Hidden To Discover
“…and then He disappeared from their sight.”
I love the Emmaus Road incognito Jesus, and I love the big reveal, but for a long time, I felt His sudden disappearance after they realized it was Him was a bit of a letdown. What was that all about, Jesus? I asked for years.
Then, one day, I discovered the answer hidden in the very next verse: “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
By coming to them as a Stranger, Jesus sidestepped their certainties and engaged their faith. “Did not our hearts burn…” or essentially, “Did not our hearts know Him even when our minds couldn’t yet understand?” Jesus wanted them to engage in a relational burning because He’s a relational God.
When Jesus hid Himself in the Wayfaring Stranger on the Emmaus Road, it was so His friend’s ideology, theology, eschatology, and all other ologies, wouldn’t get in the way of the heart-burning relational experience of God with us, God within us.
Just so, after He broke the bread, Jesus disappeared from their sight—He hid again—for the same reason!
I suggest that if Jesus hadn’t disappeared from their sight, His friend’s limited understanding and transactional certainty would have likely come rushing back as questions that would have cut them off from simply reveling in the wonder of eternal life.
As Johnny Cash sings, “Love is a burning thing.” And I believe Jesus wanted His friends to recognize and revel in the burning.
I think Jesus disappeared from their sight so:
Their Scriptural certainties wouldn’t blind them from discovering Jesus within Scripture. 1Their limited knowledge regarding the love of God wouldn’t cut them off from experiencing the height, depth, length, and breadth of a measureless love that surpasses knowledge. 2Their transactional understanding of a relationship with God wouldn’t limit their ability to experience friendship with God. 3Their cruel theology of separation wouldn’t undermine their ability to embrace a kindness that leads to repentance. 4Their elevation of the Law of lack wouldn’t divorce them from surrendering to the liberty of Grace. 5Their narrow understanding of mercy could bend the knee to everlasting mercy—the same with forgiveness.Their retributive thoughts on justice wouldn’t restrain them from engaging in reconciliation and restoration.I think Jesus disappeared from their sight for the same reason He came to them as a Stranger, so they could move beyond their ability to understand and into faith; that revelatory burning within their hearts—a confident surrender to a measureless love that reconciles, restores, and transforms!
After He broke bread and their eyes were opened, after their heads caught up with their hearts, Jesus disappeared from their sight—but He didn’t leave. Love never leaves. Love simply went incognito once again so they could steward the burning and recognize the indwelling.
As soon as He disappeared from their sight, they saw what was always there—revelation; Greater Love is alive within us!
And as this revelation possessed them, as eternal life began to take hold, as measureless love burned within, they rose from the table and raced back to Jerusalem so that their brothers and sisters, indeed the whole world, would know our Father’s great affection just as Jesus knew it.
1 John 5:39-40
2 Ephesians 3:18
3 John 15:15
4 Romans 2:4
5 Romans 11:6
This article is excerpted from my book, Leaving and Finding Jesus
Order Now At AMAZON.COM
Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine and Joseph, Ethan, and Eva.
FollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollowFollow JOIN OUR MAILING LIST GIVE TO A FAMILY STORY YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE… On Earth As It Is In Heaven: Buried Treasureby Jason Clark | April 5, 2010 | Articles, Books, Faith | 2 Comments
Since the age of five, I have been learning that Salvation is the most beautiful of life’s miracles. I once was dead, now I’m alive! I once was clothed in self-centered ignorance, I’m now clothed in love and righteousness.
Read More Mercy and Graceby Jason Clark | August 3, 2012 | Articles, Crisis of Identity, Faith, Prone To Love | 2 Comments
Jesus didn’t just come to set us free from sin; He came to empower us into righteousness. He didn’t just reveal the Father in all His mercy, He revealed the Father in all His grace. Jesus never released mercy without following up with grace. In fact, mercy is incomplete without it.
Read More Sovereignty and the Old Testament: chapter six, THE ZEBRAby Jason Clark | April 13, 2017 | Articles, Faith, God Is Not In Control | 4 Comments
Long ago, I made Jesus, sovereign love, my hermeneutic, my “methodology of interpretation,” (6) the lens through which my entire theology is defined.
Read More SCHLYCE JIMENEZ / THE PATHby A Family Story | May 4, 2023 | Crisis of Identity, Faith, Intimacy, Leadership, Life, Miracles, Relationship, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Four, The Fathers Love | 4 Comments
God to Schlyce: “You never rebelled from me; you rebelled from a version of me that was never me…” Identity, the illusion of separation, trauma triggers and healing, how to hear the voice of God, experiencing the joy and wonder of continual fellowship with God; in this conversation, Schlyce Jimenez shares about her faith journey and her book, The Path. The Path helps readers discover how their life would be different if they could know the Father like Jesus did.
Read More JOHN CHAFFEE / THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGSby A Family Story | September 6, 2023 | Faith, Hell, Interview, Prayer, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Four, Sin, The Fathers Love | 0 Comments
Shifting from Western theo-logic to Eastern theo-poetics thinking, vulnerability and transformation, Eneagram5, narcissistic pastors and healing, disrupting the institution, rethinking Job and “upgrading” faith, kayfabe, apokatastasis and a better gospel, interpreting The Prophets with restoration not damnation, and spiral dynamics, in this conversation John Chaffee and the guys dove into the restoration of all things.
Read More BRIAN SIMMONS / THE PASSION TRANSLATIONby A Family Story | May 19, 2021 | Faith, Interview, Intimacy, Leadership, Life, Popular, Rethinking God Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos / Season Two | 4 Comments
“The bible, minus love, equals false teaching, false living, and fosters an anger in the soul of man.” Brian Simmons, author of The Passion Translation, talks about approaching scripture with a love theology, the oppressive impact of hyper literalism, women in ministry, equality, union, Jesus’ humanity inside the Trinity, the finished work of the cross, and the passionate, powerful, transforming love of God.
Read More [image error]The post Hidden To Discover appeared first on A Family Story.
