Category: Encounter Christ

Re:Verse passage – Luke 24:13-35 (day four)

As the two disciples walked home from Jerusalem, they were mulling over the events of the weekend. I know when I experience something overwhelming, my first impulse is to talk about it with someone and do some external processing. The word used for “discussion” here implies a passionate conversation, even a debate. They were genuinely trying to piece together what had happened and what it all meant, but they weren’t getting very far. While they once had hope that Jesus would deliver Israel, that hope was nailed to the cross with Jesus on Good Friday.

When Jesus meets them on the road, its a unique encounter. While the disciples don’t recognize him, they’re still completely engrossed in what he has to say. While we might expect Jesus to speak in parables like he did before his death, he instead speaks plainly to them, and unpacks the entire Biblical narrative which all finds its satisfaction in him.  After all this, it isn’t until they share a meal with him that they realize this man in front of them is Jesus. That intimate experience of walking and eating with him opened their spiritual eyes, the eyes of their heart, and they believed.

When the disciples examined their situation with their earthly eyes, they thought all hope was lost. When Jesus opened their spiritual eyes, they realized hope was standing right in front of them, fully alive. They thought they had witnessed the death of hope, but really they witnessed the fulfillment of it. What situation in your life have you assessed to be void of hope? What might you see if you asked Jesus to open your spiritual eyes?

Re:Verse passage – Luke 24:13-35 (day three)

“And they stood still, looking sad.”

Wherever there were broken hearts resulting from his absence, the pain of those hearts reached the sensitive soul of the risen Savior like an SOS beacon, and he drew close. As the two men on the Emmaus Road paused their stride to update this stranger on the substance of their conversation about the chaotic reports of Jesus sitings, Jesus could see their downcast faces, feel their deep sense of loss. He responded tenderly: “And you feel like you’d be fools to believe these reports, even though you yearn for them to be true. You’re trying to slow your heart from running to embrace what the scriptures have said, afraid that it might not be real.” Jesus’s compassion tracks your sorrow, slowly opening up your life to possibilities you had not previously let yourself believe.

Re:Verse passage – Luke 24:13-35 (day two) But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. v. 21

I love this encounter between Jesus and these two disciples. There is so much insight offered about what they knew, and what they expected. They were truly hoping that Jesus would be the one to bring Israel back to its place of prominence. They believed that he was the one to right the wrongs that had crept into the synagogues and the nation. They had all the information about Jesus, but they tried to make him fit their limited understanding of leadership and love. How are your expectations of church, of relationships, and ultimately of Jesus hindering your ability to let him take control? Whatever you may think, hope, or desire should be held loosely in your hands to grasp firmly the ultimate good he has for each of us. May our expectations not cloud our eyes from seeing Jesus as he really is…alive!

Re:Verse passage – John 20:1-18 (day seven)

The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. vs 4

This line always cracks me up. John, in the middle of the most important story in the history of the universe, makes it a point to rub it in Peter’s face that he won the race to the empty tomb! We can assume based off Peter’s actions in other places in scripture that he is a hot headed, competitive individual. Of course John, the youngest of the disciples, is going to take his shot.

Don’t let it get lost in this humor, that John and Peter ran to the empty tomb! It probably wasn’t close by, and they ran the whole way. They understood that if the tomb really was empty, this was going to change everything! Unhindered, unashamed sprint to see Jesus… or the lack thereof… for now…

Does the empty tomb propel you to run? When you feel the world closing in around you and you need something to turn to, do you run to Jesus? When you run to Jesus, you will find that He is always good and faithful. So run, unhindered and unashamed!

Re:Verse passage – John 20:1-18 (day six) 

Have you ever wondered why Jesus chose Mary to be the first eyewitness of the Resurrection? Did she happen to be at the tomb at the right time, or was it part of Jesus’ plan all along?

Luke tells us about Mary’s story: Jesus had cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:2). After her liberation, she became one of the women who followed Jesus faithfully. She was the first at the tomb, the first to see the risen Christ, and the first to carry the good news.

By all human standards, Mary would have seemed the least likely choice. Surely, one of the apostles would have made more sense.

But perhaps Jesus was being purposeful.

In a world quick to cancel those with a broken past or overlook those who don’t fit the cultural mold, Jesus does the opposite: He lifts them up. Perhaps he was declaring, “Behold, I am making all things new” over Mary’s life.

Re:Verse passage – John 20:1-18 (day five) “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.”

As we read and study this first Resurrection Appearance this week, I came across this quote/insight from Dr. Bob Utley. “Remember the stone was removed to let the eyewitnesses into the tomb, not to let Jesus out. His new resurrection body did not have the physical limits of His earthly body (i.e., John 20:19,26).”

It caused me to think/remember many of the ways and times that God uses (has used in my life) to show me Who He is, How He is working, and What He has done. Has been a sweet week of worship and reflection. It is God who shows/reveals His Character, His Ways and Purposes,and His Words and Promises to us. Maybe today, we should all inventory and recount those times where God’s goodness and activity were revealed to us by His grace and power!!

Re:Verse passage – John 20:1-18 (day four)

Occam’s Razor is a problem-solving principle that suggests the simplest explanation is usually the most accurate. Mary was using this logic when she discovered the empty tomb. Jesus had died, his body was no longer in the tomb, therefore someone had moved the body. This is a logical conclusion to draw based on the information in front of her.

But in her grief, Mary had temporarily forgotten the words of Jesus that explained these mysteries in front of her. In the Kingdom of God, basic logic works differently. In Kingdom logic, our first assumption should be that in every situation, God is at work for his glory and our good. When we’re approached with bad news, hard days, and big questions, we no longer start with determining the simplest explanation, but rather by prayerfully discerning the ways the Spirit is moving.

When Jesus calls her by name, “Mary!,” she moves from earthly logic to Kingdom possibilities. He is just as close to you and I through the power of the Spirit, and he calls our name. Which logic will you choose?

Re:Verse passage – John 20:1-18 (day three)

“They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

Mary’s statement here radiates helplessness. She had grown accustomed to living as a powerless, insignificant, unnoticed person of little value in her society. That is, until Jesus saw her. For the first time in her life, she had felt what it is like to matter, to live as something other than a cipher. But now the one who had seen her was apparently gone, himself the victim of that same uncaring world which had tried to teach her that she had no worth. “They have taken him away” mourns that the world has reasserted its position as an overwhelming force that swallows hope whole. In short order, Mary would encounter Jesus and find that the world is powerless after all.

Re:Verse passage – John 20:1-18 (day two) So she ran…v. 2a; The two were running together…v. 4a

Resurrection morning had a lot of cardio for Mary, Peter, and John. It’s as much a condition of the heart spiritually as well as physically. Why run? There may have been some fear that Jesus’ body had been desecrated, removed, or destroyed, but what played through the minds of the disciples when they heard the tomb was empty? Was there some small hope that he was truly alive? There is a quickening in our spirits, externally motivated, that will lead us to run toward the truth. Only with the Holy Spirit will we look backwards and recognize what moved us, what drew us, to the appointed place to meet the Lord. They had all been with the savior and heard him speak of the reality of the cross, his death, and ultimately his resurrection. Grief, however, blinded their hearts from those promises. My hope is that each of us have spent each day near the savior, so when prompted we can run towards him and discover what truth he has yet to reveal.