“They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?’” (Luke 24:32)
We have all felt that burning in our hearts that the disciples felt on the road to Emmaus. We feel it when we read the Scriptures; when we pray; when we worship. It is the Lord’s presence with us and His encouragement urging us to go on in the midst of the most trying circumstances, to walk by faith and not by sight.
No one knows exactly what Jesus said that day on the road to Emmaus, but that must have been some lesson! We all would like to know the words of encouragement that Jesus brought to those disciples. But all we are told is that Jesus used the Old Testament scriptures to show them that their expectations of who the Messiah was and what he would do were all wrong. He used the scriptures to prove that He, Jesus is the Messiah, and that He fulfilled those scriptures in His life, suffering, death and resurrection. They, and all the Jews in fact, were expecting a military and political Messiah, one who would set up the Kingdom of Israel. What they got was a Messiah who suffered and died for the sins of all mankind and rose from the dead!
In these days of violence and turmoil, the Resurrection of Jesus gives those who have faith in Christ great cause for rejoicing. The resurrection means that our sins have been forgiven. Jesus’ resurrection is proof that we too will rise from the dead. It means that we need not fear death for it is not the end. We need not worry about what is on the other side. We need not fear God’s wrath or His judgment. We can rejoice that because of His mercy, we are not going to spend eternity in torment, separated from God. We know we will enjoy eternity in heaven in the presence of the Lord and in the company of our fellow Saints. So we have much to look forward to in hope despite our current afflictions.