't have to be worried. You don't have to be caught up in your grief. You don't have to buy into the stories.

This week, I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you to pay attention, even in those moments that seem so ordinary, those casual conversations, those people you see every day at the same time in the same place. I want to challenge you to pay a little more attention.

I want you to ask questions. Is He here? Is He telling me something right now? Is the Spirit trying to point me somewhere new? Is there something I can be doing different, not only to show the world resurrection, but to be living in resurrection? As you walk together with Christ each and every day, I want you to ask that question. What are you here to show me? And in those moments where you feel like you can't feel Jesus, you can't see Jesus, you can't touch Jesus, then I want you to just say, where are you? Because I know you are here.

And sometimes it's going to be far more obvious than you ever could have imagined. You were just too busy, caught up in the lack of, in the something's missing, in the something's going wrong, that you didn't take the opportunity to recognize everything is going just right. The sequence of things, if you listen to what Jesus said to them, He said, don't you guys remember the scriptures, guys? All of this had to happen so this moment could be here and now.

So regardless of what disappointment, the worry, regardless of what you're facing, recognize that all of this has to happen so we can take the long walk down the road of Emmaus, so we could have those moments of being like, “I know it's you guys. I think that's you. Yeah, that's got to be you.” And we can say, “Ah, it is you. It is you, Jesus. It's so good to see you again. It's so good to recognize that you never left. It's so good to hear the message you're calling me to.”

Sometimes your Emmaus moment is not going to come on a mountaintop. It's not going to come in some grand church experience. It's not going to come in a baptism. It's going to come in the shower. It's going to come in a car ride. It's going to come sitting at your kitchen table.

Sometimes your road to Emmaus is going to come when the bread is broken. And what was that final piece? Their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Their eyes were open and they recognized him.

Please pray with me. God, we are so grateful for your living word. We don't need a book. We don't need an audio. We don't need a song. We don't need a preacher in our face. It's right there within us. And when we trust and when we lean into your word, it guides us. So, God, we thank you. We thank you for all that you have given us through Christ, through the spirit, through the holy scriptures, but most of all through this beautiful experience, this wonderful classroom that we call life. And God, we know. We don't just believe. We know that you are within us. That the kingdom of ours is here and it is now. And for that, we are grateful.

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.