DayBreaks for 01/03/12 – Peek-a-Boo With Jesus

DayBreaks for 01/03/12 – Peek-a-Boo With Jesus

Now you see Him, now you don't...

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.– Luke 24:30-31

It was after breaking the bread that God opened the eyes of the Emmaus disciples to recognize the One who broke the bread for them.  I would have loved to be there sitting in the inn with them, to watch the dawning of realization on their faces!  What do you think their next question for Jesus might have been?  Maybe they wouldn’t have asked a question at all – maybe they would simply have fallen on the ground in worship of the Risen One.  I don’t think we’ll ever know for one reason: as soon as they recognized him, he disappeared.

Why?  Why didn’t he stay?  Where did he go?  I don’t really know, but again, on Sunday the preacher ventured a guess: they had just shown that in spite of the evidence for his resurrection (the reports of those who had seen  him and the empty tomb), they didn’t believe.  Then Jesus appears to them, resolving their crisis of faith by His very Presence.  The next moment – poof! – just like that, he’s gone again.

Jesus is HUGE on faith.  He WANTS us to believe, not because we’ve seen and touched the wounds in his body, but because we’ve heard the story and are willing to walk in faith.  Jesus tantalized the two Emmaus disciples just enough by showing up that their faith was restored, but they would have to walk the rest of their lives in faith, too.

That’s how it is with anyone who wants a relationship with Jesus.  We may not see him physically as these two did, but we who wear his name have surely encountered him on our walk through this world.  Then something happens that casts the long shadow of doubt back into our hearts.  Was that past experience we were so convinced of really Jesus at work, or was it just happenstance?  And if we start to think that it was happenstance, we lose our basis for thinking he will walk through future hard times with us.

The disciples from Emmaus had to learn to walk by faith even after seeing the Lord and eating bread from his hands.  We, likewise, must walk by faith if we are to please him.

PRAYER: Lord, this faith-walk stuff is really hard at times.  We all have our human fears and worries, get scared and frightened, and think about whether or now we are up to a certain task rather than thinking about whether or not you will be faithful to us!!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2011 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

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