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It was not just seeing Jesus again that convinced the Emmaus disciples that their Lord had truly come back from death and the grave. First it was the Scriptures that He opened up to them. The Word of God burned into their hearts the realization of Christ's resurrection. The Word of God made them certain that their eyes had not deceived them. The Word of God caused them to burn with the conviction that there was no more important truth, no greater fact of history, no more wondrous message than Jesus Christ crucified and risen again— risen victorious over sin, death and hell.
When Jesus opened up to the Emmaus disciples the Scriptures, there they saw a Savior slain and risen again. We have had the same glorious experience. The living Christ has opened the Scriptures to us, hasn't He? The Word of God has burned into our hearts the realization of Christ's resurrection. The Word of God has made us today certain that Jesus sacrificed His life-blood for us, for our sins, and that He came back from the grave so that we might be absolutely sure of this— and of life everlasting.
Well might your heart burn within you! The person who is sure his sins are forgiven and his iniquities pardoned, who knows that His name is written in heaven and his peace is made with God, that person's heart is surely warmed within, fired with new zeal. Zeal to seek out others that together they may raise their voices in psalms and hymns of joyful gratitude and love.
"Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34).
The risen Lord has opened our eyes. We feel—we know!—what the unbelieving eye, and ear and heart, never experiences. With Job of old we say with conviction,
"I know that my Redeemer lives!"
Once the Emmaus disciples had learned that Jesus was indeed risen from death, once Christ had opened their hearts and minds to all the Scriptures concerning Himself, then they no longer needed His bodily presence. You notice they were not dismayed when He disappeared from their sight there at the supper table. Now that they knew He had risen, that He would be alive forevermore, they didn't have to see Him to know that He was with them and always would be.
Nor do we.
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