Luke 15

Chapter 15. The Son of Man in His Resurrection LifeBut 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. (Luke 24:29)The story of the walk to Emmaus which Luke has told us with such graphic simplicity, has left a picture of the risen Christ upon the heart of the Church of Christ unequaled by any other record of the resurrection. There is something about it that reminds one of one of those Indian summer days that come to us as a transition between the summer and winter, a sort of second summer and yet with a mystic glory about it that seems to belong to some other clime. “The Christ of the Forty Days,” as represented in this picture, while the same in Person as the old Christ of Judea and Galilee, has risen to a new plane, more spiritual, more mysterious and more supernatural. He was lifting their thoughts to that heavenly fellowship which they were henceforth to have with Him and yet losing none of the old humanness and tenderness they had known so well. Let us gather out of this story of Emmaus some of the points of light which it sheds upon the Christ of today. The Ever-Present Christ First we see the ever-present Christ. He who came to them that day still comes to us as we walk the path of life. He is an everlasting Presence, an ever-present Friend, and His gentle voice whispers down the ages, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Just as simply, just as naturally as He drew near to them, so Still through all life’s way He walketh Ever near our side. The Risen ChristNext we see the risen Christ. There is a new touch to His humanity. It has passed through the grave and come forth transformed, transfigured and glorified. Speaking of Him, the Apostle Paul says: “Though we once regarded Christ in this [worldly point of view], we do so no longer” (2 Corinthians 5:16). As Mary clasped Him by the feet and tried to hold Him in the old relationship, He tenderly reminded her, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father” (John 20:17). She was to have a higher touch and recognize Him as in a new place of spiritual manifestation and communion. The Christ Who Walks with Us Then we see the Christ who often walks with us unrecognized. They did not know Him at first. How often He is with us unknown; and it is not until His Presence has passed and we recall how our hearts burned within us, that we wake with the joyful cry, “It was the Lord.” Many a providence, many an answer to prayer, many a human touch brings Him near, and when we seem most alone He is often closest to our side. A Christ Who Knows Our Circumstances We see in this incident a Christ who knows our every circumstance and condition and adjusts Himself to our life. He dropped into their conversation. He noticed that they were sad. He took up the thread of life and wove it into a message of wondrous blessing. So He comes to us just where we are. We do not need to climb to strained spiritual planes to bring the Lord Christ down. There is nothing with which He cannot blend and into which He cannot bring His loving companionship. There’s no time too busy for His leisure, There’s no task too hard for Him to bear, There’s no soul too lowly for His notice, There’s no need too trifling for His care. There’s no place too lonely for His presence, There’s no pain His bosom cannot feel, There’s no sorrow that He cannot comfort, There’s no sickness that He cannot heal. A Christ Who SpeaksHe speaks to us through His word. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). And so He still comes to us through His Word. If we knew it better and studied it more, we should find the blessed Christ ever ready to meet us through its glowing pages and to speak to us through its exceeding great and precious promises. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). Have we learned to recognize His face on every page and His voice in every promise? A Christ Who Opens the Scriptures He makes our heart burn within us as He opens to us the Scriptures. His Word is not mere intellectual light, but spiritual life and celestial fire. It is the eyes of our heart that need to be enlightened more than the faculties of our understanding. It is little use to read the Bible simply as a duty or a study. We want to read it with burning hearts and glowing love as the love letter of His affection and the mirror of His face. A Christ Who Wants Intimacy But the Lord wants a closer intimacy than even the revelation of His word. He longs to reveal Himself to the loving heart by a personal visitation and manifestation. And so, as they came to their destination at the village of Emmaus, He allowed them to constrain Him to enter in. There is something fondly playful and intensely human in the statement that He “acted as if he were going farther” (Luke 24:28). But this was only because He wanted to be pressed. He would not stay as an unwelcome guest. He wanted their insistent love and was willing to be constrained. He will not break into our hearts or force open any door. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock,” He cries. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Therefore He sometimes holds back the answer to our prayer and the revelation of His face so that our desire may be deepened and our appeal may be pressed more lovingly upon His heart. But when He saw that He was welcome, how glad He was to respond. How touching their appeal! “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over” (Luke 24:29). How that loving appeal has echoed through the ages as the cry of lonely hearts longing for the Savior’s Presence. How often since has that prayer ascended from the lonely, the sorrowing, the oppressed and the sinking soul! Never can it go up in vain to His loving heart. Just as in nature, the warm currents of the atmosphere rush to fill the vacuum, so the hungry and the empty heart will always find the Savior near. “For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things” (Psalms 107:9). There is in every Christian experience a reality corresponding to the scene at Emmaus. The Lord Jesus does come and make Himself real to the loving and longing soul. “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). When He came into the house at Emmaus, He was no longer the shy and disguised Stranger, but immediately took His place and made Himself known. Sitting at the head of the table, He took the bread and gave thanks and broke it and as together they partook we read, “Their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (Luke 24:31). The old smile of recognition could not be mistaken. It was their own blessed Lord, their precious Christ, and their hearts were filled with joy, with a joy so deep that He was constrained to withdraw the vision and vanish from their sight. The Vanishing Vision He vanished out of their sight. This was deeply significant. Had He lingered longer, the whole meaning of His new relation to them would have been mistaken. Henceforth it was to be by faith and not by sight. There was a moment of vision and the memory of sight, but now they must rise up and walk by simple faith and go forth by the dead reckoning of a life of trust. It is unwholesome to be always looking for spiritual feeling and emotional joy. The normal atmosphere and attitude of the Christian is trust and the fellowship of prayer. “We live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). How slow they were to learn this lesson! How, on another occasion, the doubting Thomas even demanded that he should have some outward sign of the Master’s presence and how the Lord reproved him, even as He granted it: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Let us not miss the blessing but learn to go forth leaning upon His Word, counting upon His unseen Presence and by steadfast faith testifying with the Psalmist, “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken” (Psalms 16:8). Someone has written a helpful leaflet on the practice of the Presence of God, and this is a spiritual exercise which we may most profitably pursue. A distinguished preacher tells how every morning as he sits down in his library, he places a chair for the Master to sit by his side, and all through the hours of study they talk together, pray together, plan together the work of the day; and when he goes forth to life’s more public duties, he is conscious, not of any ecstatic vision or any supernatural revelation, but of an atmosphere illumined and fragrant with the breath of heaven and a heart all aglow from the Presence and fellowship of the Lord. Will we thus go forth to walk with Him, until the gates of vision open at last and we will see His face and be with Him in the glory? ‘Tis so sweet to walk with Jesus Step by step and day by day, Stepping in His very footprints, Walking with Him all the way. Soon with all who walk with Jesus We shall walk with Him in white, While He turns our grief to gladness And our darkness into light. Jesus, keep me closer, closer, Step by step and day by day, Stepping in Thy very footprints, Walking with Thee all the way.