Until we sit with Jesus
Martha Olawale
“As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them.” Luke 24:15
The appearance of Jesus to two of the disciples as they walked to Emmaus paints a picture of what it’s like to walk with Him. Although He doesn’t physically appear at all times because He’s omnipresent, He remains faithful to the end. Baffled by Jesus’s question of why they were sad, Cleopas described Christ, “who is” right there with them, as one “who was” not there. He said, “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.” Luke 24:19.
Like Cleopas, we can’t know Christ until we sit in communion with Him. Knowing Jesus means we are at the table with Him. It’s not enough to know about Him; we must know Him to truly enjoy the peace that comes from walking with Him. How sad it is to walk through life not realizing that Jesus is right beside you, walking with you. Imagine the joy the two disciples would have experienced if they’d realized they were walking with Jesus. They would have been spared hours of anguish. The Bible says their faces were downcast when Jesus first spoke to them because they were sad about His crucifixion.
Amazingly, they seemed to know a great deal about Jesus, more than Jesus himself, yet they were too blind to see Him walking with them. Imagine someone telling your story to you when you lived every second of it. They didn’t hang on the cross; He did. They didn’t go to Hell; He did. Even when He scolded them in verse 25, saying, “How foolish are you, and how slow to believe,” they still didn’t catch a hint that it was Him. This experience shows that knowing the Bible does not qualify for knowing Jesus, and having unpleasant memories of a church or some Christians behaving badly does not excuse your need for a Savior.
While we no longer have to guess or speak about Him in sorrow, many of us still live on yesterday’s news about Jesus, declaring defeat for the cross instead of celebrating the victory of His resurrection. Christ is the risen King, and the secrets of the ages are revealed to us who call Him Father. Verse 13 of that chapter states that it was intentional for Christ’s identity to be kept secret from the disciples, just as from those who had not accepted His invitation to the table.
We have to sit to see. Until the disciples sat at the table in communion with Christ, they didn’t know Him. Verse 31 says, “Their eyes were opened” during communion. Perhaps they asked Him why He hadn’t told them it was Him all along, and I’m guessing His reply would be, “I did.” Until they recognized Him, His words held little meaning for them, nor did His presence.
Everything Jesus was telling them as they walked to Emmaus pointed to Him, but they didn’t know. After the revelation, they said in verse 32, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” This is soothing because it shows how gracious and patient Jesus is with us. He’ll keep trying; He doesn’t push or shout; He keeps walking with us until we sit with Him. We must sit with Jesus. Otherwise, anything we stand for will cloud our judgment and deny us the joy of living as sons and daughters of God.
