Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight. 

Luke 24:30-31 

Christ reveals Himself to His people in the fulness of time. For His Own purposes, Christ withheld His identity from the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. He asked questions and listened to them first. When they had concluded, He preached Christ to them from the Old Testament. He gave them the opportunity to express their desire to have Him abide with them. That led to the dinner table. There, Christ revealed Himself to them in a new and exciting way. Thus, ‘their eyes were opened.’ Christ satisfies the deepest needs and desires of His people. If they want more of Him, He fulfills their desires. Christ is ever sensitive to the hopes of His Own. This was a pivotal moment in their experience of Christ. Their lives would never be the same again. For the rest of their lives, they would be able to say with authority, ‘The Lord is risen indeed.’ Christ still reveals Himself to those who desire to know Him. His Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows them to those who seek Him. As we draw near to Him, He fulfills His promise to draw near to us. He opens our eyes so we are able to see Him clearly. 

Our Glorious, Living Christ, 
we rejoice that You ever show us more of Yourself. 
We praise You that by the power of Your Holy Spirit, 
You open our eyes. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. 

Luke 24:28-29 

Christ wants us to want fellowship with Him. Our text presents an interesting moment in the narrative. The three actors arrive in Emmaus. Christ does not rudely press Himself upon the disciples. But, with social grace, does what is mannerly and indicates He will go on. The disciples have a choice. They can allow Him to depart, or ask Him to come in for more conversation. They say, ‘Abide with us.’ This is the critical moment for their growth in understanding. Christ had drawn alongside them; heard their story; increased their understanding, and now gave them the opportunity to ask for more. They embraced that opportunity. They wanted more fellowship with Him. In many ways it is the same for us. We have believed on Christ. We have seen Him in the Scriptures. We have even perhaps, had a crisis of faith. Christ has drawn alongside us. He has revealed to us things we never knew before. He wants us to want more fellowship with Him. We have the opportunity set before us as they did. What will we do? Will we let Him pass on or will we cry, ‘Abide with us?’ 

Our Gracious Master and our God,  
we rejoice that You draw alongside us and teach us. 
We praise You that when we desire to know more of You, 
You do not disappoint. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Then He said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. 

Luke 24:25-27 

Christ is in the Scriptures from the beginning to the end. After He elicited from the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the account of His crucifixion and the reason for their sadness, He began to explain to them, ‘the things concerning Himself.’ He ‘began at Moses and all the Prophets.’ He expanded His exposition to include ‘all the Scriptures.’ Thus, Christ Himself demonstrated that He is everywhere in the Old Testament. It is important for us to be aware that He is, especially when we come to read the Old Testament. It was this body of literature from which all the Apostles preached Christ. The missionary work of Peter and Paul proceeded with the Old Testament as their authoritative text. They were only following the example of Christ. We have the Old Testament as well as the New. Putting Old and New together as the whole of God’s written revelation, we conclude from the example set by Christ and the Apostles that Christ is everywhere throughout. Our desire is to do as the Apostles did and ‘cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.’  

Our Glorious Living Christ, 
we rejoice that You are all throughout the Scriptures. 
We praise You that as we see You there, 
Your Holy Spirit draws our hearts out after You. 

Tomm Tice
Where The Bush is Burning

But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. 

Luke 24:21 

The loss of hope is a hard pill to swallow.  After Christ asked the two disciples the reason for their sadness, they explained to Him the events surrounding the ministry, conspiracy, and execution of Christ. Because they were unable to recognize Him, their explanation was geared toward Him as a total stranger, thoroughly unfamiliar with Christ. Part way through the narration, they articulated what they had hoped, by saying, ‘we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.’ By saying it, they indicated that their hope was gone, thus explaining their sadness. On the face of the reality of the events, their loss of hope is understandable. When events transpire differently from what we expected, especially regarding something from the word of God which we think we understood clearly, we can easily lose hope. Christ came alongside them to restore their hope. Before He did, He allowed them to articulate why they were sad. He listened to their broken-heartedness before He restored their hope. Christ listens to us as well. Often before we can arrive at healing, we need the opportunity to tell Him how we feel.  

Our Kind and Loving Savior, 
we rejoice that You listen to us in our sorrow. 
We praise You that You are willing to hear 
and willing to heal. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

And He said to them, What things? So they said to Him, The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people… 

Luke 24:19 

Christ is the Master of the well-placed question. After He rose from the dead, He showed Himself to be alive to various disciples under different circumstances. One instance was while two of the disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Christ came alongside them, engaged them in conversation and asked why they were so sad. They responded, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?’ To that Christ responded, ‘What things?’ He was eliciting from them a recitation of what they knew. To that question they responded with a narrative of the public ministry of Christ. They spoke of His execution; what they had hoped and how their hopes had died with Him. They related the story of the women who had gone to the garden tomb. This exhausted their store of knowledge. Christ responded with, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’’ He then began ‘at Moses and all the Prophets’ to explain to them ‘the things concerning Himself.’ Christ often does similarly with us. He allows us to exhaust our store of knowledge and then steps in to reveal to us much more truth than we ever knew before. He is our inexhaustible storehouse of revelation. 

Our Gracious, Loving Savior, 
we rejoice that You come alongside us 
when we are in our saddest moments. 
We praise You that You open the Scriptures 
and reveal Yourself to us. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning